四大

Readings

Pinyin: sìdà

Wade-Giles: ssu-ta

Hangul: 사대

Korean MC: sadae

Korean MR: sadae

Katakana: シダイ

Hepburn: shidai

tứ đại

four great elements

• The four mahā-bhūta, which all physical substances are composed of. They are:
  1. 土 the earth element (Skt. prthivī dhātu), which has the basic quality of hardness 堅 and the function of protection;
  2. 水 water (Skt. ab-dhātu), which has the function of gathering and storing wetness 濕;
  3. 火 fire (Skt. teja-dhātu), which is the nature of heat and has the function of warming 煖;
  4. 風 wind (Skt. vāyū-dhātu), which has the function of giving motion to all living things 動; motion produces and maintains life.
  It is thought that when these are gathered, material substance is produced. In India, there are other transmissions of ideology whose explanations resemble this one, and even within Buddhism there are other explanations, but in the explanation of Abhidharma Buddhism, the objects of consciousness of earth, wind, fire and water are provisional elements, since the true elements are imperceptible. Taken as substantial 實 forces they are styled 四界 or 四大界; as provisional 假 or material objects they are called 四大. The 成實論 Satyasiddhi śāstra disputes their substantiality and recognizes only their nominal designation. (Skt. catvāri mahā-bhūtāni, *catur-mahābhūta, bhūtāni catvāri, bhūta, dhātu; Pāli cattāri mahā-bhūtāni) [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): Yokoi, Hirakawa, JEBD]

Dictionary References:

Bukkyō jiten (Ui), 414

Bulgyo sajeon, 356a

Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.), 444c

Iwanami bukkyō jiten, 360

A Glossary of Zen Terms (Inagaki), 67, 333

Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha), 275b/303

Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi), 634

Zengo jiten (Iriya and Koga), 11-P419, 18-P168

Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura), 526c

Fo Guang Dictionary, 1649

Ding Fubao

Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa), 0278

Han'guk bulgyo inmyeong sajeon (Yi), 123

Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki), (v.1-6)1874b

Bukkyō daijiten (Oda), 725-2*1122-3

(Soothill's) Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, 173

Lokakṣema's Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (Karashima), 462

Copyright © 2010 -- Charles Muller

generated: 2014-02-10