In the "Expedient Means" chapter of Kumarajiva's translation of the Lotus Sutra, there is a passage that reads "The dharmas are like this characteristic, like this nature，like this essence，like this power, like this action，like this cause，like this condition, like this result，like this retribution，like this fundamental and derivative ultimate." The other two Chinese translations, the Sanskrit，and the Tibetan translation are all in agreement at this point，but of the "ten such-likes" they only include those concerning characteristic and nature. Scholars have pointed out that most of the ten items may be found out in the Da zhi-du lun (Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom)，and there has been speculation that Kumarajiva performed an interpretive translation based on his knowledge of the Da zhidu lun text. The Lotus Sutra enumeration of the ten such-likes occurs as an explanation of the true characteristics of the dharmas, and the contexts in which the categories included in the ten such-likes appear in the Da zhidu lun are all aimed at the explanation of the true characteristics of the dharmas, so that we may accept the very close doctrinal relationship between the relevant sections of the two texts. Based on the extant Sanskrit version of the Sutra, the meaning of the ten such-likes passage is very abstract，as the Chinese translation of the Lotus Sutra Treatise，which closely approximates the Sanskrit text reads："What dharmas, what kind of dharmas, what resemblance of dharmas, what characteristic of dharmas, what essence of dharmas."This achieves neither the specificity nor the understandability of the Kumarajiva translation. Therefore，even as we recognize that the ten such-likes rendering is a paraphrase，we may affirm that Kumarajiva had a doctrinal basis in arriving at this translation. At the same time，we should be aware that this rendition allowed the passage to be easily understood by Chinese readers.
