Cheng weishi lun, or *Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi [Establishment of Mental-Representation-Only], is a systematic work on Yogācāra Buddhism that has been treated as a fundamental text in the East Asian Yogācāra (Ch. Faxiang/Jpn. Hossō) tradition. Traditionally, this work is thought to be a compilation by Xuanzang 玄奘 (600–664) based on ten separate commentaries on Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikā vijñaptimātratāsiddhiḥ [Thirty Verses for the Establishment of Mental-Representation-Only]. If one examines the content of Cheng weishi lun, one often finds a juxtaposition of plural opinions concerning a single issue; this indeed gives the impression that they were taken from separate commentaries. Relatively late Indian Yogācāra texts, such as Vivṛtaguhyārthapiṇḍavyākhyā [A Condensed Explanation of the Revealed Secred Meaning] and Yogācārabhūmivyākhyā [An Explanation of Yogācārabhūmi], however, similarly contain different interpretations of a single issue given side by side. Sometimes these Indian texts and Cheng weishi lun even contain comparable arguments. This makes me somewhat suspicious of the traditionally accepted notion that Cheng weishi lun is a ‘compilation.’ Perhaps Cheng weishi lun is based on an Indian original that had a similar format to the current Chinese text. It is difficult to be conclusive at this stage, but I would like to present a hypothetical argument that reconsiders the textual nature and background of this important work.
