Though "Rūpiṇas dharmās" is an important concept of the Northern Abhidharma teaching, there is no consensus understanding of this in the academic circles; sometimes it is even confused with the concepts of rūpa and rūpa-skandha, and it is necessary to explore it. On the base of current academic achievements, this paper discusses the concept in accordance with Mahāvibhāṣā Śāstra and Abhidharmakośabhāṣya. According to the relevant discussion on "rūpiṇas dharmās" in Mahāvibhāṣā Śāstra, it can be defined as that Rūpiṇas dharmās is a kind of conditional phenomenons with rūpa’s attributes, which contains eleven factors—ten rūpa āyatanas and a part of the dharma āyatana. This definition defines three points: (1) the content of rūpiṇas dharmās. (2) rūpiṇas dharmās has the attribute of rūpa. (3) rūpiṇas dharmās is a general term for one class of dharmās. But at the micro level, there are still two unresolved questions: (1) what is dharma? (2) what is the attribute of rūpa? On the basis of inheriting the above conclusions, Abhidharmakośabhāṣya has made a more in-depth analysis of the two concepts of "rūpa" and "dharma," and believes that "rūpa" is the thing that has the attribute of "variability and hindrance." "Dharma" is true existence which has its own feature. "Rūpiṇas dharmās" is dharmās with the attribute of "variability and hindrance." Based on above argument, "rūpiṇas dharmās" is defined as the general term of conditional phenomenon which has common features of "variability and hindrance." There are eleven kinds of "rūpiṇas dharmās" which has its own feature individually that can be differentiated from others; and it is true existence. On the basis of Buddhist theory and according to two Abhidharma commentaries, this paper tries to explore the meaning of "rūpiṇas dharmās," using semantic and thoretical interpretation method.
