Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty set up two kinds of Buddhist organizations - Twenty-five Assemblies and Five Assemblies during 592-597. Most scholars would say that Twenty-five Assemblies were institutes for propagating the teachings of the Buddha, where Hui-ying was the Head of Twenty-five Assemblies (ershiwuzhong zhu/二十五眾主), Seng-kun the Jiaodujing fazhu (教讀經法主) and Seng-can the Diyi moheyan jiang (第一摩訶衍匠), and that Five Assemblies represents five educational institutes, including Nie-pan (涅槃), Da-lun (大論), Jiang-lun (講論), Jiang-lü (講律), and Shi-di (十地). By reviewing the related literature in this article, I would argue that Twenty-five Assemblies should be sourced from three trainings (sanxue/三學): precepts, meditation and wisdom; namely there were three types of Twenty-five Assemblies, where Fa-yin shall be the Head of Twenty-five Assemblies for Ding-xue(定學), and Hui-ying for Hui-xue(慧學) in addition to Seng-kun, the Jiaodujing fazhu and Seng-can, the Diyi moheyan jiang. Five Assemblies were set up twice, in 592 and 597. They were Ding-ye (定業), Nie-pan, Da-lun, Jiang-lun, and Jiang-lu in 592. Emperor Wen designated a new Head for Nie-pan Assembly and set up a new assembly-Shi-di Assembly with an appointed head in 597. Since there existed five assemblies in 592 and Shi-di Assembly was founded in 597, one of the original Five Assemblies should have been abolished to keep the same amount of assemblies. Furthermore, the one that was no longer set should be any one of them-Ding-ye, Da-lun, Jiang-lun or Jiang-lu but not Nie-pan Assembly for sure because Emperor Wen just designated a new head in 597. However, due to the lack of sound documentation, it is not possible to confirm which assembly was eventually abolished, but only that Five Assemblies should be Nie-pan and Shi-di Assembly plus three of these four assemblies- Ding-ye, Da-lun, Jiang-lun, and Jiang-lu in 597. In view of the relations between the assembly and the monastery, for the part of the assembly, it is acceptable to have two Heads in an Assembly like Nie-pan Assembly, but they will not stay in the same monastery; for the part of the monastery, those Heads of Assembly have to stay at different monasteries regardless whether or not they belong to the same assembly. The fact that two Heads of Assembly stayed in the same monastery was never found, i.e. one monastery can only have one Head of Assembly.
