唯識三性說=The Theory of Three Natures (trisvabhāva-nirdeśa); 《辯中邊論》=Madhyântavibhāga; 單層結構=singled-layer model; 雙層結構=double-layer model; 《攝大乘論》=Mahāyānasaṃgraha
This paper begins with a review of the debates among scholars about how to properly undertand the Theory of Three Natures (trisvabhāva-nirdeśa). I argue that a main reason leading to those debates is because in Yogâcāra texts themselves there are more than one versions of the Theory of Three Natures. I show that at least two models exist: the single-layer model and the double-layer model. The characteristic feature of the single-layer model is that the relation between the dependent nature and the imagined nature is that between the grasper (grāhaka) and the grasped (grāhya). In contrast, the characteristic feature of the double-layer model is that there are two parts—the seeing part and the seen part—in the dependent nature, and the imagined nature takes these two parts as “that which is imagined” (parikalpya) and further conceptualizes and substantializes them. Following this contrast, I then show how the Theory of Three Natures in the fi rst chapter (“Chapter on Marks”) of the Madhyântavibhāga (verses only) coheres with the single-layer model; where the third chapter (“Chapter on The Reality”) endorses the double-layer model. Based on this conclusion, I then summarize the misreadings by previous scholars of the Theory of Three Natures in the Madhyântavibhāga (verses only) and their problematic proposals about the structure of our current text of the Madhyântavibhāga (verses only). Finally, based on the two clues—that there are more than one versions of the Theory of Three Natures in the Madhyântavibhāga (verses only) and that Asaṅga appears to be inconsistent in citing from the Madhyântavibhāga (verses only) in his Mahāyānasaṃgraha—I make a new proposal: our current text of the Madhyântavibhāga (verses only) is a multi-layered text, consisting of older and newer strata.
