Well Explained Reasoning

The Well Explained Reasoning (Skt. Vyākhyāyukti; Tib. རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པའི་རིགས་པ་, Wyl. rnam par bshad pa'i rigs pa)—a work by Vasubandhu that sets out the principles of exegesis or hermeneutics and teaches how to interpret and explain the content of a sutra. It has five chapters, and in the fourth Vasubandhu refutes the assertion that the Great Vehicle cannot be considered as Buddhism.

It states that sūtras are to be explained according to:

1. their purpose
2. their summarized meaning
3. their sense
4. their sequence
5. objections and refutations

Commentaries

• One Hundred Extracts from the Sūtras for the Principles of Exegesis (Skt. Vyākhyāyukti-sūtra-khaṇḍaśata; Wyl. rnam par bshad pa rigs pa'i mdo sde'i dum bu brgya). A collection of 105 sūtra passages that serve as Vasubandhu's source material.
• Commentary on the Principles of Exegesis (Skt. Vyākhyāyukti-ṭīkā; Wyl rnam par bshad pa rigs pa'i bshad pa) by Guṇamati (Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་བློ་གྲོས་) (5th century C.E.).

Alternative Translations

• Principles of Elucidation (Ron Garry)
• Reasoned Exposition (Dharmachakra Translation Committee)
• Rational System of Exposition (Gyurme Dorje)
• Principles of Exegesis (Peter Skilling)

Further Reading

• Skilling, Peter. Vasubandhu and the Vyākhyāyukti Literature, in the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Volume 23, Number 2, 2000.
• Cabezon, Jose Ignacio. Vasubandhu's Vyākhyāyukti on the Authenticity of the Mahāyāna Sūtras, in Timm, Jeffrey R, Texts in Context: Traditional Hermeneutics in South Asia. SUNY Press, 1992.
• Verhagen, Peter C.Studies in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Hermeneutics (4): The Vyākhyāyukti of Vasubandhu Journal Asiatique 293, no. 2 (2005): 559–602.