Meaning of the Four Teachings, The [四教義] (Chin Ssu-chiao-i; Shikyō-gi): A work by T’ien-t’ai (538–597) that interprets the names of the four teachings of doctrine (the Tripitaka teaching, the connecting teaching, the specific teaching, and the perfect teaching), a classification of Shakyamuni’s teachings that he established, and clarifies the doctrines contained in each. Miao-lo’s Annotations on “The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra” identifies this work with six volumes of T’ien-t’ai’s ten-volume Profound Meaning of the Vimalakīrti Sutra, a lost work that T’ien-t’ai later shortened and revised into the still-extant Annotations on the Profound Meaning of the Vimalakīrti Sutra in six volumes.