The Crime of Poisoning

Original text of the first section of the Upāsaka Five Precepts Sūtra:复有不以内色。不以非内色。亦不以内非内色。为杀人故。合诸毒药。若着眼耳鼻身上疮中。若着诸食中。若被褥中。车舆中。作如是念。令彼因死。彼因死者。犯不可悔罪。若不即死。后因是死。亦犯不可悔罪。若不即死。后不因死。是中罪可悔。

Explanation: There are also cases of killing that use neither inner form, nor non-inner form, nor a combination of inner form and non-inner form. For the purpose of killing a person, one compounds various poisons—either placing them in that person's eyes, ears, nose, body, or in the sores on the body, or placing them in that person's food and drink, or in the bedding, or in a carriage, while mentally thinking thus: "Let him die from this poison." If that person dies as a result, the upāsaka commits an irremediable offense of killing. If that person does not die immediately but later dies as a result, he likewise commits an irremediable offense of killing. If that person does not die immediately and later does not die as a result, the upāsaka commits a moderate, remediable offense.

 Original text:复有作无烟火坑杀者。核杀弶杀。作阱杀触杀。毗陀罗杀。堕胎杀。按腹杀。推着火中水中。推着坑中杀。若遣令去就道中死。乃至胎中初受二根。身根命根。于中起方便杀。

Explanation: There are also other methods of killing, such as setting a smokeless fire pit to kill, killing with pits (核杀), killing with small-animal traps, making a pitfall to kill, killing by contact, killing by poison, killing by mantra (vidyā), killing by abortion, killing by pressing the abdomen, pushing someone into fire or water to kill, pushing into a pit to kill, or dispatching that person to die along the road, and even, when the two faculties—the body faculty and the life faculty—have just been received in the womb, initiating various skillful means to kill. The body faculty refers to the fertilized egg; the life faculty refers to the manas.