The Division of the Lotus Sūtra

What this sūtra expounds can be divided into three sections in all. The [first] thirteen chapters from “Introduction” (1) to “Comfortable Conduct” (13) illustrate that the cause (yin/hetu) of the three [vehicles] becomes the cause of the One. The eight chapters from “Welling up out of Earth” (141) to “Entrustment” (21) distinguish the effect (kuo/phala) of the three [as identical with that of the one]. The six chapters from “Bhaiṣajyarāja” (22) to “Samantabhadra” (27) equate the men of the three [vehicles] with the men of the One [Vehicle]. These divisions are designed to brush off the feeling that [the vehicles] are blocking [each other] and are different, and to obliterate the impasses that helped divide the lines [of the Buddha’s teaching].

Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p162
1
When Tao-sheng wrote his commentary in 432 CE, the Kumārajīva translation of the Lotus Sūtra did not include Chapter 12, Devadatta. This wouldn’t be added until the 6th century. As a result, Tao-sheng’s commentary covers only 27 chapters.return