Lives of the nuns biographies of Chinese Buddhist nuns from the fourth to sixth centuries : a translation of the Pi-ch'iu-ni chuan |
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1. The Chin Dynasty
The early Buddhist missionaries from India and central Asia were given
surnames in China that indicated the country of their origin: Chu for India,
An for Parthia, K'ang for Sogdia, and Chih for Scythia. For several centuries
their Chinese disciples took religious surnames from their masters until the
custom arose of using the first character of the Buddha's own name, Shā-kyamuni—or
Shih-chia-mou-ni in Chinese transcription—thus giving rise to
the practice of all monks and nuns taking the religious surname of Shih.
P'eng-ch'eng was in the present-day region of northwest Chiangsu Province
and southern Shantung Province. P'eng-ch'eng was a very early and
important center of Buddhism in China, with evidence for Buddhist practice,
of a sort, dating to mid-first century a.d. It remained a flourishing center
lying as it did in a pivotal section of a trade route that connected the Silk
Road, with P'eng-ch'eng lying at the extreme eastern end, and southern
China, the areas of Kuei-chi and modern-day Nanjing, the capital, under different
names, of the succession of Southern dynasties beginning with the Eastern
Chin dynasty (a.d. 317). See Maspero, "Les Origins," pp. 87-92.
Lo-yang served as the capital of the Chin dynasty until the fall of Western
Chin in 317. See map.
This means only that the nuns have more rules than the monks. The
number of rules for nuns in the various schools: Dharmaguptaka, 348; Mahīshāsaka,
373; Sarvāstivāda, 354; Mahāsāmghika, 290; Pali canon, 311;
Tibetan canon, 364; Mūlasarvāstivāda, 309. See Mochizuki, Bukkyō-daijiten
5:4292.
These are the ten basic rules that the novice in training is to observe—
namely, to refrain from (1) harming living beings; (2) stealing; (3) wrong sexual
conduct; (4) false speech; (5) intoxicating substances; (6) wearing perfumes
or garlands; (7) participating in entertainments or going to observe
them; (8) using a high or wide bed; (9) eating at improper times; and (10) carrying
or using silver, gold, or other precious objects (which prohibits the use
of money).
Chih-shan from Kashmir: The table of contents to the Ming seng chuan
(Lives of famous monks) (of which only fragments remain) lists in chap. 19 a
Chih-shan in the category of foreign meditation masters. Because he is listed
whether he is the same as Ching-chien's instructor. The book Lives of Famous
Monks was also compiled by Pao-ch'ang. See appendix A.
This is the most likely date because it refers to the chien-wu reign period
of Chin (317), rather than to the chien-wu reign period of the Latter Chao
(335). The biographies are dated according to the reign periods of the Southern
dynasties. This means he left the same year that the Chinese dynasty of
Chin had to flee south from the non-Chinese invaders.
According to the records Chu Fo-t'u-teng lived from the year 232 to the
year 348. He has a biography not only in the Buddhist collection of biographies,
Kao seng chuan, vol. 50, chap. 9:383.b-387.a, but also in the official
history of the dynasty, the Chin shu, chap. 95. His biography from Kao seng
chuan has been translated by Wright, "Fo-t'u-teng." Fo-t'u-teng, a central
Asian of Indian ancestry and hence surnamed Chu, carried out his missionary
work in northern China, arriving from Kucha in a.d. 310 in time for the
calamitous loss of north China to invading non-Chinese tribes. He remained
in north China using his considerable magical powers to ameliorate the harsh
rule of the barbarian emperors. His Chinese disciples, in particular the monk
Shih Tao-an (whose biography appears in Kao seng chuan, 5:351.c-354.a,
and has been translated into English by Link, "Biography of Shih Tao-an"),
established the intellectual and institutional foundations not merely of Buddhism
in China but also of Chinese Buddhism.
The allusion is to Mencius, book 3, part A: "The virtue of the gentleman
is like the wind. The virtue of the common man is like the grass. When
the wind blows the grass will surely bend." See also the translation by Lau in
Mencius.
In the year a.d. 317 barbarians took control of north China, forcing the
imperial court to flee south where it set up another capital city at Chien-k'ang
(present-day Nanjing), on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Many refugees,
especially among the upper classes, fled south at the same time. Ching-chien,
however, was not among them, remaining instead in or near Lo-yang.
The city of Lo-yang had been sacked in a.d. 311 (Ch'en, Buddhism in China,
p. 57; Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp. 59, 84).
Land of the Scythians, lit. Yüeh-chih people, in present-day Kashmir,
Afghanistan, and Pamir. The Yüeh-chih are known in the west as Scythians.
The Yüeh-chih Buddhist missionaries were very active in bringing Buddhism
to China, and colonies of Yüeh-chih lived in the northwest section of China,
e.g., Kansu and the Tun-huang region. The translator monk Dharmaraksha,
the "bodhisattva from Tun-huang," for example, was of Yüeh-chih ancestry.
The importance of central Asians of several groups such as the Kucheans,
Khotanese, and Sogdians in transmitting the Buddha's law from India to
China cannot be overemphasized.
We have used the variant reading as it appears in the Sung, Yüan, and
Ming editions of the Buddhist canon. This makes our interpretation somewhat
different from others. For example, Tsukamoto Zenryū, Chūgokubukkyō-tsūshi,
p. 438, states, "The foreign monk T'an-mo-chieh-to set up an
ordination platform in Lo-yang using the Mahāsānghika Ritual and Rule
book brought back from Yüeh-chih by Seng-ching." In Mochizuki, Bukkyō
daijiten, p. 4292b., we read, "In the hsien-k'ang period of Latter Chin, Seng-ching
got the Mahāsānghika Ritual and Rule book, and in the first year, second
month of the sheng-p'ing period requested T'an-mo-chieh-to to set up a
bhiksunī ordination platform." We do not see any way to reconcile these differing
versions, and we have chosen our interpretation for the reason that the
date of the completion of the translation is given.
The eighth day of the second month (or, according to some sources, the
fifteenth day of the month) was celebrated as the Buddha's nirvana day; i.e.,
the day he passed into final nirvana. See, e.g., Fa yüan chu lin [Forest of pearls
in the garden of the law] T. 53, 371.c.-372.c.; and Nirvāna Scripture, T. 12,
365.c.8-9.
The Chinese text for the phrase "scriptures on the origins of monastic
rules" could also be interpreted as the title of a specific book. There is such a
book, the Origin of Monastic Rules Scripture, translated in the northern capital
of Ch'ang-an (see map) between 379 and 385. This date, however, places
the translation too late for use by the monk Shih Tao-ch'ang because the nun
Ching-chien died no later than 361. It is always possible that an earlier, but
now-lost, translation that used the same title could have been available. A text
called Pi-nai-yeh (i.e., Vinaya) in ten chüan was translated by Chu Fo-nien of
the Yao Ch'in. He went to Ch'ang-an in the chien-yüan reign period (365384)
and was part of the translation team headed by Tao-an who had been
taken by force to Ch'ang-an in 379. The text was translated between 379 and
385. See Hirakawa Akira, Ritsuzō-no-kenkyū, pp. 155-160, for a discussion
of the date of translation. This date means that the text was translated some
years after Ching-ch'ien's full ordination and therefore could not be the one
specified in the biography. It is possible that the words chieh yin-yüan ching
refer to Vinaya texts in general because in the body of these texts the circumstances
that lead to the creation of a new rule are referred to as yin-yüan. See,
e.g., T. 22, no. 1425, 522.a.10, 522.c.17. Waley, in Buddhist Texts through
the Ages, p. 292 n.3, suggests that it is referring to the Ta-ai-tao pi-ch'iu-ni
ching (The scripture of Mahāprajāpatī's Vinaya). But the date of translation
of this text is approximately 412-439, thus being too late. See Répertoire,
p. 126. Another possibility is that it is the title for a text now lost.
This sentence is admittedly difficult to interpret. Tsukamoto Zenryū in
his book Chūgoku bukkyō tsūshi, p. 438, says that Ching-chien and her companions
received the precepts on an ordination platform on the boat.
at times, the circumstances in this instance seem not to warrant that interpretation.
The Ssu River was not located conveniently near Lo-yang. Waley, in
Buddhist Texts through the Ages, p. 242, says that the foreign monk went
south on the river. Regardless of who went south, the goal of such a trip might
well have been P'eng-ch'eng, a thriving center of Buddhism since at least the
first century (see Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp. 26-28), or even Chien-k'ang.
The lower reaches of the Ssu River were "stolen" when the Yellow River
changed course in the late twelfth century and flowed into the Yellow Sea
south of the Shantung peninsula until the mid-nineteenth century when the
Yellow River once again changed course to flow north of the Shantung peninsula.
The Ssu River was not restored.
Rising bodily to the sky is a Taoist way of death. See Le Lie-sien
tchouan, p. 112; Yün chi ch'i ch'ien (Seven tallies in a cloud satchel), e.g., pp.
1619-1620.
Thus she was in her late twenties when she received the ten precepts and
in her late sixties when she finally received full admission to the Assembly
of Nuns.
The traditional conception of a woman's duty was to obey first her
father or elder brother, then her husband, and finally her son. See Wright,
"Biography of An Ling-shou," p. 195, where he quotes James Legge's translation
of the Li Chi: ". . . In her youth, she follows her father and elder brother,
when married, she follows her husband; when her husband is dead, she follows
her son." This describes an ideal situation. An Ling-shou was obeying a
higher authority that included her duty to her parents.
Buddhist monastic life ran counter to traditional values and was the
biggest obstacle to Chinese acceptance of Buddhism. This is standard Buddhist
apology. The theme is central to Dudbridge, The Legend of Miao-shan,
pp. 89-91.
Kucha was an oasis city kingdom of central Asia along the Silk Road
some distance from northwest China.
See biography 1. In reading his reply to Chung, one must keep in mind
that he was a magician as well as a monk and used this very successful expedient
means to influence the rulers in north China at the time, Shih Lo and Shih
Hu. Evidence indicates that he ameliorated some of the very harsh aspects of
the rule of these two. See Wright, "Fo-t'u-teng."
See Wright, "Fo-t'u-teng," pp. 337-338. Fo-t'u-teng could also hear
prophesies from the sound of bells and could interpret dreams. The early Buddhist
missionaries to China often were wonder workers and healers.
Traditionally a garment made from rags collected from the dustheap
and patched together. The Chinese passage could also be interpreted to mean
that the vestment and the robe were the same garment.
There is also a vestment tie known as a hsiang-pi (elephant trunk),
which would make the sentence read "elephant-trunk tie, and a water ewer."
The interpretation in the translation was chosen because of the structure of
the sentence.
The Latter Chao, 319-350, was one of many non-Chinese dynasties
that rose and fell in the north after the legitimate Chinese dynasty was forced
to flee south in a.d. 317. This dynasty, under Shih Lo, and especially under
his nephew Shih Hu, (who killed Shih Lo's son) has been described as a reign of
terror and Shih Hu in particular as a psychopath. Their capital sites were
Hsiang-kuo and Yeh in north China. See Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp.
85, 181.
Ching-sheh was not originally a Buddhist term. It derived from Han
times and was used by both Confucianists and Taoists. There are several alternate
combinations of characters. See Stein, "Remarques," p. 38.
It should be noticed that in the biographies Confucianism as such is
never the subject of polemics. Huang-Lao Taoism evolved during the Han
dynasty and concerned obtaining long life and immortality. It is possible that
the administrator of the commandery was a consciously practicing Huang-Lao
devotee, but he was more likely to be a Confucian.
See Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest 2:414 n. 27, where he lists five
instances of the investigation of the assemblies of the monks and nuns, one of
which is mentioned here.
In 357. His uncle Fu Chien (different character) (r. 351-355) declared
himself emperor in 351, founding the Former Ch'in dynasty, one of the Sixteen
Kingdoms of non-Chinese rulership in north China, 304-463. Former
Ch'in (351-394) united north China during Fu Chien's reign (357-385). He
was strangled to death in 385. The seat of the Former Ch'in government was
at Ch'ang-an within the province of Ssu-li, and this is probably the Sus Province
given as the location of Chih-hsien's convent home. She presumably
moved from her hometown in Hopei to the capital, or the biography is giving
her ancestral home, a common practice in Chinese Buddhist biographical
writing. She is thus located in Ch'ang-an during approximately the same time
as Ching-chien (biography 1). On Fu Chien, see Rogers, Chronicle of Fu
Chien; Chin shu, chap. 113-114; Wei shu, chap. 95.
The Chinese title indicates that Chih-hsien used the translation by
Dharmaraksha (Chu Fa-hu), done in the year a.d. 286 in Ch'ang-an in northwest
China. T. 9, no. 263. See Répertoire, p. 36.
This is a tour de force in terms of the length of the text. It would require
chanting about fifty words per minute nonstop for a twenty-four-hour period.
If she took any rest, she would have to have chanted much faster.
Concourse with animals is frequently the indication of a holy person of
whatever tradition. See Eliade, Shamanism, p. 99, passim. One is reminded of
St. Francis of Assisi, who preached to the animals, and St. Seraphim of Sarov,
who associated with the bear and other animals.
Ritualized walking, ching hsing, a Buddhist term referring to a ritualized
walking exercise often used as a break to punctuate the hours of sitting in
meditation. See Oda, Bukkyō-daijiten, p. 249.c.
Hung-nung in north China. Probably the town located on the Yellow
River to the west of Lo-yang, halfway between Lo-yang and the north bend of
the Yellow River. See map.
Chang Mao, otherwise unknown. He is not likely to be one of the four
persons whose names appear in the dynastic histories because the locations do
not conform to the biography. Chin shu, chaps. 30, 78, 86, 107, refer to the
four different individuals, and there is no evidence identifying any of them as
Miao-hsiang's father.
Grand secretariat of the right. See des Rotours, Traité, p. 595. "Les
quatre secrétaires du grand secrétariat de droit de l'héritier du trone (T'ai-tseucho-jen)
etaiant mandarins du sixiéme degré, primiére classe."
Confucian propriety, i.e., observing all the rules and rites associated
with the death of a parent. A clear explanation is given in Waley, Analects of
Confucius, pp. 62-64; Thompson, Chinese Religion, pp. 51-52.
This refers to Mahāyāna, or Great Vehicle, Buddhism, the type of Buddhism
prevalent in East Asia. Great Vehicle Buddhism teaches that the religious
ideal is the bodhisattva, or Buddha to be, who helps living beings attain
final nirvana ahead of them by accumulating vast stores of spiritual merit and
donating that merit to any and all who ask. The followers of the Great Vehicle
contrast this ideal with that of the Small Vehicle, which holds that the religious
ideal is the arhat or enlightened individual who, after death, will be
reborn no more, having attained final nirvana, and who is not, according to
the teachings of the Small Vehicle, able to grant spiritual merit to another.
These two main branches of Buddhism are distinguished by many other features,
an important one of which is the collections of scriptures. Great Vehicle
Buddhism has vast numbers of texts claiming to be the word of the Buddha as
compared to the relatively modest number of texts belonging to the Small
enough do not consider their Buddhism to be a lesser teaching at all, and the
Great Vehicle is something that, traditionally, they simply ignored. The one
remaining Disciples' Vehicle school, the Theravāda (Way of the Elders), is
prevalent in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand. See, e.g., Robinson and Johnson,
Buddhist Religion, pp. 65ff.
These five are refraining from harming any living beings, from lying,
from wrong sexual conduct, from stealing, and from intoxicating substances.
Robinson and Johnson, Buddhist Religion, pp. 59-60. Also, e.g., Tseng i
a-han ching (Ekottarāgama), T. 2, no. 125, pp. 576-577.
This scripture is chap. 25 of Kumārajīva's translation of the Lotus
Flower of the Wonderful Law (Saddharma-pundarīka-sūtra) (Miao fa lien-hua
ching), T. 9, no. 262; and chap. 23 of Chu Fa-hu (Dharmaraksha), Cheng fa
hua ching (Flower of the true law scripture), T. 9, no. 263. It is also known as
the Universal Gate chapter (P'u men p'in), and it enjoyed wide circulation and
popularity as a separate text. Chu Fa-hu's version is the one she would have
had as Kumārajīva's was not translated until about half a century later. See
Bibliography, Flower of the Law Scripture.
This date cannot be reconciled with the dates of Ho Ch'ung. In the
biography of Hui-chan (biography 7), the date given for the nuns crossing the
Yangtze River is 344.
Ho Ch'ung (292-346) (Chin shu, chap. 77). Ho Ch'ung was an upper-class
influential man who promoted Buddhist interests, and he was likely a
Buddhist himself. See Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 86, passim, especially
pp. 96-97.
"For the first time" probably means that this is the first time since the
flight of the Chinese court to the south in a.d. 317 that there were nuns in the
south. Ming-kan's arrival in the south is at least a decade before Ching-chien
(biography 1) was fully admitted to the assembly in 357 in Lo-yang. Ming-kan
is treated as one who has received all the rules for a member of the Assembly
of Nuns.
Dharma is a Sanskrit word that means law, or pattern, that must be followed.
The Way of Buddhism, for example, is called the Buddha's Dharma.
The Chinese translated the word by their word fa, but they also often transliterated
it as T'an-mo. When the transliterated form was used as part of a
name, as in the case of T'an-pei, the second syllable was usually dropped.
City of Chien-k'ang, the capital of Eastern Chin; located in present-day
Chiangsu Province at Nanjing. See map. This is the first biography of a nun
native to the south.
Niece of Ho Ch'ung (see n. 55 above; biography 5). Empress Chang,
age of sixty-six in a.d. 402 or 404, having survived her husband by forty-four
years. She was in her early twenties when the emperor died.
Shākyamuni Buddha, who was born in India in the sixth century b.c.,
was the most recent in a very long series of Buddhas. Soper, Literary Evidence,
p. 13, believes that such halls were intended for the seven Buddhas of the past
who are Vipashyin, Shikhin, Vishvabhū, Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kāshyapa,
and Shākyamuni. Oda, Bukkyō-daijiten, 739.c-740.a.
The part of the sentence beginning "as proof" and ending "in times of
distress" does not appear in the Chinese text. Nevertheless, this exact circumstance,
i.e., one who is about to be harmed by a robber wielding a knife or
staff calls on the name of the bodhisattva Kuan-yin and is kept safe from harm
because the robber cannot then raise up his hands, is described in the Flower
of the Law Scripture, the earlier translation by Chu Fa-hu (d. 310+) of the
Western Chin dynasty (T. 9, no. 263, 129.a.11ff). The other translation of
this scripture (T. 9, no. 262), that by Kumārajīva (d. 409 or 413), does not
include the detail that the robber would be unable to raise up his hands against
his victim (T. 9, no. 262, 56.c.16ff).
Chien-yüan reign period (344) is a more likely date than 348 given in
biography 5 because Ho Ch'ung died in 346. See n. 55, above.
Sangha: Seng is the first syllable of the Chinese transliteration, Seng-chia
(in ancient times Seng-ka), for the Sanskrit Sangha, which means the
assemblies of monks and nuns. The character seng may also mean the individual
Buddhist cleric as well as the assembly as a whole.
She was probably older. If she were only sixty-eight when she died, then
she would have been fourteen years old when the consort built the convent for
her, and this is not likely because the biography states specifically that she was
already twenty-one when she became a nun.
The word way translates the Chinese tao. Although it is used frequently
in these biographies to mean Buddhism, it is not always so used. Whenever the
word is used, the translation will make it clear as to which particular way is
meant.
Flower of the Law. Because she was in the north, she could possibly
have used Kumārajīva's translation.
Vimalakīrti. There are at least two versions she may have used: (1) T.
did his translation work from a.d. 220-252 in Nanjing. See Zürcher, Buddhist
Conquest, pp. 48-50. (2) T. 14, no. 475, by Kumārajīva, a native of
Kucha who worked on translating scriptures in the northwest of China during
the years 385-409/413. See Répertoire, p. 267. The Vimalakīrti is about the
householder bodhisattva who bests in argument all the great bodhisattvas and
disciples of the Buddha. It is very congenial to Chinese literary taste. The climax
of this book is silence, the method of the sage's communication.
Pure Talk was a type of discussion or argument both witty and arcane
that was cultivated among the educated elite. More popular and more widespread
than Pure Talk was the Way of the Yellow Emperor and Lao-tzu, a system
of physical and mental techniques for the prolongation of life and health
with the hope of attaining immortality.
Smaller Perfection of Wisdom (Ashtasāhashrikā-prajñā-pāramitāsūtra).
It is not clear exactly which text is meant. If the nun Tao-hsing died
during the t'ai-ho reign period (366-371), the name cannot refer to Kumārajīva's
translation done in 408 (T. 8, no. 227). The Ch'u san-tsang chi chi (Collected
notes), a sixth-century catalogue (see appendix A) lists a translation by
Chu Shih-hsing, the Fang kuang ching, done in 291. Seng-yu (compiler of the
Collected Notes) appends a notice that says, "It had ninety chapters (p'in) and
was once called the `Old Smaller Prajñā-pāramitā.' It is now lost." (See the
Collected Notes, 7.b.7.) The Collected Notes also lists another text, Keng
ch'u hsiao p'in, now lost with no date of translation (Collected Notes, 8.c.13).
Again the Collected Notes lists a Hsiao p'in and the appended note says that
the scripture was translated by both Kumārajīva and Dharmaraksha (Chu Fa-hu)
who was in Ch'ang-an in 265-313 (Collected Notes, 15.a.22.) Dharmaraksha's
Kuang tsan ching is extant (T. 8, no. 222). Prajña-pāramitā means
perfection of wisdom and designates a cluster of texts exploring the concept of
emptiness. Its tricky logic appealed to many of the Chinese Buddhist literati.
A method for lengthening life. See, e.g., "Les procédés de nourrir le
principe vital," pp. 470-496 in Maspero, Le Taoïsm, esp. p. 485. See also
Ngo, Divination, p. 205.
Because Chien-wen, youngest son of Emperor Yüan (276-322-323),
was never a crown prince, he is referred to merely as the future emperor. At
the death of his predecessor he was chosen by a group of officials to be the
emperor. Even when he was young, he was especially beloved of his father,
one of whose officials had said that Chien-wen was a man capable of restoring
the fortunes of the Chin dynasty. His third son and successor, Hsiao-wu,
shu, chap. 9; Wei shu, chap. 96).
The text is ambiguous as to whether Pure Water is a place-name, for
there is such a place, or is a type of Taoist practice. "Pure water" (Ch'ing shui)
can also refer to saliva. See Maspero, Le Taoïsme, p. 527, n.2.
Ch'ü An-yüan. See Kao seng chuan 5:356.c.19-20; and Chin shu,
chap. 76, where he is described as a wonder worker (pu shu chih jen).
A common list of the eight is the five precepts described above (in n.
52), plus the sixth, refraining from applying perfume to the body, wearing
adornments, watching entertainments or listening to singing; the seventh,
refraining from sitting or lying on a high and wide bed; and the eighth,
refraining from eating at proscribed times, i.e., after noon.
A Taoist way of death is to disappear and leave behind a sandal or a
robe. See Maspero, Le Taoïsme, p. 335.
Universal Gate chapter is also known as the Bodhisattva Kuan-shih-yin
chapter, found in the Flower of the Law Scripture.
Province of Chi, in the present-day Hopei and Shansi provinces and
Honan north to the Yellow River. See map.
Meng Ford, a crossing of the Yellow River, is a good distance west of
her home and suggests that she returned by a very circuitous route. See map.
The white deer is an auspicious omen, often associated with Taoists.
Lao-tzu is said to have ridden a white deer. (T'ai-p'ing yü lan, chüan 906, p.
5). The interaction between animals and people indicates the holiness of the
person, or his own immortality. Tigers also often help people who are holy
and sincere.
As on dry land. This, too, is in response to her faith and can be attributed,
at least in part, to the bodhisattva Kuan-shih-yin. (See T. 9, no. 263,
128.c.29-129.a.l.)
The text does not specifically say Amita, but he is implied because as
the Buddha of Infinite Light, Amitābha, or Infinite Life, Amitāyus, he presides
over the Western Paradise, a place from which it is impossible to fall again
into rebirth. One who achieves birth in this paradise waits there, seated in a
lotus blossom, for his final nirvana, but in the popular mind, the Western Paradise
is in itself the final goal. No women come to birth in the Western Paradise
have attained enough merit to be born there in a male body.
One of the several picturesque expressions used in the Chinese Buddhist
biographies to say that a person died. This expression is also Taoist, the character
ch'ien having as one of its components the flapping of wings like a bird,
and one who gets wings and can fly is an immortal. In the early Han dynasty
an immortal is one who becomes a bird. See Kaltenmark's preface to his translation
of Le Lie-sien tchouan, p. 10.
Wang Ch'en (d. 392). See Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 199; Chin
shu, chaps. 5, 75; Liu, Shih-shuo hsin-yü, pp. 583-584.
Wang Kung (d. 398). See Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 151; Chin
shu, chap. 84; Liu, Shih-shuo hsin-yü, p. 590.
The province of Ching included the territory of the ancient kingdoms
of Ching and Ch'u—hence, Miao-yin's use of the two names.
This intrigue is corroborated in the dynastic histories. Factionalism
among the powerful families of the Eastern Chin dynasty eventually destroyed
the dynasty and led to the establishment of the Sung dynasty in a.d. 420. The
nun Miao-yin, one of the very few nuns mentioned in official dynastic histories,
obviously played a crucial role in some of the intrigues because of her
access to the ears of those both within and without court circles. That a nun
who meddled in worldly politics—and very sordid politics at that—was
included in a collection of exemplary women seems at first glance ironic, but
it merely reflects the editor's bias in favor of the famous and influential. See
Liu I-ch'ing, Shih-shuo hsin-yü (translated by Richard Mather in A New Account
of Tales of the World), and E. Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, for clear
expositions of these intrigues and their consequences. The grand tutor, Ssu-ma
Tao-tzu, was a scheming profligate who, together with his faction,
terrorized the court and others. Wang Kung's faction was in opposition to
the grand tutor. The emperor, in consulting with Miao-yin, was attempting
to arrange for help from Wang Kung's faction, but even within that faction
there were rivalries, with Huan Hsüan fearing Wang Kung and wanting
to keep his power and influence in check. Huan Hsüan therefore
had asked Miao-yin to use her influence to select the new governor of
Ching.
Within and without Buddhist circles. Miao-yin is one of the very few
Chin shu, chaps. 64, 75.
This famous nephew of the nun Tao-i was born in a.d. 334 and died
in a.d. 416 (some records give the variants 415 and 417). His biography
appears in the Chinese collection of biographies of Buddhist monks, Kao seng
chuan 6:357.c-361.b, and has been translated by E. Zürcher in Buddhist
Conquest, pp. 240-253. Hui-yüan contributed to the intellectual development
of Buddhism in China, defended the monastic system against anticlerical
officials, and is popularly credited with founding the Pure Land school of Chinese
Buddhism because he led monks and laymen in making a vow to be
reborn in the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amitābha. Although in fact he
did not found that school, he did do much to promote the growth of the Amitābha
cult in China. He was acquainted with the persons involved in the
intrigue described in biography 12. Hui-yüan had a younger brother who also
became a monk and who took the name of Hui-ch'ih and whose biography is
also in Kao seng chuan 6:361.b. In Hui-ch'ih's biography we learn that it was
he who brought his aunt to the capital from Chiang-hsia that lay along the
western reaches of the Yangtze River.
Flower of the Law Scripture. It cannot be determined with any certainty
which translation was used. Chu Fa-hu worked in north China as did
Kumārajīva.
Vimalakīrti. Again it cannot be determined which translation the nun
would have used. Kumārajīva worked in the north and Chih Ch'ien in the
south.
Smaller Perfection of Wisdom (Hsiao p'in). The abbreviation of the
title to Hsiao p'in points to Kumārajīva's translation. T. 8, no. 227.
Without having to rely on teachers. This is possibly a divine revelation
of texts. See Tsai, "Chinese Buddhist Monastic Order," p. 16 n. 51. Divine
revelations of texts occurs among both the Buddhists and the Taoists. Seng-yu's
Ch'u san-tsang chi chi, p. 40.b, gives notice that a nun of Green Garden
Convent (home to several of the nuns in the Lives) chanted "revealed" texts.
These are listed in the section for "suspect" texts.
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