9. Chu Tao-hsing
[OMITTED]
The nun Chu Tao-hsing (Fragrance of the Way) (in the lineage of
an Indian monk) of the Eastern Convent of Lo-yang[70]
Tao-hsing's secular surname was Yang. Her family was originally
from T'ai-shan [in northeast China].[71]
Tao-hsing was both scrupulous and firm in character, and she was
able to get along with everyone. During her probationary period
before becoming a full-fledged nun, she practiced chanting the scriptures
while running errands and performing other duties. Therefore,
by the time she was twenty she could recite from memory the Flower
of the Law,[72] the Vimalakīrti, and other scriptures.[73] After she had
accepted the full obligation of the monastic rule and become a nun,
she pursued her study of Buddhist teachings while continuing to maintain
her vegetarian diet and her practice of austerities. As she grew
older, rather than taking more ease, she intensified her rigorously
ascetic way of life.
Tao-hsing lived in Eastern Convent of the old capital city of Lo-yang
[in north China on the south bank of the Yellow River]. She was
particularly adept in the [intellectual acrobatics of the philosophical
discourse known as] Pure Talk,[74] and she was especially competent in
[the Buddhist scripture known as] the Smaller Perfection of Wisdom.[75]
She esteemed the understanding of principles and did not engage in
mere argumentation. All the students of the [Buddhist Way] in the
entire province considered her as their teacher and master. Tao-hsing
was the first of the nuns who specialized in expounding the meaning of
the scriptures.
In the t'ai-ho reign period (366-371) of the Chin dynasty there lived
a woman named Yang Ling-pien, who was an ardent follower of the
[Taoist Way] of the Yellow Emperor and Lao-tzu, and she practiced in
particular the breathing exercise known as swallowing the breath
[designed to strengthen the body's vital essence and lead to physical
immortality].[76] The people of the region had respected the Taoist
woman and her activities very much until Tao-hsing's Way of Buddhism
eclipsed her own arts. Yang Ling-pien pretended distant kinship
with Tao-hsing on account of their having the same last name and,
using that as a reason, cultivated a friendship with Tao-hsing; [but in
reality] she harbored great envy and looked for a chance to poison the
Buddhist nun. She eventually succeeded in putting poisonous herbs
into Tao-hsing's food, and, despite many medicines, Tao-hsing did not
recover. Nevertheless, when her disciples asked her in whose house
she had contracted this illness, she answered, "I certainly know who
did this, but all is a matter of karmic connections [and was meant to
turn out this way], so do not ask me any more about it. Even if telling
you who did it would help me, I still would not say; how much less am
I likely to say when there is no cure at all." Tao-hsing died without
revealing the name of her poisoner.
[70]
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.
[71]
T'ai-shan in northern China, in present-day Shantung Province.
See map.
[72]
Flower of the Law. Because she was in the north, she could possibly
have used Kumārajīva's translation.
[73]
Vimalakīrti. There are at least two versions she may have used: (1) T.
14, no. 474, by Chih-ch'ien, of Indo-Scythian background and a layman, who
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.
[74]
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.
[75]
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.
[76]
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.
