32. Tao-tsung
[OMITTED]
The nun Tao-tsung (Summing up the Way) (d. 463) of Three-Story
Convent in Chiang-ling
Tao-tsung, whose family origins are unknown, lived in Three-Story
Convent in Chiang-ling [which was in west central China on the north
bank of the Yangtze River]. As a child she had no intention of setting
herself apart; as an adult she did not consider associating with others a
defilement. She merely followed a course along the boundary between
the wise and the foolish, and, although outwardly she seemed muddled,
yet within she traversed hidden profundities.
On the full-moon night of the fifteenth day of the third month, in
the seventh year of the ta-ming reign period (463) of the Sung dynasty,
Tao-tsung, as an offering to the Buddha, purified herself in a fire fed
by oil. Even though she was engulfed by flames up to her forehead,
and her eyes and ears were nearly consumed, her chanting of the scriptures
did not falter. Monastics and householders sighed in wonder; the
demonic and upright were alike startled. When the country heard this
news, everyone aspired to attain enlightenment. The appointed court
scholar of Sung [sic], Liu Ch'iu (438-495), especially revered her and
composed a Buddhist-style poetic verse to praise her.[113]
[113]
Appointed court scholar of Sung, Liu Ch'iu: Liu Ch'iu was appointed
court scholar in the year 495, during the Ch'i dynasty but did not serve and
died later that year. He was twenty-five years old when Tao-tsang died. It is
possible that he composed his verse in her praise many years after her death.
He withdrew from society and quit eating cereals; he fed himself on hemp and
sesame alone. He also revered the Buddhist Way and wrote a commentary to
the Flower of the Law Scripture (biography in Nan ch'i shu, chap. 54; and
Nan shih, chap. 50).
