University of Virginia Library

42. Chih-sheng

[OMITTED]

The nun Chih-sheng (Victorious Sagacity) (427-492) of
Establishing Blessings Convent

Chih-sheng's secular surname was Hsü. Her family was originally
from [the northern city of] Ch'ang-an, but had lived [in the south] in
Kuei-chi, for three generations.

When she was six, Chih-sheng went along with her grandmother to
the capital to visit Pottery Office Monastery. When she saw the magnificence
of the monastery, the precious decorations, and adornment,
she wept copiously and begged leave from her grandmother to cut off
her hair and cast aside secular garments to become a nun. Her grandmother
questioned her in detail, and Chih-sheng fully explained her
intention, but her grandmother said she was too young and did not
permit it.

During the Sung dynasty many hardships caused people in all

classes of society to lose their livelihood.[29] The times were very confused,
and the years went by, so that Chih-sheng was close to twenty
before she was able to leave the secular life and take up residence in
Establishing Blessings Convent.

Walking alone without peer, her practice of the Buddhist monastic
life was inimitable. She listened to a recitation of the Great Final Nirvāna
Scripture, and, hearing it once, was able to hold it in mind.[30]
Later, when she was studying the books of monastic discipline, she
mastered them thoroughly without having to be taught twice. The
fame of her memory in all respects increased. She herself wrote several
tens of scrolls of commentaries in which the phrasing was concise and
the meaning far-reaching; her interpretations were recondite and her
reasoning subtle.[31]

Encountering filth she was not soiled; meeting with adversities she
was not worn down. In the ta-ming reign period (457-464) there was
a fellow who used deceit to meet with her, to try to embrace her in a
lascivious way, hoping she would not keep to her rules. But Chih-sheng
with deep-seated purpose upheld her purity and stood firm as a
wall. With grave countenance she reported everything to the Assembly
of Nuns, who recorded what had happened and reported it to the civil
authorities. Chih-sheng maintained the pure precepts of the monastic
life as though she were guarding bright pearls.

At one time the monks Seng-tsung (438-496) and Hsüan-ch'ü, disciples
of the master of the law T'an-pin of Splendidly Adorned Monastery,
together were on duty in the Buddha Hall, but, because they were
careless in storing things, they invited a theft in which the bodhisattva
necklace and the seven-jeweled water bowl were stolen.[32] T'an-pin's
own room, except for his robe and begging bowl, was as bare as a
hanging gong, and therefore he had nothing with which to replace
what had been taken. Distressed and sad, he suspended his lectures
and remained in his own quarters for three days. When Chih-sheng
made this known to the four groups of monks, nuns, laymen, and lay-women,
everything was provided within ten days. The response to her
virtue and influence was always like this.

The Ch'i heir apparent, Wen-hui (458-493) [the eldest son of
Emperor Wu], hearing of her reputation, often summoned her to his
presence.[33] Whenever she was invited to the imperial palace to give
lectures on the various Buddhist scriptures, the minister of education,

the prince of Ching-ling, Wen-hsüan (460-494) [the second son of
Emperor Wu,] respected her even more.[34]

Chih-sheng's sense of purpose was as durable as southern gold, and
her heart as pristine as northern snow. Because she was indeed highly
respected for the discerning moral advice she gave her Assembly of
Nuns, the empress dowager ordered that she serve as abbess of the
convent. The whole community loved and respected her as though
they were serving their elders.

Chih-sheng made the vows of one aspiring to be a bodhisattva[35]
from Master of the Law Seng-yüan (ca. 430-ca. 490) of [Upper]
Grove of Concentration Monastery on Bell Mountain.[36] A censer was
always placed beside the seat, and Chih-sheng picked up some incense
to put in it, but Seng-yüan tried to stop her, saying, "The censer has
not been lit for the past three days." But when clouds of smoke arose
from the incense that she had dropped into the censer, everyone marveled
at her awesome devotion that brought forth such a response.[37]

During the yung-ming reign period (483-493), while she was holding
a vegetarian religious feast in honor of the Holy Monk [Pindola],
she concentrated her mind in earnest supplication.[38] When she unexpectedly
heard fingers snapping in the air, she brought her palms
together in a gesture of reverence and bowed her head to listen.

Because Chih-sheng lived in the convent for thirty years without
attending the vegetarian meals given outside the convent and without
roaming about visiting either nobles or commoners, and because she
dwelt in quiet seclusion and remained in contemplation, the fragrance
of her reputation was not widespread.

The heir apparent, Wen-hui, especially made offerings to her, and
as time went by they were so abundant that she built more buildings
and that the entire convent was splendidly beautiful.

Chih-sheng sacrificed her own religious robes and begging bowl,
selling them to raise money to make stone images at Sheh Mountain
Monastery for the sake of seven emperors of the Sung and Ch'i
dynasties.

In the tenth year of the yung-ming reign period (492), when she was
confined to bed with an illness, she unexpectedly saw golden chariots
with jade canopies all coming to welcome her. On the fifth day of the
fourth month she told all her disciples, "I am now going to leave." The
disciples wept. She then pulled aside her robe to expose her chest on

which there appeared, written in the highly cursive style, the character
Fo (Buddha), clear and white in form and color.[39] At noon on the
eighth day [the day of the Buddha's birthday], she died at the age of
sixty-six. She was buried on Bell Mountain. The heir apparent, Wen-hui,
had supplied her medicines, and imperial officials provided everything
needed for the funeral.