46. T'an-chien
[OMITTED]
The nun T'an-chien (Simplicity of the Dharma) of Voice of the
Teaching Convent
T'an-chien's secular surname was Chang, and her family originally
was from Ch'ing-ho [in northern China].[50] She was a disciple of the
nun Fa-ching.[51] She traveled throughout the valley of the Huai River
[north of the Yangtze River], to study with various teachers, so that
she might widely proclaim the True Law of the Buddha.[52] Putting others
first and herself last, her ambition was to help all living beings.
In the fourth year of the chien-yüan reign period (482) of Ch'i, she
built Voice of the Teaching Convent, where she practiced the quiet of
meditation and achieved [the highest concentrative state known as]
samādhi. She was widely known for her virtue, and her meritorious
influence spread daily. Both religious and laity respected her and made
plentiful offerings.
At that time there was a master of the law Hui-ming who deeply
appreciated silence and quietude.[53] Originally he lived in Grove of the
Way Monastery, which had been refurbished and adorned by the heir
apparent, Wen-hui (458-493) [eldest son of the emperor], and the
prince of Ching-ling, Wen-hsüan (460-494) [second son of the
emperor], during the yung-ming reign period (483-493) of Ch'i.[54]
Many of the monks there were students of doctrine and were constantly
debating topics in the scriptures and explanatory treatises.
Because of the hustle and bustle of all the coming and going, Hui-ming
wanted to get away. T'an-chien made a gift to him of her convent, and
she herself moved to White Mountain, where she built a grass shelter
to protect her from wind and rain.[55] At the appropriate times she went
out begging and was sustained by the alms she received.
She often gathered firewood, saying that she was going to carry out
a meritorious act, and [on the day celebrating the Buddha's final nirvana],
the eighth night of the second month in the first year of the
chien-wu reign period (494), she mounted this pile of firewood and
kindled a fire, immolating herself, thereby abandoning her body of
birth and death as an offering to the Three Treasures.
[56] When the people
in the neighboring village saw the fire, they raced to rescue her,
but, when they arrived, T'an-chien had already died. Religious and
laity alike lamented, their cries reverberating through the mountains
and valleys. They then built a tomb to bury her remains, which they
had gathered up.
[50]
Ch'ing-ho, present-day Hopei Province, Ch'ing-ho county. See map.
[51]
This is probably not the same nun as in biography 35.
[53]
Hui-ming (d. ca. 498). He may or may not be the same Hui-ming in
Kao seng chuan 11:400.b.4.
[54]
Wen-hui and Wen-hsüan; see above, biography 39, chap. 3 n. 10.
[55]
This is probably the White Mountain that was close to the capital
Chien-k'ang.
[56]
The text says eighteenth night, but this is most likely an error because
the woman who is the subject of biography 47 also burned herself alive at the
same time as T'an-chien, and her biography says the eighth night, and also
because the numinous or spiritually propitious night for the act would be the
eighth and not the eighteenth. See introduction.
