59. Ching-hsing
[OMITTED]
The nun Ching-hsing (Pure Conduct) (444-509) of Bamboo
Garden Convent
Ching-hsing was the nun Ching-yüan's (no. 58) fifth younger sister.
While yet a child she had remarkable intelligence and great foresight;
ardent in determination and elegant in behavior, in every way she
stood far above the crowd.
When Ching-hsing was young she was acquainted with Madame
Tsang, the wife of Kuo Hsia, who was the district magistrate of Tamo.
Kuo Hsia wanted to murder his wife, and, when word of his
intention leaked out, Ching-hsing requested her elder brother to
remonstrate with him, but Kuo Hsia refused to listen. Ching-hsing
secretly spoke to his wife, but she did not believe her. Holding
Madame Tsang's hands, Ching-hsing wept sorrowfully and then
departed. A day or two later Kuo Hsia indeed killed his wife.
When Ching-hsing was seventeen years old, she left secular life,
becoming a nun under the direction of the nun Fa-shih and living in
Bamboo Garden Convent, where she studied the Discourse on the
Completion of Reality, the Discourse on the Abhidharma, the Nirvāna,
and the Flower Garland. Whenever she first encountered a
topic, she immediately grasped the essential meaning and tirelessly
searched out its nuances and profundities.[65]
Hsiao Tzu-liang, the Ch'i prince of Ching-ling, Wen-hsüan (460494)
[second son of Emperor Wu], abundantly provided her with
material goods.[66] The two masters of the law Seng-tsung (438-496)
and Pao-liang (444-509) regarded her highly.[67] Whenever she was
asked to give lectures on the Buddhist scriptures and teachings, the
audiences numbered several hundred persons. In official residences
and in convents religious activities were carried out continuously. No
scholars were able to confound her. The prince of Ching-ling, when
later ranking the Assembly of Nuns with the intention of composing
records about them,[68] found that none could equal Ching-hsing.
Later there was a very intelligent and accomplished nun who was
extraordinarily competent in disputation. Ching-hsing was especially
intimate with her, and the whole community considered her to be a
talented and bright woman of the younger generation who could be
favorably compared to Ching-hsing.
In her old age Ching-hsing especially liked to practice meditation,
and she rigorously maintained her vegetarian diet. When the emperor
heard of her, he praised her highly.[69] In the eighth year of the t'ien-chien
reign period (509), she died at the age of sixty-six and was
buried on Bell Mountain [located immediately to the northeast of the
capital].
[65]
Discourse on the Completion of Reality (Ch'eng shih lun) (Satyasiddhi-shāstra?),
trans. Kumārajīva, T. 32, no. 1646; Discourse on the Abhidharma
(P'i-t'an). In T. there are three volumes of Abhidharma texts, vols. 27, 28, 29.
Great Final Nirvāna Scripture (see biography 42, chap. 3 n. 30); and the
Flower Garland Scripture (Hua-yen ching) (Avatamsaka-sūtra), in T. 9, no.
278; and T. 10. These texts are difficult philosophical and doctrinal texts, and
the nun Ching-hsing, able to discourse on them, reveals her own intelligence
and education. Her grasping the essential when first hearing the topic echoes
Confucius (Lun yü, book 7, maxim 8): "If I hold up one corner and a man
cannot come up with the other three, I do not continue the lesson" (trans.
Waley in The Analects of Confucius, p. 124).
[66]
Hsiao Tzu-liang, Ch'i Ching-ling Wen Hsüan Wang (Nan ch'i shu,
chap. 40; Nan shih, chaps. 5, 44). See also biography 39, chap. 3 n. 10.
[67]
Seng-tsung and Pao-liang. Their biographies are in Kao seng chuan
8:379.c., 381.c., respectively. They are classified among the "monks who
explicate the meaning of the scriptures."
[68]
This is probably the meaning. There is a slight possibility, however,
that it means he was selecting a suitable candidate for the position of seng-lu
(recorder of the assembly) an administrative office of Chinese origin designed
to keep track of the assemblies and their activities within a certain region. This
office was established during the Yao Ch'in dynasty (384-417) by imperial
decree. See Mochizuki, Bukkyō-daijiten, 3124.a.
[69]
Emperor probably refers to Emperor Wu (464-502-549) of the Liang
dynasty.
