62. Miao-wei
[OMITTED]
The nun Miao-wei (Wonderful Beauty) (444-513) of Western
Green Garden Convent
Miao-wei's secular surname was Liu, and her family was from [the
capital] Chien-k'ang. When she was a very small child, her extraordinary
capacities were abundantly evident, and while still a young girl she
left secular life to take up residence at Western Green Garden Convent.
Her spotless practice of the monastic precepts, her highly awakened
spiritual sensibilities, and her sincere faith that spread kindness
led everyone to cherish her.
Miao-wei liked conversation and was particularly good at witticisms.
She lectured on the Great Nirvāna Scripture, the Flower of the
Law, and the Ten Stages, altogether over thirty times.[80] She promoted
the Mother of Monasticism Scripture[81] of the Sarvāstivāda sect of
Buddhism. In all circumstances she benefited a great number of people
with her skillful guidance.
In the twelfth year of the t'ien-chien reign period (513), she died at
the age of seventy.
[80]
Great Final Nirvāna Scripture; see biography 42, chap. 3 n. 30. Flower
of the Law Scripture; see biography 5, chap. 1 n. 53; Ten-Stages Scripture
(Shih ti ching) (Dashabhūmika-sūtra); there are several texts in the Buddhist
canon, in T. 10, and the only one using the title Shih ti ching was not translated
until much later. The extant texts of the time of the nuns are called Shih
chu ching. The biography clearly says Shih ti. Shih ti could also refer to chap.
22 of the Flower Garland Scripture (Ta fang kuang hua yen ching). See Répertoire,
pp. 37-38.
[81]
Mother of Monasticism Scripture, T. 24, no. 1463, reading mu instead
of hai in conformity with the Sung, Yüan, and Ming editions; and Répertoire,
p. 125.
