33. Hui-chün
[OMITTED]
The nun Hui-chün (Deep Wisdom) (392-464) of Bamboo
Garden Convent
Hui-chün's secular surname was Ch'en. Her family was originally
from Shan-yin [some distance southeast of the capital of Sung and very
close to Kuei-chi].
When Hui-chün was still a child, she was quite intelligent, and her
zeal in the practice of religion surpassed the multitude. In the morning
she burned incense and engaged her mind in the act of worship, thus
passing the time until noon when she ate her one meal of vegetables,
eschewing the flesh of living creatures. Although she was living in her
parents' house, she behaved as though she had already left the household
life. Because her mother and father could not break her resolve,
they permitted her to enter the religious life when she was eighteen
years old.
She could recite from memory any classic text, whether Buddhist or
non-Buddhist, after having read it once. There was no deep meditation
or subtle contemplation she could not enter. Hui-chün was quiet
and nonquarrelsome, agreeable, and modest; in her associations with
friends and acquaintances she never engaged in banter or joking
[behavior indeed forbidden by the monastic rules].[114]
The chief minister of the Sung state, the Chiang-hsia prince, I-kung
(413-465) [the fifth son of Emperor Wu], especially respected her and
without fail supplied clothing and medicine for her throughout the
year.[115] Hui-chün did not keep these goods for herself but used them
to build up the convent; the completion of Bamboo Garden was her
achievement.
When she grew old, Hui-chün's joy in the flavor of meditation did
not pall. In the eighth year of the ta-ming reign period (464) of the
Sung dynasty she died at the age of seventy-three and was buried on
Tutor Mountain.
In the same convent lived the nun Seng-hua, who was extremely
intelligent and eminently accomplished, being able to chant many doctrinal
scriptures and texts of monastic rules.[116] Her renown for maintaining
strict vegetarianism and ascetic practices was equal to Hui-chün's.
[114]
Behavior forbidden by monastic rules. See Ssu fen lü (Dharmaguptaka-vinaya),
T. 22:925.c.3.
[115]
Chiang-hsia prince, I-kung (413-465), fifth son of Emperor Wu
(biography in Sung shu, chap. 61; and Nan shih, chap. 13).
[116]
[Seng-]hua. The first syllable taken from the Sung, Yüan, and Ming
editions.
