65. Shih Fa-hsüan
[OMITTED]
The nun Shih Fa-hsüan (Comprehensive Law) (in the lineage
of Shākyamuni) (434-516) of Beckoning Clarity Convent in
Shan-yin
Fa-hsüan's secular surname was Wang, and her family came from Yen
[near Kuei-chi, southeast of the capital].[93] Her father, Wang Tao-chi,
continued his family's profession of the True Law [of Buddhism].
Already as a child Fa-hsüan had determined to leave the secular life
and become a nun, and beginning at age 7 she undertook a vegetarian
diet and other austerities. At age 18 she chanted the Flower of the Law
Scripture and fully studied and understood its purport from beginning
to end.[94] Whether sitting or lying down for sleep, Fa-hsüan always
had a vision of a canopy hovering over her.[95]
Unexpectedly a matchmaker appeared to arrange a betrothal, but
Fa-hsüan made a vow that she would not be married. When she was
twenty years old,[96] her parents took her to the nun Teh-leh (no. 51) of
Brightness of Ch'i Convent in Yen where she donned the garb of a nun
and undertook to follow all the precepts of the monastic life. From
that day forward the vision of the canopy vanished.
Fa-hsüan read widely in the scriptures, fully savoring the flavor of
their doctrines. After she received the full obligation of a monastic life,
her contemporaries in the region all looked up to her, acknowledging
her excellent practice [of Buddhism].
At the time of the end of the Sung dynasty (420-479) the master of
the law Seng-jou (431-494) traveled around eastern China preaching
and explaining the scriptures and commentaries, going from T'u and
Sheng mountains in Yen [north] to Yü Cave on Kuei-chi Mountain, or
[going on farther west] to ascend Ling-yin Mountain, or [going on
farther north to Ku-su Mountain, way up in Wu Commandery].[97] Fa-hsüan
took pleasure in the subtleties of Seng-jou's explication of the
trends of thought in the commentaries to the scriptures, and she
looked deeply into the profundities of the essentials in the scriptures
themselves as explained by Hui-chi (412-496), another master of the
law who had also been traveling in the region.[98] During the yung-ming
reign period (483-493), she received instruction in the Sarvāstivāda
Monastic Rules in Ten Recitations[99] from the master of the law Hui-hsi.[100]
Thus, day by day her knowledge increased in both breadth
and depth.
Fa-hsüan then moved to Beckoning Clarity Convent in Shan-yin
County, where she repeatedly lectured on the scriptures and the books
of monastic rules until her fame spread beyond the immediate region
[which included what was, in olden times] the kingdom of Yüeh.[101]
Rather than build up a private fortune for herself she used the donations
given her to renovate the convent buildings, whose reconstruction
was so splendid that it seemed to be of divine workmanship. She
had scriptures copied and images made, and there was nothing that
was not completed to perfection.
Chang Yüan of Wu Commandery, Yü Yung of Ying-ch'uan[102] and
Chou Ying[103] of Ju-nan,[104] famous literary men of the time, all went
personally to Fa-hsüan to pay their respects. When Hsiao Chao-chou,
the Ch'i dynasty prince of Pa-ling, was serving as the administrator of
Kuei-chi, he treated her most generously.[105] [Hsiao] Yüan-chien (d.
519), prince of Heng-yang of the Liang dynasty, asked her to serve as
his mother's religious instructor when he came to the commandery.[106]
Fa-hsüan died in the fifteenth year of the t'ien-chien reign period
(516) of the Liang dynasty at the age of eighty-three.
[93]
Kuei-chi (see biography 20, chap. 2 n. 53).
[94]
Flower of the Law Scripture (See biography 5, chap. 1 n. 53).
[95]
Suggesting her holiness and possibly her equivalence with a bodhisattva
or a Buddha.
[96]
Omitting the four in conformity with the Sung, Yüan, and Ming editions.
Twenty is a common age for taking up the life of a nun.
[97]
Seng-jou (see biography 63, chap. 4 n. 87).
[98]
Reading Hui-chi instead of Hui-ch'i in conformity with the Sung, Yüan,
and Ming editions. His biography is in Kao seng chuan 8:379.a.3.
[99]
Sarvāstivāda Monastic Rules in Ten Recitations. See biography 52,
chap. 4 n. 8.
[100]
Hui-hsi appears in the table of contents to Pao-ch'ang's Meisōden-shō
(Lives of famous monks) (Ming seng chuan ch'ao), chap. 17.
[101]
Shan-yin County, in present-day Chechiang Province, Shao-hsing
County.
[102]
Ying-ch'uan, present-day Honan Province, central region.
[103]
Chou Ying, in addition to his literary efforts, was also a very devout
and pious Buddhist layman. He had built his own retreat on Bell Mountain,
living like a monk even though he had a wife. He wrote a Treatise on the
Three Schools (San tsung lun), and Rhyme Tables of the Four Tones (Nan ch'i
shu, chap. 41; Nan shih, chap. 34).
[104]
Ju-nan, in present-day Honan Province, Ju-nan County.
[105]
Hsiao Chao-chou was the son of the prince of Ching-ling, Hsiao Tzu-liang
(460-494), who was the second son of Emperor Wu (440-483-493) of
the Ch'i dynasty (Nan ch'i shu, chap. 40; Nan shih, chap. 44).
[106]
Hsiao Yüan-chien was the son of Ch'ang, the fourth younger brother
of Emperor Wu (464-502-549) of the Liang dynasty. Yüan-chien was the
administrator of Kuei-chi some time between 504 and 514, and he died in 519
(Liang shu, chap. 23).
