2.19 (Tsai no.32) Tao-tsung
The nun Tao-tsung (Summing up the
Way) (d. 463) of Three-Story Convent in Chiang-ling
Tao-tsung, whose family origins are unknown, lived
in Three-Story Convent in Chiang-ling [which was in west central China on the
north bank of the Yangtze River]. As a child she had no intention of setting
herself apart; as an adult she did not consider associating with others a
defilement. She merely followed a course along the boundary between the wise
and the foolish, and, although outwardly she seemed muddled, yet within she
traversed hidden profundities.
On the full-moon night of the fifteenth day of the
third month, in the seventh year of the ta-ming reign
period (463) of the Sung dynasty, Tao-tsung, as an offering to the Buddha,
purified herself in a fire fed by oil. Even though she was engulfed by flames
up to her forehead, and her eyes and ears were nearly consumed, her chanting of
the scriptures did not falter. Monastics and householders sighed in wonder; the
demonic and upright were alike startled. When the country heard this news,
everyone aspired to attain enlightenment. The appointed court scholar of Sung
[sic], Liu Ch'iu (438-495), especially revered her and
composed a Buddhist-style poetic verse to praise her.
Published
by The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, © Copyright 2003
by Anne Kinney and the University of Virginia