Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Monday, October 6, 2008 9:37 am TWN, By Joe Hung, The China Post

Black-Faced Sect Founder

Mahayana Buddhism crossed the Hindukush into China from India at the beginning of the Common Era(CE). At first, all the “deities,” particularly the bodhisattvas, were imports from India. As Buddhism was popularized, new deities were added to the pantheon, but they had to be apotheosized by emperors, who, like the popes in Catholicism, “canonized” Chinese Buddhist as well as Taoist “saints.” One of the relatively new additions is Crystal-Water Sect Founder or Qinshui Zushi (清水祖師), whose following was localized in Minnan or southern part of the province of Fujian and Taiwan, as most of the Hoklo immigrants on the island after its occupation by the Dutch were from that part of southeast China.

There are more than three score Buddhist temples dedicated to the sect founder in Taiwan. Of them, two are best known and each of them has plenty of faithful, who call him Zushi-gong (祖師公), or Lord Sect Founder. One is in Tamsui, a once prosperous seaport only 12 miles almost due north of Taipei. The other is located in Wanhua or Banka, the old trading center of Taipei. The sect founder has two other aliases: Wumien-Zhu (烏面祖) because his face is black and Luopi-Zhu (落鼻祖) because his nose habitually falls when he is angry or tries to warn his faithful of a disaster.

Legend and myth about Black-Faced Sect Founder abound.

We are relatively sure that the black-faced Buddhist monk was born at Xiaoku in the county of Yungchun in Fujian Province (福建省永春縣小姑鄉) on the sixth day of the first moon of the fourth year of Qingli under the reign of the Emperor Renzhong of the Song Dynasty (宋仁宗慶曆元月六日), which corresponds to 1044 CE His family name was Chen (陳). Chao-ying (昭應) was his given name and his Buddhist name was Puzhu (普足) or Common Satisfaction. He was given over to the Dayun-shi (大雲寺) or Great Cloud Temple in his tender age for training as a child novice. After he grew up, he left the temple and went alone to Mount Gaotai (高台山) to practice asceticism. He was a very strict ascetic, but could not attend enlightenment without a guru coaching him. After years of self-training, he went to Mount Grant Tranquility or Dajing-shan (大靜山) to study under a Zen master named Mingsong (明松禪師) or Clear Pine. Three years of study under the Zen master led to satori (悟), or “small” enlightenment, and his master anointed him as the heir.

As he assumed the mantle of Clear Pine, the master told his heir the greatest merit a Buddhist priest could earn is to commonly dispense with benevolence. “It is therefore incumbent on you to do what he can to help the people,” the great master intoned. The heir vowed to obey the last instruction from his mentor. He then returned to Mount Gaotai, where his hermit’s lair fell into disrepairs in the three years of his absence and was no longer livable. He moved to nearby Macao (麻草), which literally means Hemp Grass, to start practice medicine.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

Share

Print

Email


Sponsors
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!
▪	Save 70% for hotel in Shanghai and 6000 hotels, in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and all China.
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.