Black-Faced Sect Founder III

Updated Monday, October 20, 2008 9:39 am TWN, By Joe Hung, The China Post

Black-Faced Sect Founder III

Shortly before his death in 1109, Black-Faced Sect Founder visited a small hill nearby, named Lanshan (閬山), or High Mountain. He took to the small mountain, describing it as the “land of the Buddha.” He liked High Mountain so much that he told his followers he would come back there after his death. “It’ll be a few dozens of years when I will be seen here again,” he said. His prediction was borne out. On the tenth day of the seventh moon of the fourth year of Shaoxing under the reign of the Gaozhong emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋高宗紹興七年), or 1134, there was a roaring and rolling forest fire on High Mountain, which broke out as lightning struck dead trees. Villagers in the neighborhood were mobilized to fight the fire. To their awesome surprise, they found a “stone gate” in the forest fire and saw the sect founder sitting right there in meditation. They also found a bunch of white chrythanthemums and three ginger plants before an incense pot, from which a wisp of refreshingly fragrant smoke was curling up.

After the fire, Yang Dao, the heir to the sect founder, had a small temple built beside the stone gate with the help of the villagers.

A small stupa was erected behind the temple, where the remains of his guru were re-interred. The temple was called Qingshui beyan (清水別巖), or Separate Clear-Water Rock. In the meantime, Yang Dao had his prefect memorialize the villagers’ testimony to the miraculous reincarnation of his mentor to the imperial court in Hangzhou. The Gaozhong emperor apotheosized the guru as Zhaoying dashi (昭應大師), or Evident Response Great Master. Zhaoying, incidentally, was the guru’s given name. The Buddhist saint has thus come to be known as Zhaoying zhushi (昭應祖師) — Evident Response Sect Founder, as well.

People of the county of Dehua (德化) suffered a drought in 1184. They organized a series of prayer meetings at Clear-Water Rock to call for divine help in ending the drought. Rain fell after the meetings and the drought came to an end. The grateful magistrate of Dehua submitted a memorial to the court in Hangzhou requesting a higher honorific title for the sect founder. The Xiaozhong emperor awarded the higher title, Zhaoying ciji guanghui dashi (昭應慈濟廣惠大師), or Evident Response Benevolently Charitable and Universally Beneficent Great Master.

A disastrous drought hit the prefecture of Quanzhou (泉州) in 1450. Thousands of people starved to death. The prefect of Quanzhou went to Clear-Water Rock to have a sculptured statue of Black-Faced Sect Founder escorted to the capital city of the prefecture.

As the statue reached Quanzhou, clouds gathered and rain fell on the very night of its arrival. The long drought in all five counties in the prefecture ended at once. The Jingzhong emperor of the Ming Dynasty (明景宗) added Guanli (善利) or Wide-Benefiting to the sect founder’s honorific title.

Adherents in Taiwan to the sect founder have different stories about his life, however.

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