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慧思

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: Huisi

Senses:

  • (515–577; var. 惠思; also known as 南岳大師 and 思大和尙) From Nanyue 南嶽. Known to history as the 'second patriarch' (var: third) of the Tiantai school 天台宗. Originally from Wujin 武津 (mod. Shangcai 上蔡, Henan 河南) , secular surname Li 李. He was attracted to Buddhism from an early age, especially the Avataṃsaka sūtra. A tradition holds that he once went into a tomb and recited the sutra there, which moved him to tears; he then had a vision that Samantabhadra passed and stroked his head, and as a result, an uṣṇīṣa (肉髻, a 'topknot of flesh' ) appeared on Huisiʼs head. Hui entered the monastic order at fifteen, and subsequently was a student of the meditation master 禪師 Huiwen 慧文 of Henan, under whom he learnt the art of 'contemplating the mind'  觀心. Huisi was the earliest known systematizer of the three periods of the Dharma, and advocated the theory that the third and final period of the Dharma 末法 (*saddharma-vipralopa) had arrived, and for this reason was possessed of a deep faith in Amitâbha and Maitreya. He emphasized the practice of meditation (禪, dhyāna), and also doctrinal studies. He was the teacher of Zhiyi 智顗 (538–597). From 568, for the last ten years of his life, he was resident at Nanyue, whence his nickname 'the elder of Nanyue'  南嶽尊者. Most of his extant works that have come down to us are the result of his students' work, recording and editing his spoken teachings. Supposedly direct from his own brush is the 南嶽思大禪師立誓願文 T 1933; but see Etani and Kobayashi below. Other extant writings ascribed to him in the canon are 法華經安樂行義 T 1926; 諸法無諍三昧法門 T 1923; 大乘止觀法門 T 1924; 受菩薩戒儀 X1085; 隨自意三昧 X903. He was also supposed to be the author of a 四十二字門義, which is lost. Huisi is the object of an extensive secondary literature in Japanese, and a French monograph by Paul Magnin (see below).

    Further references:

    Etani, Ryūkai . 1958. “Nangaku Eshi no Ryū seigen bun wa gisaku ka 南岳慧思の立誓願文は偽作か .”  Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū 6, no. 2 : 213–216.

    Kobayashi, Taizen . 1975. “Nangaku Eishi Ryū seigen bun no keisei ni kansuru mondai 南岳慧思立誓願文の形成に関する問題 .”  Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū 24, no. 1 : 250–253.

    Magnin, Paul. 1979. La vie et l'œuvre de Huisi (515–577): Les origines de la secte bouddhique chinoise du Tiantai. Paris:  École française d'Extrême-Orient, Adrien-Maisonneuve.

    [Michael Radich, Jamie Hubbard; Dan Lusthaus]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Chūgoku bukkyōshi jiten (Kamata) 021

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 82

    Bulgyo sajeon 945a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 96d

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 72

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 58a/64

    Zen Dust (Sasaki) 188

    Fo Guang Dictionary 6035

    Ding Fubao

    Index to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono) 61

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)274c,3798c

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 1997-09-15

    Updated: 2014-07-15