When Emperor Taizong (the Yongle emperor, reigned 1402–1424) came to know of him, he dispatched a eunuch to hasten by post stations to summon him to the palace in Nanjing 南京, where he asked him all about the main points of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra 首楞嚴經, to which he responded personally in response to imperial command and for which he was conferred a purple robe 紫衣 and requested to take up residence at the Tianjiesi 天界寺 [in Nanjing], where brilliantly outstanding monks were selected to study with him. Huijin was also ordered, first, to take charge of eminent monks at the Linggusi 靈谷寺, who were editing the Sanzang fashu 三藏法數 (Categories of Buddhist Concepts in the Tripiṭaka), and then to accompany the emperor to Beijing 北京, where he became abbot of the Haiyinsi 海印寺 and was by imperial decree placed in charge of monks and nuns all over the empire.

Outside the Great Ming Gate 大明門 he held a massive Buddhist service dedicated to releasing all sentient beings from suffering, and over a month gave lectures on the three categories of pure precepts 三聚淨戒, which effectively addressed issues both recondite and manifest. The tops of great tubs for cooked rice meals and the pennants on long polls together glittered spectacularly. For this Huijin was conferred an inscription embossed with the imperial seal and a golden one-piece robe and was promoted to Rectifier of the Left 陞左 (in the Buddhist Registry) and made Supreme Supervisor of all literary Confucian scholars 儒士 and eminent monks 高僧 in the empire.

When he was engaged in collating the Tripiṭaka at the sutra printing hall of the Ocean Seal Temple, he memorialized the emperor thus. "Since we are printing these Tripiṭaka teachings in order to assist moral transformation of the people through governance, it is only right that Your Majesty compose a preface to the work, for the instruction provided in it should spread near and far." The emperor agreed and personally composed an Introduction to the Sūtras in thirteen sections and a Postface to Eulogies for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in twelve sections. Huijin was then summoned to the Incense Hall where he was given a seat of his own, a Buddhist image of Śākyamuni, a silk tapestry with cut designs of bodhisattvas, a string of crystal beads, and instructions from the emperor in the form of a gāthā entitled 'Seven Past Buddhas,' [one couplet of which reads] "Model yourself on them to practice cultivation / For I promote you to Explicator of Teachings of the Left" 左闡教.

He continually had such experiences for some seventy years in all. During the year when the era name was changed to Hongxi 洪熈 (1425) and Emperor Renzong 仁宗 become more selective about Buddhist teaching positions, only Huijin was rewarded for excellence. His imperial edict regarding this states, Buddhists teach in order to enable people to be humane and thus guide the ignorant classes toward moral transformation, covertly supplementing the transformative virtue of the emperor, which effectively brings peace and stability to the multitudes. This general teaching surely depends on getting the right people to do it, for teaching should not be taken lightly. You, Explicator of Teachings of the Left, Huijin have thoroughly investigated all doctrines and with strict purity adhere to moral discipline, which is why I have appointed you to this position. May you cultivate yourself as a Maitreya [a bodhisattva who is to appear in this world, achieve perfect enlightenment, and teach the pure Dharma]. I have given you highly valued gifts to encourage you to strive forward with ever more diligence and invigorate the teachings of your sect, which is entirely in accord with Our wishes. Respect this!

At the beginning of the Xuande era (1426) emperor Xuanzong rewarded him by making him an Elder of the State 國老, gave him a Five Buddha Pilu crown and a gold twill ceremonial pilgrimage robe 磨衲. He also summoned him to the Hanlin Academy, where together with many other officials and a congregation of monks copied in gold characters the Flower Ornament Sutra, the Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra 金剛般若波羅蜜經 (Diamond Sutra), the Mahāratnakūṭa-sūtra 大寶積經, and the Nirvana Sutra 涅槃經—the four great scriptures 四大部經. A feast of cooked food and drink was provided by the imperial kitchen.

Once the task was finished, Great National Teacher Guanding Jingjue 灌頂淨覺 composed a memorial to the emperor requesting that he with his immense goodness lecture on the Collected Explications of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra 楞嚴會解 so that both the Buddhist clerics as well as laymen present could hear how to understand its more than a myriad meanings, and that the older they become the more lofty their virtue, their ears and eyes be ever pure and bright, their countenances ever praiseworthy for their simplicity and unsophistication, and their personal natures ever be straightforward and prudent. His old monastic friends participated, including National Teacher Master Yao Youzhi 姚友直 (d. 1438, a prominent secular literatus of the times), whose title was Rongguo Gongjing 榮國恭靖, Chief Sanskrit Translator Master Guang 光公, Scripture Lecturer Yinfeng 隱峯, Master Cong 琮公, Dufang Master Lian 獨芳蓮公, and Yueting Master Lang 月庭朗公.

At the worldly age of eighty-two and the monastic age of seventy-three, in the first year of the Zhengtong era, intercalary sixth month, twentieth day [2 August 1436] celebration of Huijinʼs death took place. When his coffin had been kept in the abbotʼs quarters for three days, as thick clouds hung down all over the sky, official announcement of his passing was made, and the emperor had the Ministry of Rites hold a ceremony for him. On the third day of the seventh month (14 August 1436), his body was cremated in Fucheng (Hengshui, Hebei), and on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival in the eighth month (25 September 1436) a stūpa for the ashes of his spirit bones was erected west of the Grand Canal. The emperor bestowed an imperial order that a fountain be installed at the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple in special honor of him.

Sources

Huijin zhuan 慧進傳 (Biography of Huijin) as recorded in Buxu gaoseng zhuan 補續高僧傳 (Biographies of Eminent Monks, Amended and Continued), Monk Minghe 釋明河 (1588-1640), ed. (Taishō shinshū daizōkyō大正新脩大藏經 ed.), 4:392, and Ming Qing huayan chuancheng shiliao liangzhong: Xianshou zongsheng yu Xianshou chuandeng lu 明淸華嚴傳承史料兩種: 賢首宗乘與賢首傳燈錄 (Two Historical Sources for the Ming-Qing Flower Ornament Tradition of Buddhist Teaching: the School of Xianshou [Fazang 法藏 (643–712, third patriarch and major consolidator of the Huayan School) and Record of Transmission of the Lamp in the Xianshou Tradition) (Taibei: Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica 中央硏究院中國文哲硏究所, 2017).