慧琳

Readings

Pinyin: Huìlín

Wade-Giles: Hui-lin

Hangul: 혜림

Korean MC: Hyerim

Korean MR: Hyerim

Katakana: エリン

Hepburn: Erin

Huệ lâm

Huilin

• (5c.) Huilin of Yechengsi 冶城寺. Originally from Qin jun 秦郡 in modern S. Gansu. Secular surname Liu 劉. Eminent monk under the early Liu Song 劉宋 dynasty. He was remembered as a kind of traitor to the saṃgha. Though temporarily disgraced in 424, he was active in the capital again within three or four years. He was the author of the Bo hei lun 白黑論, which Liebenthal thinks was probably originally called Jun shan lun 均善論. This treatise aroused controversy and the anger of his confreres, and there were calls for his expulsion from the samgha. (Song) Wendi (宋)文帝 (Liu Yilong 劉義隆, 407-453, r. 424–453), however, who was on the throne at the time, seems to have liked the essay, and protected and promoted Huilin for it; during his reign (yuanjia 元嘉) Huilin was a prominent advisor in affairs of state, and "before his gate there were always some ten sedan chairs waiting." Bo hei lun is translated from the Song shu by Walter Liebenthal in The Immortality of the Soul in Chinese Thought, Monumenta Nipponica 8, no. 1/2 (1952): 365-374. Liebenthal dates the text approx. 431-432. For a nominally Buddhist tract, it is a peculiar piece; he argues against an opponent who seems much more of an orthodox Buddhist than he is (and grounded in Buddhist scripture), while Huilin draws mainly upon native Chinese proof-texts (both Confucian and Daoist), and assumes some unusual positions. Huilin denies reincarnation, and is also opposed to the doctrine of emptiness; he accuses more standard Buddhist ideas alternately of being false or of being mere callow truisms; he denies the doctrine of the Buddha's eternity (newly current in his time, presumably, from the recent translation of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra), and other aspects of the doctrine of dharmakāya as it is propounded by his opponent; he argues that the doctrine of emptiness will increase craving in sentient beings, and the doctrine of reincarnation will lead them to put false hopes in post-mortem prospects rather than concentrate soberly on doing moral good in this life; but he does end by acknowledging some respects in which he finds Buddhism superior: "lov[ing] living creatures... universal sacrifice... quiet[ing] the unrest of one's heart" etc. (Liebenthal 372). For aspects of his biography, see Liebenthal n. 97. [resp. Michael Radich; ref. FGD]
• (737–820)) A disciple of the Indian monk Amogha 不空; he made the 慧琳音義 dictionary of sounds and meanings of Buddhist words and phrases, based upon the works of Xuanying 玄應, Huiyuan 慧苑, Kuiji 窺基, and 雲公 Yungong, in 100 juan, beginning the work in CE 788 and ending it in 810. He is also called 大藏音義; died 820. 〔續高僧傳 T 2060.50.656c18, 高僧傳 T 2059.50.369a11〕 [resp. cmuller; source(s): Soothill, JEBD]

Dictionary References:

Bukkyō jiten (Ui), 85

Bulgyo sajeon, 944a

Chūgoku bukkyōshi jiten (Kamata), (劉宋)28,42,146,217,338(唐)28,41,72,83,235

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

Fo Guang Dictionary, 6045

Ding Fubao, {Digital Version}

Nihon bukkyō jinmei jiten (Saitō and Naruse), 53

Index to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono), 069/i070

Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki), (v.9-10)78c

Bukkyō daijiten (Oda), 1866-3

Soothill, 434

Copyright © 2010 -- Charles Muller

generated: 2012-12-29