THE STORY OF JĪN QIAO JUÉ –
THE LEGEND OF THE INCARNATION OF KṢITIGARBHA
BODHISATTVA IN CHINA
*
By
LE BICH SON
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Kṣitigarbha
is the Sanskrit name. In Chinese he is called Dī-Zang (地藏)，sometimes
as Dī-Zang-Wáng (地藏王),
Jizō in Japanese, and Địa Tạng or Địa Tạng Vương in Vietnamese. In
English, there are different translations, though, the
usually translations of Kṣitigarbha are Earth Store or Earth Womb. Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva means "the Bodhisattva who encompasses the earth". Earth means
stillness, hardness, stability, vastness and versatility. It represents
our mind, which creates all dharma and accommodates all matters. It is the
foundation on, which everything grows, including the Buddhist way. Store
means deepness, profundity and subtleness. It represents the immeasurable
treasures. Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva has many emanations and He has manifested in countless forms
to save beings at different times and places. In the Chinese Buddhist
Pantheon, He is the only figure in the form of a monk. This is to indicate
that Mahāyāna Buddhism is suitable for both the monks and the laity.
According to the
Dharma Master Ming-Yang (明暘法師),
in his
Chinese book
“佛法概要”
(The Glimpses
of Buddhist teachings),
the author tells
us
the story of Jīn-Qiao-Jué (金喬覺)
in T’ang dynasty, which Chinese believe is the
incarnation of Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva in China. The following story was derived from it.
Jīn-Qiao-Jué (630 – 729 A.D), was of the royal lineage of Shīn-La (新羅
/ Korea). In 653, He abandoned the throne and joined the monastic life at
the age of twenty-four. In T’ang dynasty, Buddhism in China was very
developed with many monks from many countries coming there for studies.
After renunciation, Jīn-Qiao-Jué decided to go to China for the purpose of
studying Buddhism. He came to Jiu-Hua Mountain (九華山)
at Qing-Yang district, Chi-Zhou town, An-Hui province (安徽省池州府青陽縣).
He built a small grass cell in the top of Jiu-Hua Mountain to practice
meditation, and vows to copy by handwriting four great Mahāyāna Sūtras.
Later on,
some Qing-Yang’s villagers came to the mountain and discovered his crude,
ascetic lifestyle, and they built a temple for him in which he could carry
out his spiritual cultivation.
Jiu-Hua Mountain at that time was controlled by an officer called
Min-Rang-He (閔讓和).
Luckily, Min-Rang-He
was also a devoted Buddhist. When he learned that a holy man had been
living on his mountain, he promptly invited him for a meal. During the
meal,
Ven.
Jīn-Qiao-Jué asked
Min-Rang-He
for a piece of land to build a larger temple.
Min-Rang-He asks Ven. Jīn-Qiao-Jué “How much area of land do you want?”
Ven. Jīn-Qiao-Jué shows his holy-wrap, “I will toss up this holy-wrap into
the sky, and just take the part covered by the shadow of the holy-wrap
only. Do you agree?” Min-Rang-He agreed. Then, Ven. Jīn-Qiao-Jué tossed up
his holy-wrap into the sky, with the holy-wrap’s shadow covering all of
Jiu-Hua hill.
Amazed by this display of supernatural power,
Min-Rang-He
happily agreed to donate the whole mountain to the monk.
He
ordered to the construction of a Mahāvihāra, and lets his son renounce the
lay life to follow Buddhism, with the religious name of Dāo-Míng (道明).
Later, Min-Rang-He also joined the monastic life, becoming a Buddhist
monk. Therefore, Kṣitigarbha
picture/statue sometimes appears with Dāo-Míng and Min-Rang-He on his left
and right, respectively.
From then on, Jiu-Hua Mountain became a Buddhist studies
centre, where many Buddhist scholars came from different countries,
especially, with a number of Buddhist monks came from Shīn-La (Korea).
Even the later king of Shīn-La kingdom also supported and offered for
construction Jiu-Hua Mountain Buddhist studies centre larger,
date-by-date.
On the 30th of the Seventh month in the year 729,
Mahāthera Jīn-Qiao-Jué asked his disciples to assemble, preached his last
words to his followers, then while in a meditative repose, the incarnation
of Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva passed away at the age of ninety-nine.
After
Jīn-Qiao-Jué
passed away, his followers started building a stūpa to worship him.
In the above story, it mentions that Jiu Hua Mountain was the
place where the appearance of the sign connected to Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva occurred; it
became the sacred site of Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva.
In Chinese thought, there are four great sacred mountains in China, with
each of them being attached to one great Bodhisattva, such as Pu-Duo
Mountain (普陀山)
with Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, Wu-Tai Mountain (五台山)
connected to Mañjusri Bodhisattva, Er-Mei Mountain (峨嵋山)
was the place of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, and Jiu-Hua Mountain (九華山)
the place of embodiment of Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva.
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, there are four profound great
vows (四弘誓願),
which each of the Buddhist (Bodhisattva) have to practice in order to gain
Supreme Enlightenment. What are these four?
眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成
(I
vow to perform universal salvation of countless living beings,
I vow to break off the boundless of afflictions,
I vow to study the immeasurable of Buddha’s teachings,
I vow to achieve the supreme of Buddhahood.)
Among the countless Bodhisattvas in the universe, Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva is the one who practices completely those four great vows. In
Chinese Buddhism, there are four great Bodhisattvas, with Kṣitigarbha being an extremely popular
Bodhisattva. His popularity is second only to Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva
as he takes upon himself the fearful and difficult task of bringing relief
and consolation to the suffering beings. The great compassion of Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva was manifested by his profound great vow to uproot misery from
the word and impart peace of mind to all sentient beings. He has
innumerable and inconceivably great merits, and he has appeared again and
again, during innumerable kalpas, in evil worlds stained by the five
defilements, in worlds without a living Buddha, in order to convert all
sentient beings.
Out of respect for the Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva’s conduct, we can see that, in China, there are four great
sacred mountains, with each of them attached with one great Bodhisattva.
Jiu-Hua Mountain (九華山)
is the one that is the place of embodiment of Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva. This fact shows to us that in Chinese thought, Kṣitigarbha
Bodhisattva has played an
extremely popular
role
and holds a high place
in Chinese Buddhism.
Delhi University, on the 2627th Buddha Jayanti
GIAC HANH – LE BICH SON
* May I take this chance to
express my warm thanks to Dharma brother
Shi Jīng Hūi (釋靜慧),
who living in Lung-Hua Monastery, Shanghai, for his helps to me during my
time at Jiu-Hua Mountain and Shanghai to collected material for this
article. My thanking are also due to Ms. Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm, Newscaster
of HTV9 Vietnam, for providing a lot of useful journalistically
information regarding this contribution; And, Ms. Vương Li Na, who I also
receive helps in field of modern Chinese, in time of needed.
[1]
明
暘
法
師,
佛
法
概
要,
浩
鼎
印
刷
有
限
公
司，台
鸞
(Taiwan)，中
華
民
國
八十九年
(2000), p.339-342.
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Update : 01-06-2003
