Abstract
The Biography of Faxian: On the Practice and Spread of Chinese Buddhist Precepts during the Jin and Song Dynasties (Fourth–Fifth Century CE)
Highlights
In the first half of the fourth century, the religious custom of adopting out young children to Buddhist monasteries can be seen in northern China
In 399 CE, Faxian set out for India and other places in South Asia in search of Vinaya. He went out shortly after receiving full ordination, which was around the age of twenty, at the prime of his life. He already left for Xin Monastery in Jingzhou before translation of Wufen lü was completed in Jiankang in 423 CE
Faxian bemoaned that the precepts were incomplete, and set out from Chang’an to seek the precepts
Summary
Many of the arguments concerning the life of Faxian in the present paper are of a speculative nature. In the early 420s, when Faxian was in his forties, he left the capital of Liu Song, Jiankang, and went up north to Xin Monastery in Jingzhou The reasons for this move were, firstly, to avoid the debate among the Buddhist circle in Jiankang on squatting to eat, which was caused by the Mohe sengqi lü, a text which he brought back and helped translate. Faxian lived in Xin Monastery later in his life He was an important founding force in the exchanges between precepts in the north and south, that is, the Mohe sengqi lü, popular during the early-mid period of the Northern dynasties, and Shisong lü, popular during the Southern dynasties
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