CHAPTER THREE
FAZANG’S BASIC BIOGRAPHICAL DATA: NAMES, NATIVE LAND, FAMILIAL AND DHARMA BACKGROUNDS
After reviewing biographical sources, we are in a position to attempt the fullest possible reconstruction of Fazang’s life. Right away we are faced with uncertainty. For example, recent research has failed to estab- lish with any certainty where he was born and raised (although the consensus is that his family was originally from Samarqand in Central Asia); we do not even know Fazang’s lay name (let alone the relation- ship between his different names, including Fazang, Kangzang ൈ៲, and Xianshou ᔃଈ). Although we have at our disposal some historical sources about Fazang’s family background, some touching on his father and brother, they are nonetheless scarce and inadequate. It is under- standable that scholars were excited about the discovery of a funeral epitaph that seemed to contain a substantial amount of information about Fazang’s family background, including the names of his grand- parents, parents and his five brothers, and also the dates when his par- ents and grandparents died. However, as we shall see, they may have expended energy in vain on this inscription. This chapter will try to clarify major ambiguities, or misunderstandings, centering on some of Fazang’s fundamental biographical data.
1. NAMES
In the first part of his biography of Fazang, subtitled “Zuxing yinyuan” ᒴ (“Causes and conditions of his clan and family”), Ch’oeڂගࡩ Ch’iw n supplies valuable information on Fazang’s names, native land, and family (e.g., its provenance and chief members, including his an- cestors, his grandfather, his parents, and younger brother). Some parts of this account are vague and inaccurate, and are in need of clarifica- tion. Let us first treat Fazang’s names: Shi Fazang’s name is Dharmatr ta in Sanskrit. His style-name is Xian- shou, Bhadra r in Sanskrit. The emperor bestowed [on him] a special title, Dharma Master Guoyi ഏԫ (“Number One in the Kingdom”).1 His secular name is Kang and he was originally a native of Kangju.
1 Fozu tongji (T 51: 49.451a25-26) states that Jingshan Qin உ՞ཱུ, that is, the Niutou ׄᙰ Chan master Jingshan Faqin உ՞ऄཱུ (714-92), was also conferred with the same title by Tang Daizong (r. 762-779).
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০ᔅܑᇆഏԫ .ܓᔃଈ, තߢၐॲᢅڗ ,ᢅڍऄ៲ृ, තߢሒᐰᤩ ൈࡺഏԳ.2ء ,ऄஃ. ঋࡩൈּ Ch’oe Ch’iw n makes four points. First, Fazang’s surname was Kang, which was derived from the name of his place of origin—Kangjuguo ൈ ࡺഏ (or, Kangguo ൈഏ, Samarqand). Second, his dharma-name was Fazang. We know that Ch’oe Ch’iw n has understood “Fazang” as Fazang’s dharma-name since he precedes it with “Shi” ᤩ, which stands for kya, the clan name of the Buddha, which all Buddhist monks and nuns in .b. 312/314, d) ڜEast Asia have taken as their surname since Daoan ሐ 385/389). Thus, it is almost always the case that the name after the -was Xian (ڗ character shi is a dharma-name. Third, his style-name (zi shou, which might have been given by his parents or adopted by him- self. Finally, he had a “special title” (biehao ܑᇆ), which was given to him by an unnamed emperor, who was either Zhongzong or Ruizong, but could not have been Empress Wu, considering the way in which Ch’oe Ch’iw n refers to her throughout the biography.3 In addition to these four explicit points, we can make one inference: given that his younger brother was named Baozang ᣪ៲,4 Fazang was probably also his secular name, which he continued to use as his dharma-name. Ch’oe Ch’iw n identifies the Sanskrit origins of Fazang’s name ڍFazang ऄ៲) and style name (Xianshou ᔃଈ) as Damoduoluo ሒᐰ) ᢅ and Batuoluoshili ၐॲᢅܓ. Since Damoduoluo and Batuoluo- shili can be, respectively, reconstructed as Dharmatr ta (translated as Fajiu ऄඑ or Faji ऄᛎ), and Bhadra r , I suspect that they are mistakes for Dharm kara and Bhadramukha, which were generally translated as Fazang and xianshou in Chinese. Regarding Fazang’s style-name Xian- shou, it is noteworthy that the Avata saka s tra includes a major bo- dhisattva by that name, which also names a parivarta in the s tra.5 In explaining this name, Fazang gives a rather etymological lecture: First, explaining the name. According to its Sanskrit original, xian ᔃ -壁 (auspicious), de ᐚ (virٳ wise) is called bhadra. Sr means jixiang) tue), shou ଈ (superior), or sheng (excellent). Therefore, r here does not mean shou as in the chushou ॣଈ (“beginning”), nor shou in the shangshou Ղଈ (“head”)—for all of these terms (chushou and
2 PHC 281a13-14. 3 According to Xufa, it was Zhongzong who bestowed this title on Fazang (Fajie- zong wuzu lüeji, XZJ 134: 274a12). In his biography, Ch’oe Ch’iw n uses di ০ for Gaozong, Zhongzong or Ruizong, but not for Empress Wu, for whom he reserves Heavenly Empress), Wahuang ༀ or nühuang Ֆ) ٿ֚ appellations like tianhou Empress Zetian) or simply) ٿboth “Female Emperor”), Zetian huanghou ঞ֚) ,Zetian ঞ֚ (one of Empress Wu’s self-chosen names); see PHC 281b17, 281b23 281c6, 282a14-15, 283a17, 283c22, 283c27, 284a11. 4 See below (3.1) for the information on Fazang’s only known brother. 5 Da Fangguangfo huayan jing, T 9: 6.432c-441b (Buddhabhadra’s version); Da Fangguanfo huayan jing, T 9: 14.72a-80c ( ik nanda’s version).