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The Living Buddha of Jīnshān 金山活佛 (18??-1935)
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The Living Buddha of Jīnshān (Jīnshān huófó 金山活佛) (18??[1]-1935) was a famous meditation master and ascetic who was known for his miraculous powers. He was active from the 1920s to 1935.
Biography
As a youth, Miàoshàn would sometimes visit the thatched hut of Xūyún 虛雲 on Zhōngnán shān 終南山, which was near where the former lived. At 20 suì 歲 he requested that Xūyún tonsure him, but Xūyún knew that Miàoshàn's family only had one son, and thus refused. Eventually Miàoshàn took tonsure under someone else, and was ordained on Mt. Bǎohuá 寶華山. After this, he and Xūyún traveled together to Mt. Wǔtái 五台山, where they lived together for a while before gong their separate ways.
Other than the previous paragraph (which Yú draws from statements made by Xūyún) there is no information about Miàoshàn's life prior to 1917. In that year, he arrived at Jiāngtiān Temple 江天寺 on Jīnshān 金山 to study Chán 禪.
Miàoshàn was given the name "the Living Buddha of Jīnshān" in 1919. In that year, the head of the Mongolian branch of the Gelug school, Changkya Khutukhtu 章嘉活佛, stopped in Zhènjiāng 鎮江 on his way from Běijīng 北京 to Shànghǎi 上海. He was greeted in Zhènjiāng by government officials. At the event, someone in the crowd, unimpressed by the young Mongolian, who was wearing lay clothing, said that he was not a real living Buddha, not like Miàoshàn at Jiāngtiān Temple. From this point on, Miàoshàn was known primarily by the name "the Living Buddha of Jīnshān."
"The Living Buddha of Jīnshān" was known for his asceticism and his meditational prowess. He lived in a small room off of the temple's library. There he did not have a desk or a bed, only a small square stone with a cushion upon it. He meditated night and day, seemed oblivious to heat and cold and refused even basic donations of clothing from his supporters. There are also a number of stories about the extended periods of time he spent in samādhi while at Jiāngtiān Temple, many of which were recorded by Tàicāng 太滄.
There are other stories about his miraculous powers as well. He personally cured a number of sick people, and his saliva cured people of different illnesses. He also once summoned food donations through his psychic powers 神通 when the temple did not have enough food owing to a flood in the area.
In 1928, the Living Buddha was invited to Hong Kong 香港, from there he went to Burma where he lived near the 大金塔 and begged for his food daily.
He died of heat stroke. According to the lunar calendar, this was on the 8th day of the fifth month in 1935.
Notes
- ↑ Major sources disagree on how old he was when he died. Some claim he was born in 1852, others in 1882.
References
- Yú Língbō 于凌波, ed. Xiàndài Fójiào rénwù cídiǎn 現代佛教人物辭典 (A Dictionary of Modern Buddhist Persons), 2 vols. Taipei: Foguang, 2004. Pp. 1.712a-715c.
- Zhǔyún 煮雲. Jīnshān huófó 金山活佛 (The Living Buddha of Jīnshān). Taipei: Foguang, 1959.