 | |
| Title | Chán master |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 1043 |
| Died | 1118 (aged 75) |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| Denomination | Chán/Zen |
| School | Caodong/Sōtō |
| Senior posting | |
| Teacher | Touzi Yiqing |
| Predecessor | Touzi Yiqing |
| Successor | Danxia Zichun |
Furong Daokai (1043-1118) (Chinese:芙蓉道楷;Japanese:Fuyō Dōkai; Korean:Puyong Togae; Vietnamese:Phù Dung Đạo Khải), was aZenBuddhist monk during theSong Dynasty. He was born in a city known at the time as Yizhou, which is the present-day city ofLinyi in the southern part ofShandong Province.[1] Along with his fellow studentDahong Baoen, Daokai is considered to have returned theCaodong/Sōtō Zen lineage to prominence after its near extinction a generation earlier. He was so prominent, in fact, that an extensive biography appeared in theXudeng lu, a compendium of biographies of prominent monks, in 1101, before he had even reached the height of his career, which was quite unusual for such biographies. The earliest full account of his life appears in Juefan Huihong's biographical compilation of 1119, theChanlin sengbao zhuan (Chronicle of the Sangha Treasure in the Groves of Chan). This source speaks very highly of Daokai, despite the fact that its author was a member of the competingRinzai school. According to his funerary inscription of 1127, he ordained 93 students during his life, and many of these went on to become prominent teachers themselves.[2]
According to theChanlin sengbao zhuan (Chronicle of the Sangha Treasure in the Groves of Chan) of 1119, Daokai's first spiritual practices were centered onDaoism, specifically those aimed at achievingimmortality. To this end, he did not eat grain and went to live in the mountains as a hermit. Eventually, he gave this up and began practicing Zen at Shutai Temple outside the old capital city ofKaifeng, in modernHenan Province. He later became a student ofTouzi Yiqing and receiveddharma transmission from him. He left Touzi in 1082 and took a position at a public monastery, but was later assigned to the well-knownWhite Horse Temple andLongmen Temple. After this he served atDayang Jingxuan's former monastery on Mount Dayang in Yingzhou. He again moved, this time to Dahong inSuizhou around 1103. In 1104, theEmperor Huizong ordered Daokai to become the abbot of Shifang Jingyin Temple in the capital, Kaifeng. In 1107 he moved to a different temple, Tianning Wanshou, in the same city. This temple was known as a Chongning temple, which were set up by the Emperor so that its residents would pray for his long life. While Daokai did not have a choice in the matter, he later refused to accept a purple robe given to him by the emperor in protest of this system, and he was exiled as a result to Zizhou near modernJinan in his home province. Huihong's biography claims that crowds of people mourned as he left the city. The following year, however, the emperor ceased his punishment after Daokai sent a poem explaining his thoughts on the matter to an individual named Wang Songnian, who was in contact with the emperor. At this point, Daokai apparently wished to go toZhejiang to spread his teaching, but decided to stay in his hometown after finding his father in old age. A wealthy government official named Liu Fengshi patronized the construction of a small monastery for Daokai at Lake Furong near his home village. In 1117, this monastery was give a plaque by the emperor giving it the name Huayan Chan Monastery, indicating the emperor's complete change of heart regarding him by that time. In 1118 Daokai died on the fourteenth day of the fifth month.[2]
| Buddhist titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | CaodongChan/SōtōZen patriarch | Succeeded by |
