 | Bodhidharma: Encyclopedia II - Bodhidharma - Biography
Bodhidharma - Biography
The major sources about Bodhidharma's life conflict with regard to his origins, the chronology of his journey to China, his death, and other details.One proposed set of birth and death dates is c. 440–528 CE; another is c. 470–543 CE.
Bodhidharma - Biographical details from the Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang 547 by Yang Xuanzhi
The earliest historical record of Bodhidharma was compiled in 547 by Yang Xuanzhi, the Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang, in which Yang identifies Bodhidharma as a Persian Central Asian (Wade-Giles: po-szu kuo hu-jen) (Broughton, 1999, p. 54, p.138).
At that time there was a monk of the Western Region named Bodhidharma, a Persian Central Asian. He traveled from the wild borderlands to China. Seeing the golden disks [on the pole on top of Yung-ning's stupa] reflecting in the sun, the rays of light illuminating the surface of the clouds, the jewel-bells on the stupa blowing in the wind, the echoes reverberating beyond the heavens, Bodhidharma sang its praises. He exclaimed: "Truly this is the work of spirits." He said: "I am 150 years old, and I have passed through numerous countries. There is virtually no country I have not visited. But even in India there is nothing comparable to the pure beauty of this monastery. Even the distant Buddha realms lack this." He chanted homage and placed his palms together in salutation for days on end.
Yongning was built in 516 and destroyed in 526, dating Bodhidharma's exultation to these years.
Bodhidharma - Biographical details from the Biography of Bodhidharma by Tanlin
Bodhidharma's disciple Tanlin identifies his master as South Indian (Broughton, 1999, p. 8).
The Dharma Master was a South Indian of the Western Region. He was the third son of a great Indian King....His ambition lay in the Mahayana path, and so he put aside his white layman's robe for the black robe of a monk....Lamenting the decline of the true teaching in the outlands, he subsequently crossed distant mountains and seas, traveling about propagating the teaching in Han and Wei.
The Biography is part of the Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices, which Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki found in 1935 by going through the Dunhuang collection of the Chinese National Library.
Bodhidharma - Biographical details from the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks 645 by Daoxuan
The entry for Bodhidharma is almost entirely drawn from the first two sections of the Long Scroll (Tanlin's Biography and the Two Entrances, traditionally attributed to Bodhidharma himself), to which Daoxuan added the following:
Caste background
Daoxuan writes that Bodhidharma's father is Brahmin. However, as a king, he is more likely to have been from the Kshatriya caste (Nair).
Age
Daoxuan takes his figure for Bodhidharma's age from the Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang.
The duration of Daoyu and Huike's service to Bodhidharma
Tanlin's original says "several" years. Daoxuan gives a figure of "four or five".
The route of Bodhidharma's journey
Tanlin's original says only that Bodhidharma "crossed distant mountains and seas" on the way to his ultimate destination, the northern Chinese kingdom of Wei. In Daoxuan's account, Bodhidharma travels to by sea to southern China and then makes his way north, eventually crossing the Yangtze River, according to legend, on a reed.
The date of Bodhidharma's journey
Daoxuan says that Bodhidharma makes landfall in the southern Chinese kingdom of Song, making his arrival in China no later than that kingdom's fall to Qi in 479.
Bodhidharma's death
Bodhidharma dies at Luo River Beach. His interment by Huike on a bank of the river, possibly in a cave, is unusual because masters of Bodhidharma's reputation typically receive elaborate funerals. According to Daoxuan's chronology, Bodhidharma must have died before 534, when the Northern Wei falls, because Huike leaves Luoyang for Ye at that point. The use of the Luo River Beach as an execution grounds suggests that Bodhidharma may have died in the mass executions at Heyin in 528. A report in Taishou shinshuu daizoukyou states that a Buddhist monk was among the victims.
Bodhidharma - Biographical details from the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall 952
The version of the Bodhidharma legend found in the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall follows Daoxuan but is distinguished by the following:
- Bodhidharma's master Prajnatara, 27th Chan Patriach
- Bodhidharma's birth name Bodhitara
- Bodhidharma makes landfall not during the Song period of southern China but in 527 during the Liang Dynasty. According to the Anthology, Bodhidharma's voyage from India to China took three years.
- Before crossing the Yangtze River en route to Wei, Bodhidharma visits the Liang court in present-day Nanjing, but leaves soon after his uncompromising doctrines end up offending Emperor Wu.
- Bodhidharma dies at the age of 150 and is buried on Mount Xiong'er to the west of Luoyang. Three years later in the Pamir Mountains, Songyun, an envoy of one of the later Wei kingdoms, encounters Bodhidharma, who is on his way back West. Bodhidharma, carrying a single sandal, predicts that Songyun's ruler has died, which is borne out upon Songyun's return. Bodhidharma's tomb is opened and only a single sandal is found inside. The nine years of meditation after his departure from the Liang court in 527 mean that Bodhidharma's death can take place no earlier than 536, but his encounter with the Wei diplomat mean that his death can take place no later than 554, three years before the fall of the last Wei kingdom.
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 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Biography", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
