Furong Daokai

Biography

According to the Chanlin sengbao zhuan (Chronicle of the Sangha Treasure in the Groves of Chan) of 1119, Daokai's first spiritual practices were centered on Daoism, specifically those aimed at achieving immortality. 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 of Kaifeng, in modern Henan Province. He later became a student of Touzi Yiqing and received dharma transmission from him. He left Touzi in 1082 and took a position at a public monastery, but was later assigned to the well-known White Horse Temple and Longmen Temple. After this he served at Dayang Jingxuan's former monastery on Mount Dayang in Yingzhou. He again moved, this time to Dahong in Suizhou around 1103. In 1104, the Emperor 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 modern Jinan 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 to Zhejiang 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.