The Story of Bhikṣuṇī Huiyao
The Story of Bhikṣuṇī Huiyao
from the Ḍākinīs' Great Dharma Treasury
The story of Bhikṣuṇī Huiyao (慧耀) is the first account of a Chinese nun performing self-immolation and leaving behind relics. She lived during the fifth century[1] and was ordained as a bhikṣuṇī at a Yong Kang[2] Nunnery in what is now Sichuan Province.[3] Her family name was Zhou,[4] and they hailed from Xiping.[5]
From the time she was young, she felt strong renunciation, had ardent devotion to the Three Jewels, and was assiduous in her practice of the holy Dharma. All the time, she aspired to be able to offer her own body to the Three Jewels, vowing again and again to do so.
One day, she began preparing to immolate herself, and someone reported it to the head of the local government.[6] The head of the government did not believe it and said that anyone who did not want to live could go ahead and die.
When the story reached a local noblewoman named Madame Wang (王), she felt inspired and sent a message offering Bhikṣuṇī Huiyao money to construct a stupa. She also offered to sponsor, with her family, the immolation on the night of the twelfth month's full moon.[7] Bhikṣuṇī Huiyao agreed.
However, when the governor heard the gossip and realized it was true, he was afraid of being punished by the higher authorities. He, therefore, sent a message to the nunnery,[8] declaring that if Bhikṣuṇī Huiyao committed suicide there, the nunnery would be severely punished. Because of this, she had no choice but to pull out of her plan for public immolation.[9]
One day in 477, on some open ground at her nunnery, she wrapped herself in wool blankets and privately lit herself on fire. When the flames reached her face, she called out to her fellow nuns, “Take care of my remains. Keep them in a measuring cup or a silver vase, whatever you have.” Then she passed away.[10]
It so happens that just two months before her death, a beautiful, unfamiliar young boy had appeared to her and said, "Auntie, this is for you," and offered her a silver vase. He then disappeared. All of her ashes and remains, which had turned into relics, filled the silver vase exactly to its brim. Everyone who saw this was amazed and inspired with faith.[11]
This was translated from Chinese sources into Tibetan by Khenmo Dawa Drolma.
| Translated by Joseph McClellan, 2025.
Bibliography
Benn, James A. Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007.
Mkhan mo zla ba sgrol ma, trans. “dge slong ma he ya.” (2017). In mkhaʼ ʼgroʼi chos mdzod chen mo (Par gzhi dang poʼi par thengs dang po, Vol. 8, pp. 309–310). Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang. BDRC MW3CN2459_990B84
Tsai, Kathryn Ann, trans. Lives of the Nuns: Biographies of Chinese Buddhist Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1994.
Version: 1.0-20250508
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The source text gives the confusing dynastic period of lhor thang rgyal rabs kyis skabs su, which would seem to be the "Southern Tang Dynasty" of 937–975. Alternatively, it might be read as "in the south, during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) However, in a passage below, the year 477 is given as the year of her death, which would have been the period of fragmentation known as the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386–589). Within that period, the most likely match would seem to be the Liu Song Dynasty (劉宋 420–479), whose borders extended at least close to contemporary Sichuan, where she is said to have lived. Benn (43, 204) and Tsai (65) clarify the period as the t'ai-shih or Taishi (泰始) reign (465–471), which is part of the Liu Song. ↩
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yong khang. Possibly Ch. 永康, translated as "Eternal Quietude Convent" (Tsai, 65). ↩
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In the versions presented by Benn (204) and Tsai (65), the more precise location is Shu (蜀) in Sichuan—a place upriver from the capital, Chengdu. ↩
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Tib. kros; Ch. 周. ↩
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shes phen; Ch. 西平县 (Benn, 204; Tsai, 65), presumably in Henan Province. ↩
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Tsai (65) and Benn (43, 204) give the governor's name as Liu Liang (d. 472). ↩
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zla ba bcu gnyis pa'i gnam gang gyi mtshan mo. In Tsai and Benn's versions, the date is "the full-moon night of the fifteenth day of the first month [of the day of the Lantern Festival]" (Tsai, 65; Benn, 43, 204). ↩
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In the opening lines, the nunnery is spelled yong khang. Here, inexplicably, it is spelled yong an. ↩
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Tsai's version recounts the preceding events as follows:
[Hui-yao] spoke about her intention to the governor, Liu Liang (d. 472),who at first gave permission. Hui-yao asked to be able to carry out her self- immolation on the top of the tile pagoda that belonged to Madame Wang, a concubine of a certain Chao Ch'u-ssu. Madame Wang gave her approval, and on the full-moon night of the fifteenth day of the first month [the day of the Lantern Festival], Hui-yao, carrying cloth and oil, led her disciples to the pagoda. They had not finished the preparations, however, when Liu Liang sent a letter addressed to the nuns saying, “If Hui-yao succeeds in her intention to burn herself up as an offering, then Eternal Quietude Convent will incur a grave offence. Hui-yao had no choice but to stop her preparations.
Cf. Benn, 43. ↩
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Tsai's version includes significant additions to the story:
Madame Wang, very angry, said, “That nun, wanting fame and profit, deceitfully indulged in unusual behavior, bribing her cronies to do a thing like this. If that were not the case, how could someone in the city, at midnight no less, know anything about it?”
Hui-yao [responded to the charge], “Madame, do not engage in such confused thought. Abandoning my body is my concern. How could others know?” Thereupon she returned to the convent, where she gave up eating cereals, consuming instead fragrant oils [as described in the chapter on the Medicine King bodhisattva in the Flower of the Law], until the first year of the sheng-ming reign period (477), when she offered her body by fire at the convent. Even when the flames had reached as high as her face, she continued to chant scriptures without ceasing. (65)
Cf. Benn (43, 204). ↩
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Tsai's version offers a more complete story:
A month and some days before her self-immolation, there appeared in the region a foreign monk, about twenty years old, who, although of most proper appearance, had extremely fine, soft, black hair growing on his shoulders to the length of six or seven inches. When people asked about the strange phenomenon, he answered, through an interpreter, “Because I have never covered my shoulders hair has grown there.”
He said to Hui-yao, “I live in Varanasi [that is, central India] but have been here quite a few days. I heard that you intend to abandon your body. Therefore I want to give you a silver jug.” Hui-yao received it with the utmost respect, but, before she could find out more about him, the foreign monk departed in a great hurry. She sent people to follow and bring him back, but he had already gone out the city gate and disappeared. The silver jug was used to hold the sharīra [the pearl-like relics of sanctity], recovered from Hui-yao's bones. The relics came to not quite a fifth of a pint. (66)
Cf. Benn, 43–44, 204. ↩
