| Chapter 1: | The Life and Times of Zanning |
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The Shixi jigu lue biography disagrees with the Xiaochu ji preface on the year that Zanning’s offering of the relics took place, claiming a special trip was made to Mingzhou to retrieve the relics in the year following Prince Zhongyi’s abdication (i.e., 979).
In any case, the act symbolically suggests a transfer of the Wuyue Aśokan model of Buddhist kingship to the Song court. In assessing Taizong’s motives, however, it is fair to say the Song emperor was interested in Buddhism, but for markedly different reasons than Wuyue rulers had been. Taizong had no illusions about creating a state validated by Buddhist principles. Rather, he was interested in appeasing Buddhist interests in an attempt to minimize factionalism at the Song court.50
The later section of the Xiaochu ji preface is devoted to Zanning’s career serving Song emperors at the court. Hearing of Zanning’s fame, Taizong invited him to an audience at the palace, in the Hall of Abundant Blessings (Zifu dian 滋福殿). Impressed after their lengthy conversations, the emperor granted Zanning the marks of high rank, a purple robe and the honorific title “Comprehensive Wisdom” (tonghui 通慧). The content of their conversation is revealed elsewhere by Zanning concerning the dimensions of the famous stone-bridge situated over a water fall at the Fangguang Monastery 放光寺 on Mt. Tiantai. In addition, they allegedly spoke of the legendary five-hundred Arhats of the same temple, and the content of Xuanzang’s Xiyu ji 西域記 (Record of the Western Regions).51 As a result, Zanning enjoyed a high reputation among leaders in the Song bureaucracy, including the former minister Lu Zhuyai 盧朱崖 and the Manager of Affairs, Li Mu 李穆.52 The admiration that Zanning won from the Confucian-trained bureaucracy was hard earned. Buddhist sources record the derision with which Zanning’s appointment to the prestigious Han-lin Academy, an extremely rare honor for a Buddhist, was greeted by some associates.53 The pinnacle of Zanning’s scholarly career was reached with his inclusion in the “Society of Nine Elders,” an association led by the prominent historian Li Fang 李昉,54 a revival of the Tang association of the same name headed by Bai (or Bo) Juyi 白居易,