322 charles d. orzech
Huiguo (746–806)
There is a good deal more data on Huiguo than on Huilang, in part
due to his many spiritual descendants and the prominence of Japanese
pilgrims among them. Some correspondence by Huiguo is extant in
Yuanzhao’s Biaozhi ji.^32 Kūkai’s memorial pei to his master, Huiguo
heshang bei ,^33 is extant, and a second account, the Huiguo
asheli xingzhuang by Huiguo’s lay disciple Wu Yin
, is dated to 806.^34 An anonymous “Account of Conduct,” Da
Tang Qinglongsi san chao gongfeng dade xingzhuang
( T. 2057.50:294c–296a) is dated to 826 (around the
time Huiguo’s remains were re-interred in a new stūpa).^35
Huiguo entered the Qinglong monastery at the age of
nine and was placed under the supervision of Amoghavajra’s dis-
ciple Tanzhen.^36 He later studied directly under Amoghavajra
and was first given abhiṣeka and entered the mandala in association
with Dharmacakra Bodhisattva (falun pusa ) at nineteen (T.
2057.50:294c24–25), and took full ordination at twenty (295a01).^37 At
age twenty-two he received transmission of the MVS, the Susiddhikara,
and “the methods of all the worthies of the Yoga” (zhu zun yuqie
deng fa ) from Śubhākarasim ̣ha’s disciple Hyŏnch’o
of the Baoshou monastery in 767 (295a10–11).^38 According to the
“Account of Conduct,” Amoghavajra initiated Huiguo into the STTS
cycle and personally instructed him concerning the secret mudrās of
all the Yoga deities (0295a13), though no date is given. By twenty-five
he was serving in the palace chapel.
Huiguo received substantial patronage from Daizong after Amogha-
vajra’s death in 774; in 776 the emperor established the Eastern Pagoda
(^32) There are two letters available, T. 2120.52:844b13–14, 852b22–c8, and 875b25–
c23. 33
It is found in the Henjō kongō hakki seireishū 2; KZ (1923)
3: 2.420–425. 34
Preserved in the Himitsu mandarakyō fuhōden, KZ 1: 42–45.
(^35) Huiguo is treated in Chen 2010, 114–18; and Abé 1999, 120–27 passim.
(^36) Tanzhen appears several times in the Biaozhiji, including in Amoghavajra’s will,
and in individual correspondence. See T. 2120.52:847b12–24, 854a2–15, 855b4–18.
Chen 2010, 148–52, treats Tanzhen.
(^37) There are discrepancies in the dating of some of these events in the three main
sources. For a brief discussion see Lü 1995, 294.
(^38) Here and below my locution “received the MVS” (or the STTS, etc.) indicates
initiation into the practices connected with the scripture in question. For the famous
Sillan monk Hyŏnch’o see Chen 2010, 160–61.