44
HOLMES WELCH
from those who knew them best. The leading exponent of the Lotus Sutra might be living in Kiangsu, the leading exponent of the Surangama Sutra in Manchuria, and so on. One went around the country to the famous monasteries, studying at the feet of the famous masters. One's possessions were all in a bag that theoretically weighed only two and a half catties: bowl, robes, and, most important of all, the ordination certificate—so important that one monk I know keeps his in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. The ordination certificate was like a Diners' Club credit card. At any big public monastery anywhere in China, the travelling monk had merely to show it to the head of the Guest Department and, if it was in order, he had to be admitted and he could live there as long as he liked unless he violated a rule for which the penalty was expulsion. Under certain conditions it was not necessary to show his ordination certificate to gain admission. That could wait until he applied for a place in the monastic organisation.
During his first weeks in a monastery the travelling monk lived in the yün-shui t'ang or “cloud-water hall” (monks were thought to be as unattached as drifting clouds or running water). Then when the next semester2 began, he would enroll in the Meditation Hall, or the Hall for Reciting Buddha's Name, or some other part of the organisation. In general he ascended by one or both of two ladders, the ladder of religious positions or the ladder of administrative positions. In the Meditation Hall, for example, he might first be an acolyte, then record the sayings of Instructors, then handle the liturgical instruments, and finally become the wei-no or head of the Hall. Though I call him “head,” his position was in fact inferior to the Four Instructors Ssu-ta pan-shou, who, in rotation, taught the monks how to meditate. On the administrative side he might begin as a serving monk. (The famous Hsü-yun spent four years as a water-carrier, as a gardener, and waiting on table). Step by step he could rise to be a chief of a department, perhaps of the abbot's personal office, or later of the Guest Department or the Treasury. There was a theoretical total of forty-eight positions and in a big monastery like Chin Shan they were all filled.
2 The year was divided into two main periods beginning on the 16th of the first moon and the 16th of the seventh moon,