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Plate 16.2 (above) Anonymous, Portrait of Śākya Yeshé, Ming
dynasty. Silk embroidery, image height 76cm, width 65cm. Tibet
Museum

Plate 16.3 (right) Anonymous, Portrait of Śākya Yeshé, Ming
dynasty. Silk tapestry, image height 108.5cm, width 63cm.
Norbulingka Collection

scholarly culture in his time. He entered Miaozhian 妙智庵 Junior Preceptor of the Heir Apparent (Taizi shaoshi 太子少師).
(Marvellous Wisdom Hermitage) not far from his home at In an effort to convince the monk to return to secular life,
the age of 14, became a monk at 18, resided in various the Yongle emperor restored his family name, Yao 姚, which
monasteries over the course of his life, and became an Daoyan had given up when he left his family to enter a
eminent master of the Linji 臨濟 school of Chan 禪 monastery, granted him a new personal name with a
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Buddhism. Like other learned Buddhist monks, he was well Confucian flavour – Guangxiao 廣孝, meaning ‘to broaden
versed in Chinese classical texts, wrote poetry and prose, filial piety’ – and offered him various worldly enticements.
and associated with leading scholars and artists in monastic However, Daoyan declined to give up his religious
and secular circles. Laymen and clerics, including visiting calling, continued to dress as a monk when not at court and
Japanese monks, prevailed upon his erudition and literary lived out his life in monasteries. When Daoyan died, the
ability, soliciting encomia, prefaces, colophons and other grieving emperor gave him a monk’s funeral and a tomb
occasional writings from him. His early attainments were pagoda in Fangshan 房山 county southwest of Beijing,
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such that the eminent monk Zongle 宗泐 (1318–91) personally composed the inscription for the memorial stele
recommended him to the first Ming emperor in 1382. The at the tomb and granted him a posthumous name and noble
emperor subsequently appointed him to accompany Prince titles. In 1425, not long after the death of the Yongle
Zhu Di 朱棣 (1360–1424) to his fief in Beiping 北平 (later emperor, his son and successor further bestowed upon
Beijing), where Daoyan became abbot of Qingshousi 慶壽寺 Daoyan the title of Junior Preceptor (Shaoshi 少師, a very
(Celebrating Longevity Monastery). Also skilled in military prestigious designation distinct from the lower-ranked
strategy and divination, Daoyan became infamous for Junior Preceptor of the Heir Apparent) and recognised him
helping Zhu Di usurp the throne in 1402. The monk went on as a meritorious official of the Yongle reign deserving annual
to have a distinguished career during the Yongle 永樂 reign state offerings in the Imperial Ancestral Temple (Taimiao
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period (1403–24). Within months of ascending the throne 太廟). These secular honours are encapsulated by the
Zhu Di appointed him Left Buddhist Patriarch (Zuo shanshi inscription written in gold across the top of the Palace
左善世) in the Central Buddhist Registry (Senglu si 僧錄司), Museum portrait: ‘The true countenance of Lord Yao
which was given oversight of all the Buddhist monks and Guangxiao, imperially ennobled Duke Gongjing of the
nuns in the country, and soon thereafter promoted him to State of Rong bestowed [with the title] Junior Preceptor’

144 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450