Wu-lung
Wu-lung
烏竜 (n.d.) (PY Wulong; Jpn Oryo)
A skilled calligrapher mentioned in Chinese Buddhist texts. His son I-lung was also an outstanding calligrapher. According to The Lotus Sutra and Its Traditions, an eighth-century work by the Chinese priest Seng-hsiang, Wu-lung lived in Ping-chou in northern China and was a believer in Taoism. He hated Buddhism and refused to transcribe Buddhist texts. On his deathbed, he enjoined his son never to transcribe any Buddhist scriptures, especially the Lotus Sutra. After his death, according to this work, Wu-lung fell into the hell of incessant suffering. Unaware of this, I-lung, in obedience to his father's will, vowed not to transcribe any of the Buddhist scriptures. At the command of the lord of Ping-chou, however, much against his will, he transcribed only the sixty-four Chinese characters that constitute the titles of the eight volumes of the Lotus Sutra, though he refused to copy the entire sutra. In a dream he had that night, the sixty-four characters turned into sixty-four Buddhas and saved his father, Wu-lung, from the agonies of hell.
