Sìfēn bǐqiūnī chāo 四分比丘尼鈔
Compendium on the Bhikṣuṇī Rules of the Sìfēnlǜ by 道宣 (Dàoxuān, 述)
About the work
A three-fascicle digest of bhikṣuṇī (nun) discipline drawn from the Sìfēnlǜ 四分律 (KR6k0001) by Dàoxuān 道宣 (道宣, 596–667), founding patriarch of the Nánshānlǜ 南山律. The work belongs to Dàoxuān’s foundational Vinaya programme alongside his three principal Sìfēnlǜ commentaries (Xíngshì chāo 行事鈔, Jiéběn shū 戒本疏, Suíjī jiémó shū 隨機羯磨疏). The bǐqiūnī chāo extracts and adapts the Sìfēn material specifically applicable to ordained women, supplemented from other Vinaya recensions where the Sìfēn coverage is incomplete. Author signature: 終南山沙門釋 道宣 述.
Prefaces
The work opens with Dàoxuān’s own xù (序), reproduced at the head of juan 1 in the Manji edition: 別解脫戒始制鹿野之初。毗尼法藏終被鶴林之後 (“the prātimokṣa was first instituted at Mṛga-dāva; the vinaya-piṭaka was concluded after the Sāla-grove”). The preface narrates the institution of the bhikṣuṇī-saṃgha through Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī’s request to the Buddha (Àidào 愛道, with five hundred Śākya women), the Buddha’s reluctant assent on the condition of the aṣṭa-gurudharma (eight points of reverence, bājìng 八敬), and the gradual decline of female monastic discipline in late-canonical times — establishing the rationale for a dedicated bhikṣuṇī compendium.
Abstract
The Bǐqiūnī chāo is the foundational Chinese Vinaya manual for nuns and the principal source for the institutional history of the female saṃgha in pre-Sòng Chinese Buddhism. Dàoxuān’s preface programmatically situates the work as a chāo (extract) using the Sìfēn as base recension and supplementing it from other Vinaya translations: 今所撰者用四分為宗。斯文不具更將諸部補闕。易簡為義 (“the present compilation takes the Sìfēn as its primary text; where its language is insufficient I supplement from the other recensions; ease and simplicity is the rule”). The work was composed during Dàoxuān’s mature period at the Zhōngnán 終南 mountain (post-626) and is referenced explicitly in his other Vinaya works; the precise date of composition is not preserved, so the bracket here is set to his ordained career on Zhōngnán. In the Sòng period it received Yǔn Kān’s structural outline (KR6k0154) and entered the standard Nánshān curriculum of bhikṣuṇī training.
Translations and research
- Heirman, Ann. Rules for Nuns according to the Dharmaguptaka-vinaya: The Discipline in Four Parts. 3 vols. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2002. Standard translation of the Sìfēn bhikṣuṇī rules.
- Heirman, Ann. “Some Remarks on the Rise of the bhikṣuṇī-saṃgha and on the Ordination Ceremony for bhikṣuṇīs according to the Dharmaguptakavinaya.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 20 (1997), 33–86.
- Wáng Yúfèi 王玉霏. Tángdài bǐqiūnī yánjiū 唐代比丘尼研究 (Tang-dynasty bhikṣuṇī studies).