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沙彌尼律儀要略

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Text ID
KR6k0225
Date
1645–1679
Dynasty
清

Shāmíní lǜyí yàolüè 沙彌尼律儀要略

Essential Outline of the Vinaya Code for Novice Nuns by 讀體 (Dútǐ, 輯集)

About the work

A single-fascicle early-Qīng manual for the śrāmaṇerikā (novice nun) by Jiànyuè Dútǐ (讀體, 1601–1679) at Bǎohuáshān Lóngchāngsì 寶華山隆昌寺. Author signature: Huáshān Lóngchāngsì sī lǜxué shāmén Dútǐ jíjí 華山隆昌寺司律學沙門　讀體　輯集. The companion piece for novice monks is the Shāmí lǜyí yàolüè 沙彌律儀要略 of Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲祩宏 (Míng) (袾宏); Dútǐ’s Yàolüè extends the same form to the women’s saṅgha.

Prefaces

The author’s preface explains the title etymologically: “In Sanskrit śrāmaṇerikā, [Chinese] translated ‘female who ceases [evil] and is compassionate’ (xīcínǚ 息慈女) — meaning, one who ceases evil deeds and practises compassion, ceases worldly defilement and compassionately rescues sentient beings. Also called qíncènǚ 勤策女 (‘female who exerts and admonishes [herself]’), or qiújìnǚ 求寂女 (‘female who seeks tranquillity’).” The preface lays out the standard femaleordination sequence: at age 16, a girl of good character with parental consent receives the ten śrāmaṇerikā precepts (shízhī jìnjiè 十支禁戒), establishing her as a fǎtóng shāmíní 法同沙彌尼 (novice nun in dharma); thereafter she undergoes a two-year probation (二歲驗學六法) as a shìchāmónuó 式叉摩那 (Skt. śikṣamāṇā); when the period and the conduct-tests are complete, she may seek full bhikṣuṇī ordination (bǐqiūní jiè 比丘尼戒) before the èrbù sēng 二部僧 (the dualsaṅgha of monks and nuns). Dútǐ laments that “in recent years the women’ssaṅgha vinaya has lost its tradition” and frames the manual as a remedy.

Structural Division

Upper section (shàngpiān 上篇): the ten precepts treated one by one, each with the zhìè 治惡 / xíngcí 行慈 (suppress-evil / practise-compassion) gloss and the standard Sìfēnlǜ citations. Items 1–10: not killing, not stealing, sexual chastity, no false speech, no intoxicants, no flowers/perfumes/dance/music, no high beds, no eating after noon, no handling gold and silver, etc.

Lower section (xiàpiān 下篇): standard wēiyí 威儀 (deportment) protocols — the Èrshíèr lǎorén yán 二十二老人言 etc.

Abstract

The Shāmíní lǜyí yàolüè is the standard early-Qīng manual for the women’s novitiate, parallel and complementary to Yúnqī Zhūhóng’s Shāmí lǜyí yàolüè for novice monks (which Dútǐ took as model). The work was a routine novitiate text in the broad Bǎohuáshān-affiliated network of bhikṣuṇī establishments through the Qīng. Dútǐ stresses the formal 三段 structure of the women’s ordination path (shāmíní → shìchāmónuó → bǐqiūní), opposing the late-Míng laxity in which novice nuns were ordained directly without the śikṣamāṇā probation. Composition is bracketed by Dútǐ’s accession to the Bǎohuáshān seat in 1645 and his death in 1679; notBefore–notAfter are accordingly 1645–1679.

Translations and research

  • Beata Grant, Eminent Nuns: Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2009) — context for the early-Qīng renewal of bhikṣuṇī training.
  • Holmes Welch, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism (1967) — for the bhikṣuṇī ordination cycle in Republicanera China that descended from this manual.

Other points of interest

  • One of the very few Bǎohuáshān productions specifically for the women’s saṅgha; otherwise the early-Qīng Vinaya revival is dominated by malesaṅgha texts.

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