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比丘尼受戒錄

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Text ID
KR6k0236
Date
1660–1686
Dynasty
清

Bǐqiūní shòujiè lù 比丘尼受戒錄

A Record of Bhikṣuṇī Ordinations by 弘贊 (Hóngzàn, 述)

About the work

A single-fascicle early-Qīng companion to KR6k0235, also by Hóngzàn (弘贊, 1612–1686), surveying the canonical and postcanonical history of bhikṣuṇī ordinations in China. Author signature: Guǎngzhōu Nánhǎi Bǎoxiànglín shāmén Hóngzàn Zàishēn shù 廣州南海寶象林沙門　弘贊在犙　述.

Structural Division

The narrative parallels that of the bhikṣu record (KR6k0235) but tracks the distinctive issues for women’s ordination:

  1. The canonical bājìng fǎ and the dualsaṅgha rule: women must be ordained twice, first by ten bhikṣuṇīs, then by ten bhikṣus; and women’s ordination has no canonical “borderlands” relaxation.
  2. The early Chinese problem: when the five-monk Zhī Fǎlǐng mission first administered ordinations in Cháng’ān in the late Hàn, bhikṣuṇī-candidates came forward seeking upasampadā, but the five monks declared: “the Vinaya allows the borderlands five-monk upasampadā only for bhikṣus, not for nuns.” The sisters “withdrew weeping like rain” (辭退而還。泣淚如雨).
  3. The Cáo-Wèi 3rdyear resolution: with Dharmakāla 曇摩迦羅 (Tánmójiāluó) in Lǎoyáng, the proper Sìfēnlǜ ten-monk procedure became available, and for the first time the women’s upasampadā could be canonically administered.
  4. The 4thcentury Sri Lankan transmission: ten bhikṣuṇīs arrived from Sinhala in 433 CE, completing the canonical èrbù sēng (dualsaṅgha) rule for the first time on Chinese soil. The story of Ratana 鐵薩羅 and the Jiànjiàngsì 建康寺 ordination of Sēngguǒ 僧果 et al. constitutes the proper foundation of the bhikṣuṇī-saṅgha in China.

Abstract

The Bǐqiūní shòujiè lù is the single most important early-Qīng historical statement on the foundation of the Chinese bhikṣuṇī-saṅgha. Together with KR6k0235 it constitutes Hóngzàn’s diptych on Chinese ordination history. Composition is bracketed by Hóngzàn’s Bǎoxiànglín tenure and his death; notBefore–notAfter are 1660–1686.

Translations and research

  • For the Sinhala dualsaṅgha transmission of 433 CE: Bhikkhu Anālayo, “The Establishment of the Bhikṣuṇī Order” (various studies); and the monographic discussions in Sēngguǒ and the Jiànjiàngsì circles.
  • John Kieschnick, The Eminent Monk (Univ. of Hawaii Press, 1997) — for the broader hagiographic context.

Other points of interest

  • The narrative’s most striking moment is the withdrawal “weeping like rain” of the wouldbe Chinese nuns at the late-Hàn five-monk encounter — a passage that became a touchstone for early-Qīng women’s-Buddhist self-understanding.

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