University of Virginia Library

The Convent: Religious Life

In the middle of the fifth century, a matter of great concern to the nuns
themselves was the proper transmission of the monastic rules. Several
of the biographies (nos. 14, 27, and 34) deal with the question of
whether the Chinese nuns were truly nuns, whether the proper ritual
had been carried out in the proper way. This question was important
because the lineage—that is, the transmission of the teaching from
master to disciple—defined where one belonged and whether one
belonged. An authentic lineage established legitimacy. The problem of
the transmission of the monastic precepts was solved to everyone's satisfaction,
but it must be pointed out that it was the foreign monks and
nuns who pressed for resolution on behalf of the Chinese nuns. Chinese
monks are conspicuously absent.

The monastic precepts were designed to serve as a guide for living
the Buddhist life of self-discipline and nonharm as well as to keep harmony
and order within the religious community. The biographer's frequent
emphasis on a woman's strict observance of the monastic precepts
suggests, however, not only that the woman was fulfilling her
monastic duties to perfection but also that she perhaps stood in contrast
to other nuns who did not live up to the monastic code. Furthermore,
the strict observance of the precepts, as described in the biographies,
looks very much as though it had become a religious ritual
in and of itself rather than merely the means to self-discipline and
harmony.

The women engaged in many cult practices, among which were
devotion to Kuan-yin in particular, a bodhisattva (Buddha to be); to
Amita Buddha who presides over the Western Paradise; to Maitreya
who is the next Buddha and presides over the Tushita Heaven; and to
Pindola, an arhat (enlightened one), who showed off his magic powers
and was required by the Buddha to remain in the world to serve as a
field of merit until the last person attains enlightenment. Worshipping,
making vows, or sincere requests to these four divine figures brought
responses that pointed out the holiness or sincerity of the petitioner. In
the Kuan-yin Scripture boons such as safety from brigands are promised
to one who chants the scripture with all her heart and mind. Hui-chan
(no. 7) is an excellent example. Faith brings response and provides
the proof of the truth of the Buddhist claims.

Amita Buddha, also called Amitāyus (infinite life) or Amitābha

(infinite light), honors the believer with supernal signs, indicating that
the woman will be reborn in the Western Paradise. Maitreya, the next
Buddha, presiding over the Tushita Heaven, welcomes to his heaven
those who hope to be reborn on earth when he himself is born there as
the Buddha. Ching-hsiu (no. 52) was a devotee of Maitreya.

Connected at times with the Maitreya cult is the cult of Pindola.
The nun prays and petitions for the presence of Pindola. If she is sufficiently
worthy, he will let his presence be known. Because Pindola is
never seen, one must listen carefully to hear him should he accept the
invitaton and come to bathe. Or if a fresh flower is placed under the
mat where Pindola is invited to sit, the flower will not be faded or
crushed. The nun Ching-hsiu (no. 52) was also a devotee of Pindola.

Another very important Chinese Buddhist practice was vegetarianism.
In the earliest days of Buddhism in India, monks and nuns ate
whatever was put into their begging bowls—be it vegetable or meat,
fresh or spoiled. They were to eat all with equanimity, so long as they
had no reason to suspect that an animal had been harmed or killed
specifically for their use. Yet, in China, vegetarianism, although it
derives logically from the first Buddhist precept of nonharm to living
creatures, received other influences, too. Beyond merely strict vegetarianism,
when we read of women giving up all cereals (nos. 25, 28, and
34) or eating any part of the pine tree (no. 25), we have crossed over
the line into Taoist practices designed to lead to immortality.[30] This is
yet more evidence found in the early Chinese Buddhist biographies,
whether of monks or of nuns, that indicates the lack of clear separation
between the practices of the two religions in the first years of Buddhism
in China.

A third type of dietary regimen is the eating of fragrant oil or
incense (no. 36), a practice connected with preparations for self-immolation
by fire. Finally, some women forgot about food altogether
(no. 47).

Another very important monastic activity was the reading, studying,
and chanting of the Buddhist scriptures and the texts of monastic
rules. Traditional Chinese reverence for the written word worked
favorably for Buddhism, which is not a laconic religion, and this attitude
focused not only on the meaning of the contents but also on the
actual materials, the written characters, and even the physical volume
embodying those contents.[31] Preservation and transmission of the

texts was very important. Monastics strove to memorize vast amounts
of scripture, their success measuring, to a certain degree, their sanctity.
Another mark of sanctity was the ability to chant these texts very
rapidly. The chanting itself may also be seen as a kind of incantation
or magic spell.

Meditation was the heart of Buddhist monastic life. The biographer
lauds many women for their ability to enter the meditative state, but,
in those biographies where a physical description of the meditating
woman is given, we find that the woman has entered a trance state of
which other Buddhists of the time disapproved.[32] The body of the
woman in a trance was like wood or stone, rigid and inflexible, and
her companions easily mistook her trance for death (no. 29). This
kind of trance points away from Buddhism and toward the Taoist
belief in a seeming death as a doorway to immortality.[33] Once again
Buddhism and Taoism are intermingled.

A nun's manner of death is as important as her way of life because
an auspicious death identifies holiness. Omens such as fragrance or
lights may appear (no. 25) The Buddha himself may come to receive
the dying woman (no. 15). The biographer in his preface singles out
for special mention those women who commit suicide by fire as having
"achieved the epitome of the ascetic life" (nos. 26 and 47). This practice,
always carried out at night so that the nun, in effect, made of herself
a lamp, finds authority in the Buddhist scripture, The Flower of
the Wonderful Law.[34] This scripture specifically and graphically
describes the practice of burning a finger, an arm, or the whole body
as an offering in honor of the Buddha, an exhortation to fervor and
zeal that was not necessarily meant to be observed literally. In China,
nevertheless, not a few monks and nuns chose to offer themselves by
fire to the Buddha.

Under the right circumstances Chinese tradition accepted suicide as
the proper thing to do. Taoists generally cherished life, seeking elixirs
of immortality, but a certain Taoist precedent could have contributed
to the state of mind that found burning oneself up for the sake of the
Buddha an acceptable practice. According to traditional accounts,
some Taoist practitioners, after years of carrying out particular rituals
and eating special diets, used fire to transform themselves into immortals,
their souls rising up to heaven on the smoke.[35]

Ambivalence about the practice of burning one's body in honor of

the Buddha is illustrated in the biography of Hui-yao (no. 36). She
sought and received permission from the governor of the province to
carry out self-immolation, but he later withdrew his approval.

The nuns carried out their suicides by fire on the nights of the
changing phases of the moon, either the half-moon on the eighth day
of the lunar month or the full moon on the fifteenth day.

Women who rise bodily up to heaven (no. 1), or who simply disappear
(no. 10), are dying in a Taoist rather than a Buddhist manner,
such deaths signifying that the person has become an immortal.[36] The
body of the nun Shih Hui-ch'iung (no. 20) remained incorrupt—a
proof, for Taoists, of immortality.[37] Buddhists in China accepted the
phenomenon of the incorrupt body as a mark of holiness, and
throughout the centuries many incorrupt bodies of holy monastics
have edified the faithful.