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Conclusions

Monasticism in China, although originally foreign, was a successful
institution for both men and women. Besides being the best place for
Chinese Buddhists to live and to practice their newly found religion, it
was also a refuge and home in a deeply troubled and perilous time.

Women themselves were also successful, living holy lives—learned
lives, lives bound to obligations of their own choice—and dying holy
deaths. Their lives and actions demonstrated the truth of the promises
in the Buddhist texts. We do not know anything about ordinary Buddhist
nuns that would allow us to compare them with our paragons.
We could derive a very similar picture of Buddhism in early medieval
China from the Kao seng chuan, probably even much more than from
the Lives because it is a much longer and detailed document. Nevertheless,
without the Lives a very important dimension would have
been missing.

Buddhism in China came at a fortunate time when it was needed to
help restore meaning to life for many who had been disillusioned and
who suffered from political and social troubles. Buddhist thought fit
in with an intellectual elite, accustomed to metaphysical talk based
especially on Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu and unaccustomed to the loss of
their homeland to nomadic barbarians. Buddhist piety attracted both
the elite and the commoner.

For women in particular, not only Buddhist thought and piety but

also the monastic institution itself was a beneficial import. The religion,
seen as not so very different from native Taoism, proved attractive
to many levels of society, and even as the differences with Taoism
became more and more apparent, Buddhism still continued to grow
ever more popular. The religion had enemies, but it had fewer during
the Northern and Southern dynasties than it had later in more settled
times when the central government could exercise greater jurisdiction
and power.

We cannot know whether Pao-ch'ang achieved his purpose of
encouraging Buddhists to greater efforts, but the text of the Lives circulated
through the south, one of the many Buddhist biographical
texts. The Lives provides us with a small but privileged view of the
early stages of Buddhist monasticism for women. The sixty-five nuns
who are the subject of this work would no doubt be surprised to find
that their lives are still edifying readers.

Table of Dynasties and Kingdoms

                       

Southern Dynasties	Northern Dynasties
Eastern Chin (317-420)	Northern Wei (386-534)
Sung (420-479)	Western Wei (535-557)	Eastern Wei (534-550)
Ch'i (479-502)	Northern Chou (557-581)	Northern Ch'i (550-577)
Liang (502-557)
Sixteen Kingdoms
Ch'eng Han (304-347)	Latter Chao (319-350)	Western Liang (400-420)
Former Liang (320-376)	Former Yen (337-370)	Northern Liang (397-439)
Former Ch'in (351-394)	Southern Yen (398-410)	Southern Liang (397-414)
Latter Ch'in (384-417)	Latter Yen (384-407)	Western Ch'in (385-431)
Latter Liang (386-403)	Northern Yen (407-436)	Hsia (407-431)
Former Chao (304-329)

Places in Biographies

                                       

An-ting	1	Kuang Province	21	Wu Commandery	36
Ch'ang-shan	2	Li-yang	22	Wu County (see Wu Commandery)	35
Chao	3	Liang Commandery	23
Ch'en Commandery	4	Lung-ch'uan County	24	Wu-hsing Commandery	37
Ch'en-liu	5	Meng Ford	25	Wu-wei Commandery	38
Chi Commandery	6	Mo-ling (see Chien-k'ang)		Yen	39
Chi Province	7	Nan-yang Commandery	26	Yen-kuan County	40
Chi-nan	8	P'an-yü (see Kuang Province)		Yen-men	41
Ch'iao Commandery	9	Pei-ti	27	Yung-shih	42
Ch'ien-t'ang	10	P'o-hai	28
Chin-lung	11	Po-p'ing	29 or 30	IMPORTANT CENTERS
Ch'ing-ho	12	Shan-yang Commandery	31	Ch'ang-an	43
Ch'ing Province	13	Shan-yin (see Kuei-chi)		Ch'eng-tu	44
Chü-jung	14	Shu Commandery (see Ch'eng-tu)	31	Chiang-ling	45
Fan County	15			Chien-k'ang	46
Ho-nei	16	Ssu Province	32	Kao-ch'ang	47
Huai-nan	17	T'ai-shan	33	Kuei-chi	48
Hung-nung	18	Tan-Yang (see Chien-k'ang)		Lo-yang	49
Kao-p'ing	19	Tseng-ch'eng	34	P'eng-ch'eng	50
Kuang-ling	20	Tung-huan	35	Tun-huang	51