Eminent Nuns: Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China

Beata Grant

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2009

Eminent Nuns

Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China

Beata Grant

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824862350

Overview
Contents

About this book

The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Scholars have noted the profound effect on, and literary responses to, the fall of the Ming on the male literati elite. Also of great interest is the remarkable emergence beginning in the late Ming of educated women as readers and, more importantly, writers. Only recently beginning to be explored, however, are such seventeenth-century religious phenomena as "the reinvention" of Chan Buddhism—a concerted effort to revive what were believed to be the traditional teachings, texts, and practices of "classical" Chan. And, until now, the role played by women in these religious developments has hardly been noted at all.

Eminent Nuns is an innovative interdisciplinary work that brings together several of these important seventeenth-century trends. Although Buddhist nuns have been a continuous presence in Chinese culture since early medieval times and the subject of numerous scholarly studies, this book is one of the first not only to provide a detailed view of their activities at one particular moment in time, but also to be based largely on the writings and self-representations of Buddhist nuns themselves. This perspective is made possible by the preservation of collections of "discourse records" (yulu) of seven officially designated female Chan masters in a seventeenth-century printing of the Chinese Buddhist Canon rarely used in English-language scholarship. The collections contain records of religious sermons and exchanges, letters, prose pieces, and poems, as well as biographical and autobiographical accounts of various kinds. Supplemental sources by Chan monks and male literati from the same region and period make a detailed re-creation of the lives of these eminent nuns possible.

Beata Grant brings to her study background in Chinese literature, Chinese Buddhism, and Chinese women’s studies. She is able to place the seven women, all of whom were active in Jiangnan, in their historical, religious, and cultural contexts, while allowing them, through her skillful translations, to speak in their own voices. Together these women offer an important, but until now virtually unexplored, perspective on seventeenth-century China, the history of female monasticism in China, and the contributionof Buddhist nuns to the history of Chinese women’s writing.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
A Brief Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Chapter one. Setting the Stage Seventeenth-Century Texts and Contexts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter two. Images of Nuns in the Writings of Seventeenth-Century Monks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Chapter three. The Making of a Woman Chan Master Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
Chapter four. Qiyuan Xinggang as Abbess, Dharma Teacher, and Religious Exemplar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
Chapter five. Passing on the Lamp: The Dharma Successors of Qiyuan Xinggang Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Chapter six. From Hengzhou to Hangzhou: Jizong Xingche Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
Chapter seven. From Wise Mother to Chan Master: Baochi Jizong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
Chapter eight. Reviving the Worlds of Literary Chan: Zukui Jifu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
Chapter nine. From Beijing to Jiangnan: Ziyong Chengru Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
A Brief Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 256
Illustrations
- Other: 2 illus.

eBook

Published: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 9780824862350