Shi-Baochang And Bhikshuni Biographies

Bhikshuni Biographies is the first book in the history of Chinese Buddhism which deals exclusively with Chinese women who practiced Buddhism. It has its historical value and helps us reconstruct the development of the female sangha in China. About Shi-Baochang and Bhikshuni Biographies, the past research results have been mainly concentrated on two perspectives. Firstly, it is about the philological perspective such as bibliography, version of the book etc. Secondly, it makes use of historical facts in the Bhikshuni Biographies for further study. This paper is mainly to solve the problem of Shi-Baochang's personal questions, the reasons of writing Bhikshuni Biographies, the collection and the sorting out of Bhikshuni facts in Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties. The main contents of this paper are arranged as follows:Introduction: On basis of a summary of the researches of Shi-Baochang and Bhikshuni Biographies, this section raises the main questions to be discussed in the dissertation, research designs and methodology.Chapter 1: It presents answers to several main questions for Shi-Bao chang's life. Shi-Bao chang's biography is mainly recorded in the book of Dao xuan's Continuation of Eminent Monk Biography. It describes his life before being a Buddhist bhikshu, his learning from his master-Shi-Seng you, and his writing of monk's Biographies after being a Buddhist bhikshu. Shi-Baochang's biography showed his hardworking life. But the biography has some obvious mis-recording. Therefore, this chapter conducts some researches into Shi-Baochang's Chronicle, his interpersonal relations and traveling. It holds that Shi-Baochang is an ancient bibliographer of ancient Chinese Buddhist and a writer of Buddhism biographies. He was a master in the Fields of Buddhism vinaya.Chapter 2: It discusses why Bhikshuni Biographies came into being. Each thing is brought by its objective and subjective reasons. The appearance of Bhikshuni Biographies has two reasons. One is due to the time, the other concerns Shi-Baochang personal subjective conditions. The high prosperity of Buddhism in Liang Dynasty is an important prerequisite for the emergence of Bhikshuni Biographies. But in the context of the booming development of Buddhism in Liang Dynasty, Buddhist bhikshu and bhikshuni started general degradation. In such circumstances, Shi, who was mainly concerned with the vinaya of bhikshu, determined to write the book—Bhikshuni Biographies, in order to establish a "model" for contemporary and future generations of bhikshuni. The appearance of Bhikshuni Biographies also has something to do with women's biography. Therefore, this chapter attempts to sort out the bibliographies on bhikshues in the both Jin Dynasty and Southern and Northern Dynasties as well as biographies of women before the occurrence of Bhikshuni Biographies.Chapter 3: It explores the historical sources of Bhikshuni Biographies. This chapter is divided into four sections. The first quarter mainly introduces stories from the ancient bhikshu biographies, official historical recordings, novels, reference books as well as the material from Epitaph which Bhikshuni Biographies did not include. The main purpose of this section is to collect biographies concerning Bhikshuni deeds in Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties.The second quarter is to explore the historical sources of Bhikshuni Biographies. The historical sources are mainly from the materials with his own ears and eyes, the collected documentations as well as inscriptions. Because Bhikshuni Biographies referred to Xuan Yan Ji and Ming Xiang Ji, the third and fourth quarters compare Bhikshuni Biographies to Xuan Yan Ji and Ming Xiang Ji, and compare their reasons of different description when quoting the same events, so as to probe the principles Baochang adopted in composing Buddhist historical writings. Shi-Baochang's principle is "not opulent-aimed, but factive", that is "seeking truth, seeking reality".Chapter 4: It discusses on the spreading and the impact of Bhikshuni Biographies. This chapter is organized from two perspectives, the records of Bhikshuni Biographies in Buddhist books and social books, and its impacts for later Buddhism biographies. It reveals that the occurrence of Bhikshuni Biographies promoted the bhikshuni status and related research on this matter.