Four Chinese Buddhist Nuns’ Gender Anxiety in Their Colophons to the <i>Da banniepan jing</i> 大般涅槃經

Abstract

Many scholars of Buddhism believe that Buddhists (particularly Mahāyāna Buddhists) regularly reproduce scriptures for merit in general, regardless of their content. However, by examining four Chinese Buddhist nuns’ colophons in manuscripts of the Da banniepan jing 大般涅槃經 (Scripture on the Great Extinction; Skt. Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra) (T no. 374) from around the sixth century with reference to its content, I argue that this scripture is significantly related to gender transformation and “female filth”. In this way, I suggest that these nuns could have deliberately commissioned this particular scripture due to their gender-based concerns. This study deepens our understanding of the reception of this scripture by Chinese Buddhist nuns by concentrating on the notion of gender, and it indicates that some nuns did not commission scriptures simply for merit without awareness of the scriptures’ content. This method of reading Buddhist texts as objects put into practice provides insight into the intellectual background of medieval Chinese Buddhist nuns, showing how they drew on their knowledge of Buddhist texts and financial resources to commission a specific scripture in order to negotiate more spiritual space.

Keywords

• Chinese Buddhist nuns
• manuscript colophons
• the <i>Da banniepan jing</i> 大般涅槃經 (Scripture on the Great Extinction)
• gender transformation
• attaining buddhahood
• “female filth”