Women and Gender in the Discourse Records of Seventeenth-Century Sichuanese Chan Masters Poshan Haiming and Tiebi Huiji

Abstract

This article explores the textual presence of nuns and laywomen in the official discourse records of two of the most well-known and influential seventeenth-century Chan Buddhist masters active in mid-seventeenth-century Sichuan: Tiebi Huiji (1603–68) and Poshan Haiming (1597–1666). Close readings of the poems, sermons, and occasional letters composed to or about their female monastic disciples and lay followers shed light on the range of attitudes — from condescension and ambivalence to apparently genuine concern and admiration — held by these masters regarding women's spiritual practice and aspirations. These readings also demonstrate the extent to which these masters shaped their words, within the limits of literary and religious convention, to suit the particular life circumstances and religious aspirations of each of the women to whom their texts are addressed. In other words, they appear to have taken these women's aspirations seriously and, in one case at least, even go so far as to formally name a female dharma heir. These texts also suggest that there were a small but significant number of women Chan practitioners active in Sichuan during this period, women for whom there is very little information in other sources.

Keywords:

• Tiebi Huiji
• Poshan Haiming
• women
• gender
• Sichuan

Notes

 1 See, for example, Miriam Levering, “Miao-tao and Her Teacher Dahui,” in Buddhism in the Song, edited by Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Getz, Jr., (Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999), 188–219; Miriam Levering, “Women Ch'an Masters: The Teacher Miao-tsung as Saint,” in Women Saints in World Religions, edited by Arvind Sharma (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000), 180–204; and Ding-hwa E. Hsieh, “Images of Women in Ch'an Buddhist Literature of the Sung Period,” in Gregory and Getz, 148–87.

 2 Hundreds of Mimg-Qing discourse records found nowhere else are preserved in the Jiaxing Tripitaka (Jiangxingzang) compiled and printed between 1579 and 1677. A reprint edition in forty volumes was published in 1987 by the Xinwenfeng Publishing Company in Taibei and is now available online through both the Chinese Buddhist Text Association (CBETA) and Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka Electronic Collection, Taipei Edition. In this paper, I will be using Poshan Haiming's twenty-fascicle collection, Poshan chanshi yulu (Discourse records of Chan Master Poshan) (J26, no. B177, hereafter PSYL) and Tiebi Huiji's Qingzhong Tiebe Ji Chanshi yulu (Discourse records of Qingzhong Temple Chan Master Tiebi) (J29, no. B241, hereafter TBYL).

 3 A contemporary lay biographer, scholar-official Liu Daokai 劉道開, would draw a parallel to the young Siddhartha Gotama's leaving behind his wife and son, Yasodhara and Rahula. See Liu Daokai, Poshan heshang taming 破山和尚塔銘 (Stupa inscriptions for Monk Poshan), PSYL, 100, a26–27.

 4 See James Parsons, Peasant Rebellions of the Late Ming Dynasty (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1970), 178.

 5 For a detailed biography of Qin, see Arthur Hummel, ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, 2 vols. (rpt. Taibei: Nantian shuju, 2002), vol. 1, 168–69.

 6 “Yu Shizhu ci Suzhen Qin xongjie與石砫司素真秦總戎,” PSYL, 50, c13–15.

 7 Dafangguang Fo Huayanjing 大方廣佛華嚴經 T10, no. 279, 102a–b.

 8 “Shi Xuanwei Qin Furen 示宣慰秦夫人,” TBYL, 591, a3–9.

 9 See Miriam Levering, “Lin-chi Chan and Gender: The Rhetoric of Equality and the Rhetoric of Heroism,” in Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender, edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezón (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), 137–56.

10 This method basically entailed using a single word or phrase (usually from a traditional anecdote or story of the old Chan masters) as a tool for deep meditative inquiry rather than conceptual interpretation or analysis.

11 Quoted in Miriam Levering, “Miao-tao and Her Teacher Dahui,” 203. (Translation slightly modified.)

12 There are titles of at least thirty yulu associated with late Ming and early Qing female Chan masters, most of whom were from the Jiangnan area, although unfortunately only those reprinted in the Jiaxing Tripitaka remain extant today. For a detailed studied of seven of these women, whose discourse records were fortunately preserved in the Jiaxing Tripitaka, see Beata Grant, Eminent Nuns: Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2012).

13 “Shi Luoshifuren 示羅氏夫人,” TBYL, 590, b4–c28.

14 For more on Chan women during the Song, see Hsieh 1999.

15 “Gao Tian er fu furen qing shangtang 高田二府夫人請上堂,” TBYL, 572, b22–30.

16 For a detailed discussion of this sermon, see Miriam Levering, “Lin-chi Ch'an and Gender,” 147–51.

17 TBYL, 673, b23–26.

18 Daojian道鑒, Chongqing Zhongzhou Fojiao yanjiu (A study of Buddhism in Chongqing Zhongzhou) (Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 2012), 108.

19 Daojian, Chongqing Zhongzhou fojiao yanjiu, 108.

20 This well-known verse reads: The mind is the Bodhi tree,

The body is the mirror stand.

The mirror is originally clean and pure;

Where can it be stained by dust?

See Philip P. Yampolsky, trans., The Platform Sutra: The Text of the Tun-Huang Manuscript (rpt. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012), 132.

21 Xudeng zhengtong, CBETA X84, no. 1583 511, b19–21.

22 TBYL, 598, a5–6.

23 TBYL, 614, b12–14.

24 “Ni yan song Xingshi ni gui Zhongnan 擬燕送醒世尼歸忠南,” PSYL, 82, b22–24.

25 Wudeng quanshu (The complete genealogy of the Five Lamps), X82, no. 1571, 335, a15–20. A monastic by this name also appears in the index to the Jinjiang Chandeng (Chan Lamps of Jinjiang) as having received dharma transmission from Poshan (X85, no. 1590, 112, c.14). Both of these sources give the name as Zuru Lan 足如瀾.

26 This poem is not in the Jiaxing Tripitaka version of Poshan's discourse records. It is cited in Xiong Shaohua 熊少華, Poshan chanshi pingzhuan (An analytical biography of Chan Master Poshan) (Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 2003), 219.

27 “Shi ni Foran 示尼佛然,” PSYL, 47, a6–11.

28 See Thomas Cleary and J. C. Cleary, trans., The Blue Cliff Record (Boston and London: Shambhala, 1992), 67 (the commentary to Case 10.)

29 “Shi ni Foran,” PSYL, 63, a24–26.

30 The term Poshan uses is yixianxia 衣線下 which is equivalent to jiasha袈裟 (Skt. kāṣāya).

31 “Shi ni Tianran 示尼天然,” PSYL, 63, a6–8.

32 “Shi ni Xinyuan 示尼心源,” PSYL, 73, c9–10.

33 Levering, “Lin-Chi (Rinzai) Ch'an and Gender,” 146.

34 Ibid., 146.

35 Ibid.

36 For a detailed study of the use of this terms in the writings of seventeenth-century monastics, see Beata Grant, “Da Zhangfu: The Rhetoric of Female Heroism in Seventeenth-Century Buddhist Writings,” Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in China, 10, no. 2 (2008), 177–211.

37 “Shi ni Changle示尼常樂,” PSYL, 82, b19–21.

38 “Shi ni Xingkong 示尼性空,” PSYL, 47, a12–15.

39 This story, often used as a koan, can be found in Wudeng huiyuan (Compendium of five geneaologies). See X80, no. 1565, 98, b14–20.

40 “Shi ni Jianwei jiezi 示尼見微戒子,” PSYL, 47, a24–26.

41 “Shi ni Zixing示尼自惺” PSYL, 63, a15.

42 “Shi ni Xizong guanzhu 示尼西宗關主,” PSYL, 62, c25–27.

43 Poshan's disciples were very active in reviving Buddhism on Mt. Emei.

44 “Shi ni Yihe 示尼一喝,” PSYL, 62, c28–30.

45 “Shi Yinzhen Liu furen 示印真劉夫人,” PSYL, 46, c22–26.

46 “Shi Yinle shanren 示印樂善人,” PSYL, 42, c17–19.

47 “Shi Hanzhang Zhang furen 示含章張夫人,” PSYL, 46, c27–47, a1.

48 “Shi Yinxiang Wang shanren 示印香王善人,” PSYL, 43, a5–8. As we have seen, the phrase “The Great Way is not divided into male and female” can be found in the writings of many seventeenth-century Chan monks. Interestingly, Poshan takes this a step further by questioning not only the distinction between male and female, but also the dangers of trying to define the Great Way itself. In so doing, he draws, in characteristically ecumenical fashion, on Chapter Five of the Daodejing where we find the statement: “I do not know its name, and I give it the designation of the Way (Dao). Making an effort (further) to give it a name, I call it the Great.” (吾不知其名，字之曰道，强为之名曰大).

49 “Tan Zongfu Mo furen qing kaishi覃總府牟夫人請開示,” PSYL, 27, c6–16.

50 “Wei Fahui Youpoyi jukan為發慧優婆夷舉龕,” PSYL, 91, c25–92, a2.

51 “Zhu Pozi wen 朱婆子問,” PSYL, 29, a22–25.

52 This story can be found in Xu Zhiyue lu, Xuzangjing, vol. 84, 133c–34a.

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Beata Grant

Beata Grant teaches at Washington University in St. Louis, where she is Professor of Chinese Literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and currently serves as Director of the Religious Studies Program. Her primary area of research interest is gender, religion and literature in late imperial China.