This thesis is a study of ‘Further Biographies of Nuns’ compiled by Master Zhenhua1 in the 1940s. There exists only one more biography of Chinese Buddhist nuns in addition to ‘Further Biographies of Nuns,’ the ‘Biography of Buddhist Nuns’ compiled by Master Baochang, making Zhenhua’s compilation all but unique. Furthermore, there has been very little research on this topic by scholars, both Chinese and Western. This work has never been translated into a Western language before, which make this a good opportunity to make a contribution. Zhenhua’s compilation of ‘Further Biographies of Nuns’ presents two hundred Buddhist nuns from the Liang Dynasty to the Republic of China, covering a period of over a thousand years. The biographies I have translated are a sample of twelve biographies, initially chosen to represent different dynasties. Therefore, I have selected three biographies from the Tang Dynasty, two from the Song Dynasty, two from the Yuan Dynasty, one from the Ming Dynasty, and four from the Qing Dynasty. Secondly, the biographies chosen do not have many poetic verses, which would make the biographies more difficult to render in English. The biographies were also chosen to represent nuns from different Buddhist schools: the Pure Land, Chan and Huayan Schools. Finally, the texts were chosen as to be neither too long nor too short, giving a feel for the average length of a nun’s biography. Translating the verses, which occur in some of the biographies, has been a particularly demanding task both because poetic phrases are difficult to render in English and because it is difficult to understand the meaning of the verses. Nonetheless, it has been an enjoyable task because the subject has been a great interest of mine for many years now, and being able to read the biographies in the original language has made it even more inspiring. In addition, the scarcity of literature on Buddhist nuns has been a motivating force. In order to understand these biographies, it is important to have a grasp of the biographical tradition in Buddhism, both in Theravāda and Mahāyāna in general and of the development of biographical traditions in Chinese Buddhism in particular, a presentation of these traditions are provided in chapter two. As the majority of the nuns belonged to either the Pure Land or Chan schools, I have provided short introductions to these two traditions of Chinese Buddhism. Only one nun, Wuliang,4 belonged to another Buddhist school, the Huayan School. These short introductions and a presentation of Master Zhenhua, the compiler, will be found in chapter four and three respectively. The heart of this thesis is chapter five with the translations from ‘Further Biographies of Nuns,’ and in order to give the historical and cultural context for understanding the biographies, I have introduced the translations by giving information about the respective dynasty in which they lived. Subsequently, I have provided an analysis of the translated biographies.
