本文是筆者〈兩宋社會菁英家庭婦女佛教信仰之再思考〉一文之第二部份。文中討論74 位婦女之佛教信仰與實踐，集中於南北宋之際及南宋菁英家庭婦女之佛教信仰活動。於伊沛霞〈虔信之妻〉所討論之6 位婦女外，另外補以68 位北宋以後婦女之佛教生活之討論，再確證婦女佛教修行方式多樣性的觀點。在顯示兩段時期婦女修行佛教之類似性與持續性之同時，本文並說明因政治、經濟環境之變遷所造成修行上之不同與改變。筆者之討論，證明某些修行活動之普及化與佛教中心之南移同步發生。這些修行上之改變，可用本文上篇所根據之五波羅蜜的分析架構來證明。本文對74 位婦女不同修行活動的分 析結果，得以下比例：布施16%，持戒22%，精進90%，禪定13%，智慧20%。雖然這種比例或未必能完全代表實際情況，但可以進一步證明中、上階層婦女的佛教信仰與修行在層次上的不同，也可確證筆者上篇之觀點：不論她們生長在儒家家庭或「佛教家庭」，婦女在修行佛教上的多重選擇，是因她們在扮演女兒及妻子應盡之角色同時，也享有相當程度之宗教自主權之故。 This is the second part of my article on women's piety towards Buddhism in Song times. In this portion of my article, I discuss seventy-four cases of women’s worship and practice of Buddhism, focusing on the religious activities of the elitefamily women who lived during the Northern-and-Southern Song transition, when the Northern Song capital, Kaifeng, was laid siege by the Jurchens, and during the Southern Song period. This discussion, which adds sixty-eight cases to the six cases discussed in the “Pious Wives” section of Ebrey’s book, is offered to further support my argument for the existence of diverse practices of Buddhism among Song women. While showing the similarities and continuities that exist between the practices found in the two time periods demarcated by the shift of the political and economic center from the north to the south, I also note the changes that occurred. My discussion proves that the growing popularity of certain Buddhist practices occurred hand-in-hand with the shift of the Buddhist center from the north to the south. These continuities and subsequent changes of practices can be also be shown by using the same analytical schema I used in the first part of this article: The five paramitas. The results of my analysis show that of the seventy-four women concerned, 16% were involved in bushi (giving; dāna), 22% in chijie, (morality; ?īla), 90% in jingjin (vigor; vīrya), 13% in chanding (meditation; dhyāna), and 20% demonstrated zhihui (wisdom; prajñā). While the results do not fully illustrate the range of devotion, this characterization of women’s piety towards and practices of Buddhism suggests the existence of different levels of religious piety demonstrated by the middle- and upper-class women. This reaffirms my earlier argument that the variegated colors of women’s heterogeneous practices of Buddhism are due largely to the significant amount of religious autonomy that Song women were able to enjoy while fulfilling their roles as daughters and wives in Confucian, or Buddhist families.
