Mainly based on information collected in Sichuan during the last two decades, the present study focuses on Ven. Longlian 隆蓮 (1909-2006), the so-called "first bhikṣuṇī of the modern China". A cursory glance at her biography suggests many of the multifaceted qualities of this eminent Buddhist nun-master. Longlian was a child prodigy, and later became a renowned Buddhist scholar, a skillful calligrapher and atalented poet. Before taking her monastic vows, she was the first woman ever to pass the civil service examinations and to work for the Sichuan provincial government. At the same time, she studied with some of the most important Buddhist masters and scholars of the modern era. Since the early 1950s, she was the first woman to play an active role at the leadership level in the Buddhist Association of China; she was also President and Honorary President of the Buddhist Association of Sichuan, and a member of the National and Sichuanese Councils of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. However, from her own perspective, her main achievements are to be found in the re-establishment of the "correct" procedures for bhikṣuṇī ordination (the so-called erbuseng jie 二部僧戒 or "dual ordination") and in the foundation of a seminary for the training of a new generation of learned nuns.