This special feature examines the early evolution of a distinct East Asian Buddhist practice, the conferring of the bodhisattva precepts. While recent decades have seen considerable advances in studies of the canonical Buddhist monastic codes—the Vinaya—the bodhisattva precepts still await in-depth research and clarification. The lack of thorough research on the bodhisattva precepts is sorely felt; while the Vinaya were the cornerstone of monastic regulations, the bodhisattva precepts were conferred on the Buddhist laity, and as such were a central part of many ordinary Chinese people’s relationships with Buddhism. A primary aim of this feature, then, is to better understand how the bodhisattva precepts figured in the construction.
