Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T18:04:42.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The quasi-genderless heresy: The Dhūtaists and Master Jizhao

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2004

VALENTINA BORETTI
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies

Abstract

This paper looks at the professional alternatives that Buddhism offered to women by analysing the important role played by a female master in the as yet little studied Dhūta movement, a form of ‘heretical’ Chan Buddhism that flourished during the final years of the Jin dynasty and afterwards in the Yuan dynasty. By examining the descriptions of female master Jizhao and male master Puguang, as seen in epitaphs composed by officers-literati and preserved in a Bejing gazetteer dating back to the mid-fourteenth century, this paper aims to highlight some features of the Dhūtaists' discourse of femininity and also to point out the differences vis-à-vis orthodox Chan constructs, in order finally to evaluate whether such a discourse could have an influence on the general definitions and content of gender roles.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)