Women and Gender in the Discourse Records of Seventeenth-Century Sichuanese Chan Masters Poshan Haiming and Tiebi Huiji.

This article explores the textual presence of nuns and laywomen in the official discourse records of two of the most well-known and influential seventeenth-century Chan Buddhist masters active in mid-seventeenth-century Sichuan: Tiebi Huiji (1603-68) and Poshan Haiming (1597-1666). Close readings of the poems, sermons, and occasional letters composed to or about their female monastic disciples and lay followers shed light on the range of attitudes - from condescension and ambivalence to apparently genuine concern and admiration - held by these masters regarding women's spiritual practice and aspirations. These readings also demonstrate the extent to which these masters shaped their words, within the limits of literary and religious convention, to suit the particular life circumstances and religious aspirations of each of the women to whom their texts are addressed. In other words, they appear to have taken these women's aspirations seriously and, in one case at least, even go so far as to formally name a female dharma heir. These texts also suggest that there were a small but significant number of women Chan practitioners active in Sichuan during this period, women for whom there is very little information in other sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]