Diverse Forms of Early Kucha Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya and Its Influence on the Transmission to China: Focusing on Prefaces to Chinese Vinaya Texts Before the Comprehensive Vinayas

This article examines two key texts preserved in the Chu Sanzang Jiji: the Biqiuni jieben suochu benmo xu and the Guanzhong Jinchu Ni Erzhong Tanwen Xiazuo Za Shi’er Shi Bing Zashi Gongjuan Qian Zhong Hou San Ji. This study offers a fresh collation and interpretation of these prefaces and compares them with extant comprehensive Vinaya texts. It demonstrates that early Kucha Buddhism exhibited a pluralistic Vinaya landscape. While one mainstream tradition, represented by Fotu Shemi, followed the orthodox Sarvāstivāda system, another distinctive ordination method transmitted by Zhu Daoman featured a “three-stage ordination” process and the concept of “two sets of 250 precepts totaling five hundred.” The article further clarifies the origin and transmission of the “Five Hundred Precepts” for bhikṣuṇīs, arguing that this number does not represent any fixed set of rules in Indian Vinaya literature. Rather, it emerged through reinterpretation and localization during the eastward transmission of the Vinaya. Ultimately, this study deepens our understanding of fourth-century Kucha bhikṣuṇī disciplinary practices and provides new textual evidence for the cross-regional transmission and indigenization of Buddhist Vinaya traditions.