比丘尼

苾芻尼; 尼姑 (sa) bhikṣuṇī. A nun, or almswoman. The first woman to be ordained was the Buddha's aunt Mahāprajāpatī, who had nursed him. In the fourteenth year after his enlightenment the Buddha yielded to persuasion and admitted his aunt and women to his order of religious mendicants, but said that the admission of women would shorten the period of Buddhism by 500 years. The nun, however old, must acknowledge the superiority of every monk; must never scold him or tell his faults; must never accuse him, though he may accuse her; and must in all respects obey the rules as commanded by him. She accepts all the rules for the monks with additional rules for her own order. Such is the theory rather than the practice. The title by which Mahāprajāpatī was addressed was applied to nuns, i. e. (sa) ārya, or noble, 阿姨, though some consider the Chinese term entirely native.