52 Ching-hsiu, Pure Refinement

A biographical account of Ching-hsiu, a nun who lived during the Liang Dynasty (502–557) in ancient China. The text details her early life, including her family background and her early inclination towards Buddhist precepts and compassion, despite her parents’ resistance to her becoming a vegetarian. It further explains her transition into a nun’s life at the age of twenty-nine, her commitment to the monastic rules, and her efforts to promote the Buddhist faith through study and teaching. The narrative recounts various miraculous occurrences and her eventual death at the age of eighty-nine, with the prediction that she would be reborn in the Tuṣita Heaven.