In Ch'an literature, Liao-jan's story was cited often in the Dharma-instruction given by Ch'an masters. For example, Hung-chih mentioned it several times in the Hung-chih Ch'an-shih kuang-lu.19 Ta-hui and Yuan-wu also recounted her story as examplary when they were giving instruction.20 This liberal and open-minded attitude is characteristic of Ch'an as is clearly illustrated in Ch'an Master Wu-hsiang's instruction to a woman.

The daughter of an official named Mu-jung was very interested in Buddhist teaching. She came to Wu-hsiang and said, "As a woman, I am not free in that I have the obstacles and the five hindrances. I am restricted by the female body. Now I come to you for the purpose of cutting off the source of transmigration [in the cycle of life and death]."

Wu-hsiang then said, "Since you have the aspiration [to seek liberation], you are already a great 'man'.....Non-thought is non-male; non-thought is non-female."21

As the story indicates, the woman had accepted the traditional image of women and the idea of the inferiority of the female body. To counteract this stereotyped misconception, Wu-hsiang pointed out that as soon as she had brought forth the aspiration for enlightenment, she trancended the gender limitation. The realm of enlightenment, which Wu-hsiang interpreted as non-thought, is neither male nor female.

It is interesting that a story with similar theme is also recorded in the Ching-t'e chuan-ting lu. However, in this case, discrimination against bhiksunis is apparent, at least outwardly. When an anonymous `bhiksuni` wanted to give a formal Ch'an lecture, the monk T'an-kung said to her, " A `bhkiksuni` , as a woman, should not give a Ch'an teaching." The `bhiksuni` said,

"What do you have to say about the eight-year-old Dragon Girl becoming a Buddha?"

"The Dragon Girl can do eighteen kinds of transformations. Can you just make one transformation for this old monk?"

"Even one can transform oneself, one is nothing but a wild-fox spirit.22" said the `bhiksuni` .

T'an-kung then kicked her out.23

From the dialogue we can see that T'an-kung, first of all, challenged the ability and right of the `bhiksuni` to teach. Then when she rebutted that even an eight-year-old girl can realize Buddhahood, T'an-kung brought up the traditional view of sexual transformation, which signifies the identity of maleness with enlightenment. Like Liao-jan, the `bhiksuni` simply denied the validity, relevance and necessity of such transformation. However, the two stories turn out differently. One ends in the monk's paying homage to the nun, while the other ends in the monk's kicking out the nun. When we say that the Ch'an School takes a more liberal and sympathetic attitude toward women, it does not necessarily mean that every Ch'an monk does so.

Another nun who played an important role in the process of a monk's seeking for enlightenment is named Shih-chi. Her biography cannot be found anywhere in the Buddhist literature. However, she is mentioned in the biography of the monk Chu-chih. Chu-chih lived in a hut at Chin-hua Mountain. One day Shih-chi, wearing a bamboo hat and holding a metal staff, showed up in the front of his hut. She circumambulated Chu-chih three times and said to him,

"If you can say it, I will take off the hat [to pay homage to you]"

She asked three times, but Chu-chih was not able to say anything. As she was leaving, Chu-chih said to her,

"It is getting late. Please stay overnight."
"If you can say it, I will stay," she said.

Again, he could not say anything. After the nun left, he said to himself,

"Although I have the physical form of a man, I do not have the insight of a man."

He then decided to leave the hut to look for teachers for instructions. However, that very night a mountain spirit told him that he did not need to go away, for a great monk would come soon. A few days later, a monk named T'ien-lung came to the hut. Chu-chih greeted him and told him about the encounter with Shih-chi. T'ien-lung said nothing, but pointed with one finger. Seeing this gesture, Chu-chih was immediately enlightened. After that, every time a monk came to him for Dharma instruction, he said and did nothing but point with one finger. His unique instruction was later called "One-finger Ch'an".25

As we can see from this story, `Bhiksuni` Shih-chi must have been an enlightened Ch'an practitioner and had enough confidence in herself to challenge a monk. What she pressed Chu-chih to express was his understanding of the essence of Ch'an; in other words, what insight he had attained. After he failed the test, he felt ashamed to have a male's body but not the insight of a male, while Shih-chi, who had a female body, had the insight of a male. His feeling reflects the male's sense of superiority. It was his sense of inferiority in terms of spiritual achievement that urged him to seek enlightenment. In this case, feminist insight plays a very positive and helpful role.