Gender Trouble in the Early Lingbao Scriptures

Abstract

The early Lingbao scriptures incorporate pluralistic gender discourses. On the one hand, the early Lingbao scriptures accept the social gender system of “differences between men and women” as the decision of all deities, and incorporate the “chastity” virtue of women advocated by Confucianism. The auspiciousness of giving birth to a boy and the masculine perspective of the Daoist discipline are not immune to correlative sexism. On the other hand, the early Lingbao scriptures actively borrow the Buddhist individualized gender, take the term “transforming a female into a male” as one of the “eight difficult situations” and the merit of worshipping the Daoist scriptures and illustrate the cultivated journey of women beyond gender in the stories of past actions, in an attempt to overcome the correlative sexism caused by the dominant gender system. The Dao unifies the concept of correlative gender and the concept of individualized gender, makes men and women equal objects of teachings, gives the perfected transcendent the freedom to choose gender, and integrates family ethics and individual transcendence with the images of a Daoist wife. The early Lingbao scriptures echo the Daoist principle of softness and femininity, use gender as an opportunity for Daoist cultivation, and explore possible ways to resolve gender trouble.