152 6 “TRANSMITTING THE PRECEPTS IN CONFORMITY WITH THE DHARMA” Restoration, Adaptation, and Standardization of Ordination Procedures ESTER BIANCHI In contemporary Chinese Buddhism, there seems to be a precise will aimed at revitalizing discipline and at restoring ancient—thus reputed to be “correct”— ordination procedures and rules. 1 More precisely, the “triple platform ordina- tion” (santan dajie 三坛大戒), which dates back to the early seventeenth century and was already a widespread ordination criterion during the Republic of China, was recently selected as the normative procedure to be followed in the PRC for both monks and nuns. Tere is also a movement to confer ordinations to nuns according to “dual ordination” ( erbuseng jie 二部僧戒), a model that was frst introduced in China during the ffth century but that was long disregarded and never the standard procedure. My starting assumption is that ordination procedures have been re- stored after a long ban in the Mao era in order to revive the monastic com- munity according to what are perceived as elevated and “proper” criteria. Tis is clearly suggested by a saying that recurs frequently in both monastic and ofcial documents: “to transmit the precepts in conformity with the Dharma” (rufa chuanjie 如法传戒), that is, according to “proper and correct” monastic protocol and rules. However, this restoration and adaptation of ancient rituals and rules has further involved a process of standardization and unifcation. Te objective of the present chapter is to provide a general overview and a tentative evaluation of this contemporary phenomenon, tak- ing into account the positions and perspectives of the various actors involved (the monastic establishment and individual monks and nuns), as well as ex- ternal factors such as the role of governmental authorities and international interlocutors.