vinaya ［律］ (, Pali;  ritsu): The rules of discipline for monks and nuns. One of the three divisions of the Buddhist canon. The original meaning of the word vinaya is “to remove [one’s evil conduct] “ or “to instruct.” Vinaya is said to be a systematization of the prohibitions and admonishments given by Shakyamuni to his disciples. Each of the early Buddhist schools had its own collection of the monastic regulations. Extant texts include the vinaya of the so-called Pali canon, which belongs to the Theravāda school, and the vinaya texts of the Dharmagupta, Sarvāstivāda, Mahīshāsaka, and Mahāsamghika schools, which exist in Chinese translation. These last four are The Fourfold Rules of Discipline, The Ten Divisions of Monastic Rules, The Fivefold Rules of Discipline, and The Great Canon of Monastic Rules, respectively. In China, several Precepts, or Lü (vinaya), schools emerged, using The Fourfold Rules of Discipline as their primary text. The most notable of these was the Nan-shan school, founded by Tao-hsüan (596–667). In the eighth century, the Chinese priest Chien-chen (known in Japan as Ganjin) brought the teachings of that school to Japan, where it became the independent Precepts (Ritsu) school.