Prajnatara

Was the founder of Zen Buddhism a female?

Prajnatara told Bodhidharma to go to China when she died and thus she is seen as the founder of Zen Buddhism.

Is this a case of wanting more gender equality being injected into the history of Buddhism, or is this really possible? I'd like there to be more women in Buddhist history, so I'm open to the idea. When we lose touch with history and enter into mythology, we can choose what our myths are.

One tantalizing idea is that the name is a combination of two female Bodhisattvas, Prajnaparamita and Tara.

Supposedly the first ordained female monk in China was named Zhu Jing Jian (292-361). O'Brian doesn't footnote the comment in The Circle of the Way, and I can't find anything on the internet about her. She supposedly founded the monastery in Chang'an. Maybe it's the Abundant Treasure Pagoda Monastery (according to p. 328 in Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women, Volume II: Tang Through Ming).

Zongzhi is another early female nun, and all I could find was a reference on p. 128 of The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender By Bernard Faure, and The Circle of the Way by O'Brian p. 60.