本文從三通女冠住持墓誌銘出發，探討蒙古帝國時期的女冠活動，師徒傳承，及其社會意義。這幾位住持生前都是非常活躍，致力於創建，擴大，發展他們的道觀。他們廣結善緣，爲人舉行齋醮，信眾施主之中不乏當朝帝后將相。他們也是名盛一時的宗教導師，訓練下一代道教人才。他們死後，住持一職傳給他們自己選擇的女弟子。新任住持繼承的不只是住持一職，更是道觀的各種有形與無形資源，亦即其師一生奮鬥的成果，如同兒子繼承父親掙來的家產。三通石碑都強調前後住持師徒之間一脈相傳的關係。新任住持作爲繼承人，義無反顧地負責其師之喪葬追悼歲時薦享，就如同孝子之於考妣。女冠住持師徒之間的關係，可與一般家庭的父親與兒子的關係相提並論。藉由此一相似性，女性繼承在以男性爲繼承線的中國社會中獲得社會認可。住持不再是少數傑出女冠才能達到的地位，而是制度化的傳承。以女性爲繼承線的譜系，得以在寺觀中發展，成爲中國社會繼承譜系的一個特例。

Utilizing three tombstone inscriptions, this article studies the experiences of Daoist abbesses in China during the late twelfth and midthirteenth centuries. The abbesses, from both north and south China, built and managed multiple large-scale monasteries. They were also esteemed religious teachers and ritual specialists. They attracted resourceful patrons (including the monarchs), conducted ritual services, and trained disciples. After the abbesses' demise, their leadership positions were passed down to their chosen female disciples. The genealogy of masters and disciples is emphasized in all the three tomb inscriptions without exception. Upon death, an abbess transmitted to her chosen disciple not only a position or title but also control of the corporative resources owned by the monastery. The heir or successor took care of posthumous arrangements for the deceased, just as a son in an ordinary family would do. In this world of both economics and religious ritual, the matrilineal masterdisciple line constituted a fictive kinship that is comparable to the authentic partilineal kinship lineage in the secular world. This comparableness makes it socially accepted that monastic women were entitled to transmit the corporative inheritance to their female heir. Institutionalized matrilineal lineages thus came into existence in a predominantly patrilineal society. Female monasticism therefore was not characterized only by individual women who were exceptional in their careers, but by a system that supported matrilineal transmission and succession. In this aspect, monasticism stood not only separate from but far ahead of the rest of society.