![]() He was taken back to the kentoshi group ("Koki," April 10, 839 entry).īack then, Silla sea merchants, including Bogo JANG, prospered in the neighborhoods of the Shandong Peninsula of China and, with the help of Sillans residing in Chishanji, he was able to stay in China (although he remained as an illegal resident, he was able to obtain a travel permit). He left the kentoshi group at Donghai in Haeju, but villagers considered him suspicious (he could not understand Chinese and although he claimed that 'I'm a Sillan monk,' he did not seem to speak Korean) and handed over to the government office after one night the village. He took care of Ennin during his stay in China. He stated that he had come to visit because hearing a high monk from Japan was visiting Yangzhou had rekindled some fond memories. The young Tiantai monk, Keibun (敬文), who as a child had seen Saicho staying at Mt. As a result, he decided on the dangerous course of leaving the group of kentoshi to illegally reside in China (Foreign monks were required to have a permit from the Tang emperor). He asked the Tang emperor for the permission to reside at Tang many times but was always refused. Tiantai (perhaps because it was considered impossible due to his limited schedule) and he had no choice but to go back to Japan. He was the last of kentoshi to study in China but, since he was shoyakuso (a monk who stayed in Tang for a short period), he was not given a travel permit to Mt. This was not surprising since both Japan and the Tang Dynasty used the same calendar, but Ennin was moved by the fact that the date was the same even on foreign soil ("Koki," July 2, 838 entry). * The day of the landing, July 2nd of the 4th year of Kaicheng era for the Tang Dynasty was same as Japan's July 2nd of the 5th year of Jowa era. On this day, he started to write "Nitto Guho Junrei Koki" (), July 2, 838 entry). His first voyage in 836 was a failure and a second attempted voyage the following year was also unsuccessful. Honen, the founder of Jodo Sect (the Pure Land Sect), supposedly died while wearing the clothes of Ennin, whom he adored.ĭifficult Sea Voyage of the Kentoshi (Japanese Delegates to China) He was said to be an amicable and graceful person with thick eyebrows. ![]() Once Ennin began to teach bosatsukai (bodhisattva precepts) and gain pupils, he received daijokai (Mahayana precepts) himself on March 6, 817. Saicho's reason for taking this trip was to spread the newly established Tendai Sect's Hokke ichijo (Single Vehicle of the Lotus) teachings and to pick six locations throughout Japan to build hoto to serve as local religious and national medical service centres, following the One Thousand Edition Eight Thousand Volume Lotus Sutra sutra. During the same year, he accompanied his master, Saicho, on a pilgrimage to the Kanto region and visited his childhood home of Shimotsuke Province. In 816, when he was 23 years old, he was ordained, receiving the 250 Hinayana precepts, or gusokukai, in Todai-ji Temple, one of the Three Kaidan (Seats of Ordination). He passed the state oral exam in 814 and left to become a monk the following year, when he was 21 years old. Ennin was one of ten pupils who learned about shikan meditation (using an annotated Lotus Sutra) from Saicho, and Ennin was the only disciple who was assigned to conduct lectures in place of his master. Through his loyalty and devotion to study and training, Ennin earned the deep affection of Saicho, who was trying to establish the Tendai Sect in the face of a resurgence of Nara Buddhism and the prosperity of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism. When Ennin was 15 years old, after hearing that Saicho had returned to Japan from Tang Dynasty China and founded Enryaku-ji Temple on Mt. ![]() The master of Daiji-ji Temple, Kochi, was an apprentice of Dochu, who had studied under Jianzhem ( Ganjin in Japanese), though Dochu showed an early appreciation of Saicho and sent many pupils to study under Saicho. His older brother recommended that he study Confucianism, but he showed an interest in Buddhism from an early age and entered Daiji-ji Temple at the age of nine to start his training. The son of the local ruling Mibu clan, he was born in 794, the first year of the Heian period, in Mibu town, Tsuga district, Shimotsuke Province, where Mibu-ji Temple (Mibu-machi, Tochigi Prefecture) now stands. He was one of the eight Nyutohakke priests who travelled to China, the others being Saicho, Kukai, Jogyo, Engyo, Eun, Enchin, and Shuei. ![]() He was the first person in Japan to be given the title Daishi, or Great Teacher. Ennin (794-February 24, 864) was the 3rd head priest of the Tendai Sect.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |