Chapter XIX. Buddhism during the Nara Period

216:1 P. Gaubil, "Mém. des Chinois," vol. xv. p. 399. 216:2 Acc. to the authors of Mem. Conc. la Chine (see xvi. 227, also p. 217 Kaeuffer, ii. 663) the first mention of Moni or Manichæan monks among the Tartar tribes occurs in 786. I am indebted to my friend Mr. S. Tachibana for the following data concerning the Manichæans, which somewhat modify these statements. In the fifth year of the Jōkwan (Chih Kwan) period of the Tang dynasty, i.e. A.D. 632, a Manichæan named Boku-go-ka-roku obtained from the Emperor Taitsung permission to erect a Tatsin Temple (Jap. Taishinji) at Singanfu. Tatsin was a generic name for Persia and Syria, and the name Taishinji was at first applied indifferently to all temples, Christian, Manichæan, or Zoroastrian, devoted to the propagation of faiths coming from those regions. In 734, the Emperor Hiüan Tsung ordered the destruction of all Manichæan Temples (probably of all Tatsin Temples), and forbade the promulgation of Manichæanism. In 746, the same emperor removed the prohibition and ordered that all temples belonging to religions of Persian nationality should be called Taishinji, whether in the two capitals or in the neighbouring country districts. In the third year of Daireki (Chin. Ta-lai), i.e. 768, Taitsung authorized Persian subjects to erect Dai Un Kōmyōji ( ), evidently as something distinct from the Taishinji, also as distinct from Buddhism. Again, in the third year of the Emperor Wutsung, A.D. 843, all Manichæan Temples were closed and many of their priests, nuns, and laity put to death or sent into exile. In the meantime the Kōmyō doctrine had reached Japan. It had been brought to China in the reign of the Empress Wu, in the first year of Yen Tsai, in 694 by a Persian of the name of Pu-ta-tan (

). The Empress Jito was then on the throne. She was a zealous Buddhist. In the year 692, she received from the Chinese Ambassador a statue of Amida, and copies of a Sūtra called Son Kōmyō Kyō, which she caused to be preached throughout her empire. It is difficult not to connect this with the Faith that Zendō had preached. (Mr. Tachibana quotes from Bussotōki, fasc. 39–42. See also Haas, "Annalen des Japanischen Buddhismus," p. 318, and Dévéria, Journal Asiatique, ix.–x. p. 445). 218:1 I would like to call attention to an excellent article entitled the "Mystery of Fulin," by Dr. Hirth, of Columbia, which has just appeared in vol. xxx., part 1, of the Journal of the Am. Oriental Society. Dr. Hirth has long maintained (and gives reasons for so doing) that this embassy came from the Patriarch of Antioch as head of the Nestorian Church. There is also a great deal of information in Mrs. Gordon's recent work on the Messiah, a book which, despite its superabundant mysticism, is full of valuable information and most suggestive in the many hints and indications it gives for further investigation and research. It is interesting to observe that Olopen and his missionaries emphasize the fact that they come, not from the King of Persia or any political power, but from the Patriarch of Antioch, a purely spiritual personage with no political influence at all. Perhaps they did this on purpose to avoid being mixed up with Manichæans and Zoroastrians, who were more closely connected with the Persian State. Dr. Grierson, in his article on Bhakti-marga, in vol. ii. of Hasting's "Encyclopedia of Religions," shows us the same Olopen, three years later, in India, at the Court of Siladitya Harsha, whore he is well received. This will show us how Nestorianism was at work, quietly and unobtrusively, in India as in China. We know that there were Christians in China before Olopen, for the Emperor Justinian (527–565) received a present of silkworms brought to him by monks who had been living for some years either in Singanfu or in Nanking, These missionaries can scarcely have been Nestorians, seeing that Justinian had a great dislike to that body of Christians. On the Singanfu monument, erected 781, Olopen is described as Daitoku (

). In the year 771, the Emperor Taitsung appointed ten Daitoku, men of recognized virtue and merit. The erectors of the monument would scarcely have ventured to give Olopen this title unless it had been (posthumously perhaps) conferred on him by the Emperor (see Murakami, op. cit., p. 804; and E. A. Parker, "Notes on the Nestorians," J.R.A.S, North China Branch, vol. xxiv. p. 297). 219:1 It is to be found in the Buddhist Canon. See Nanjo's Catalogue, No. 1004. 219:2 Prof. Takakusu called attention to Prajna in his Translation of I-Tsing's "Record of the Buddhist Religion," (Oxford, 1896). Mishiho is Messiah. Among the Jews in Kaifongfu, in Honan, are preserved portions of the prophets Zechariah and Malachi. A phrase which Zendō uses more than once is Fushi Sōgō, "the turning of the hearts of parents and children to one another," a phrase which at once suggests Malachi to the mind. Zendō's phrase was later made the title of the well-known Japanese Jōdo book, the Fushi Sōgō. I am much indebted to Dr. Haas, of Heidelberg, for calling my attention to this matter. 220:1 Tada says that Zendō's preaching was so persuasive that many of his hearers committed suicide by burning themselves alive. Mr. Tada rightly feels called upon to apologize for this; but no student of the Hokekyō will need to be reminded that to make a holocaust of oneself is set forth in the Hokekyō as the highest form of grateful adoration. But the word "holocaust" is also a good Christian expression, spiritually interpreted, and I venture to suggest that the holocausts in Zendō's time may have been of this kind. I am encouraged to think this by the fact that in the short biography of Zendō which appears in Shinshu Seikun, the word nyūjō (

) is used to describe the occurrence. Nyūjō literally means "to enter into the state of determination," though Hepburn in his Dictionary, explains it as meaning voluntary suicide by fire. 221:1 See Nanjo, "Short History of the Twelve Buddhist Sects," p. 107. 222:1 See Haas, op. cit. I am much indebted to this work. I have already shown, in notes on Hiouen Thsang and the Manichees, how quickly Japan, at this particular period, was moved by any new religious movement in the capital of the Tangs. 222:2 See "Melanges Japonais," vol. iii. p. 287. 222:3 Murakami, op. cit., pp. 145–6. A little point, worthy of remark, is the following. In 639, Olopen, having established his missionaries at Singanfu, goes on to India and visits the court of Siladitya Harsha, at Kanauj. Shortly after this, wo read of Harsha's zeal for works of charity, leper hospitals, etc., institutions which Buddhism had scarcely known since the days of As’oka, but which have constantly been a conspicuous element in all Christian work. In Japan, what I may call the Kōmyō doctrines find their way into the country under Jitō and Mommu (637–697). Here also they are followed by a period of enthusiasm for works of charity which continues for a while, until the tares spring up and choke the good seed, and the Tendai, the ancient enemies of Zendō, get the upper hand. 223:1 The following are the data known about the Nestorian doctor Rimitsu. In the year A.D. 739 there arrived from China a ship-load of distinguished persons. (1) Kibi Mabi, who had been studying in China since 716, and who brought back with him the art of embroidery, the game of go, the biwa, and the Katakana alphabet. (2) Dōsen, the founder in Japan of the Kegon (or Avatamsaka) sect. (3) A Brahman priest, Bodhisena, from India. (4) A musician named Fat Triet (Buttetsu) from Cambodia; and (5) a Nestorian physician of Persian nationality named Rimitsu. The party were received on behalf of the Government by Gyogi, at Naniwa, and Gyogi was able to display his learning by conversing with the Indian Brahman in Sanskrit. A month later, a member of the Japanese Embassy in China returned to Japan with three Chinese and another Persian. The whole party were taken to court and the Emperor conferred official rank upon them, especial mention being made of Ritōho, a Chinaman, and Rimitsu. In 736 Shōmu was in the midst of his hospital schemes, and Rimitsu was evidently a distinguished physician. The Japanese must have been very different from what they are now if they neglected the opportunity of sucking his brains! Mr. Tachibana, who has furnished me with the materials for this note, bases his information on an article by Dr. Takakusu in "Shigakuzasshi," vol. iii. No. 7, and on Dr. Kume's "History of the Nara Epoch." That Rimitsu was a Christian was shown some time ago by Mr. Saeki. Ho could not have been a Manichæan, seeing that the Manichæans discouraged doctors.

Gyogi Bosatsu was the spiritual director of Sharma and his Empress Kōmyō. He was an advocate of Kōmyō doctrines, very practical, very charitable. He was a syncretist, and first originated the Ryōbu doctrine in Japan, stimulated thereto by the example of the Buddhists and Taoists in China. 224:1 It is said of Zendō that he and his disciples were much given to itinerant preaching. So were the Nestorians. The Greek merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes, who was in India A.D. 535, mentions a Nestorian order of itinerant preachers named Periodeutæ, or wanderers, who were busy in his days evangelizing in N. W. India. Olopen himself. may have been one; we find him in China and then in India. It is possible that Kūya and Eikwan may have been itinerant preachers after this type, having learned the value of it from Zendō. So also may have been the mysterious personage who, in 1095, appeared to Ryonin, the founder of the Yūdzūnembutsu, and told him of the "One man that stood for all men, and the one religious act that embraced all others." Ippen (1239–1239), the founder of the Ji Sect, wandered in his allegiance from the Tendai to the Seizanha of the Jōdo, and finally founded a sect of his own. He was a great student of Zendō, both as a teacher and as an artist, and his sect was intended to be a reproduction of Zendō's teachings. His nickname was Yūgyō Shōnin, "the itinerating preacher," and to this day, the head of the Ji sect is supposed to be always travelling about the country preaching.