Saicho
Encyclopedia
was a Japan
ese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai
school in Japan, based around the Chinese Tiantai
tradition he was exposed to during his trip to China beginning in 804. He founded the temple and headquarters of Tendai at Enryaku-ji
on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto
. He is also said to have been the first to bring tea
to Japan. After his death, he was awarded the posthumous title of Dengyō Daishi (伝教大師).
. From those teachers he collected Sutras and learned as much as he could planning to bring them to Japan. He founded what came to be called the Tendai
School when he returned.
. Saichō befriended him during his trip to China
who traveled with him going and coming. This turned out to be pivotal to the future development of Buddhism.
) Buddhist texts. Saicho was entranced with the new material and wanted to learn more. On the trip back he found that Kukai had studied these teachings in depth and had an entire library of tantric
materials.
This friendship would influence the future of Japan
ese Tendai
.
It was Saichō performed the abhiṣeka
, or initiatory ritual, for the court. "Saichō also endorsed the court’s bequest to Kūkai of the mountain temple of Takaosan-ji northwest of Kyoto as the first center for Kūkai’s Shingon school. Kūkai, in turn, responded to Saichō’s wish to incorporate Mikkyō into the eclectic system of Tendai by training Saichō and his disciples in the esoteric Buddhist rituals and by lending Saichō various Mikkyō texts that he had brought with him from China."
was the Tendai curriculum, shikan being the Japanese reading of Chih-i’s central practice of chih-kuan [cessation and contemplation]) (Kenkairon engi, DZ 1, pp. 294–96). Thus from its very inception the Tendai Lotus school was equally based on Mikkyō and T’ien-t’ai. It was as a subdivision of Saichō’s new school that Mikkyō first received the official acknowledgment of the imperial court and became a proper subject of study in Japanese Buddhism."
code, but Saichō intended to found his school as a strictly Mahayana
institution and ordain monks using the Bodhisattva Vows
only. Despite intense opposition from the traditional Buddhist schools in Nara
, his request was granted by Emperor Saga
in 822, several days after Saichō died. This was the fruit of years of effort and a formal debate."
school, which was primarily focused on the Lotus Sutra
. "Chinese T'ien-t'ai had been a syncretistic tradition, particularly at the T'ien-t'ai Yu-ch'uan monastery. Chinese monks had been interested in Ch'an and Esoteric Buddhism as well as in the Ssu-fen la and Fan wang precepts. Saicho inherited this tradition, but developed certain aspects of it in innovative ways. For example, Saicho considered Esoteric Buddhism to be essentially the same as Tendai (enmitsu itchi) and thus awarded Esoteric Buddhism a more central place in the Tendai tradition than it had been given by most Chinese monks. Like Kukai, Saicho emphasized the importance of striving for enlightenment as an immediate goal to be attained in this existence (sokushin jobutsu). Tendai and Esoteric practices, he felt, provided a direct path (jikido) to enlightenment, whereas the teachings of the Nara schools required aeons to bring the practitioner to enlightenment.
However,
Moreover, Saichō began to realize that his own idea of "enmitsu itchi" was not exactly shared by the Esoteric Shingon school, and especially its founder Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi).
Ryuichi Abe writes: "...what makes the relationship between Saichō and Kūkai decisive in Japanese Buddhist history is not so much their cooperation as the manner in which it came to an end. Their alliance began to deteriorate when Saichō, after receiving abhiseka from Kūkai, hurried back to Mt. Hiei, where the work of laying the foundation of the new Tendai school awaited him. Saichō continued to study and copy Mikkyō texts borrowed from Kūkai, but despite Kūkai’s repeated requests he did not return to Takaosan-ji to resume his studies. Their rapport finally terminated when Kūkai harshly condemned Saichō’s approach to Mikkyō as a transgression of the esoteric precept of samaya [the promise to keep the oral/esoteric teachings private], and Saichō retorted by denouncing Kūkai’s manner of instruction "Thus it was Mikkyō that brought Saichō and Kūkai together; it was also Mikkyō that drove them apart. The break between Saichō and Kūkai left a long-lasting legacy in the Tendai and Shingon schools, whose complex relationship, constantly oscillating between affiliation and rivalry, shaped the contours of Buddhist history in the Heian period."
Saichō's late life criticisms were ignored by his own leading disciples, and the Tendai Sect would continue to teach Mikkyō and Shikangō (Lotus). Saichō’s public condemnation of Kūkai would later form the Seeds for some of the Criticisms leveled by the founder of the Nichiren Sect, Nichiren, who would cite that work in his own debates.
Saichō was also an author. He wrote a number of texts, the main ones include: (817) (818-819) (818) (820)
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai
Tendai
is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...
school in Japan, based around the Chinese Tiantai
Tiantai
Tiantai is an important school of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. In Japan the school is known as Tendai, and in Korea it is known as Cheontae. Tiantai is also called the "Lotus School", due to its emphasis on the Lotus Sūtra as its doctrinal basis...
tradition he was exposed to during his trip to China beginning in 804. He founded the temple and headquarters of Tendai at Enryaku-ji
Enryaku-ji
thumb|300px|Konpon Chū-dō , Enryaku-ji's main hall is a Tendai monastery located on Mount Hiei in Ōtsu, overlooking Kyoto. It was founded during the early Heian period. The temple complex was established by Saichō , also known as Dengyō Daishi, who introduced the Tendai sect of Mahayana Buddhism...
on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
. He is also said to have been the first to bring tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
to Japan. After his death, he was awarded the posthumous title of Dengyō Daishi (伝教大師).
Life
"Saicho was born into a family of devout Buddhists. At the age of twelve he went to study at the provincial temple in Omi. There he studied under Gyohyo (722-797), a disciple of Tao-hsiian (702-760), the Chinese monk who had brought Northern School Ch'an, Kegon (Chin., Hua-yen)
teachings, and the Fan wang precepts to Japan in 736. Saicho's studies of meditation and Kegon "one-vehicle" (Skt., ekayana; Jpn., ichijō) doctrines during this period influenced his lifelong doctrinal predilections. Shortly after he was ordained in 785, he decided to climb Mount Hiei. He remained there for approximately a decade to meditate and study. During his retreat, Saicho read about Chinese T'ien-t'ai meditation practice in Kegon texts and managed to obtain several T'ient'ai texts that had been brought to Japan by Chien-chen (Ganjin, 688-763) in 754 but had subsequently been ignored by Japanese monks."
The capital of Japan was moved from Nara to Nagaoka in 784, and then to Kyoto in 795. Mount Hiei was located to the northeast of Kyoto, a direction considered dangerous by geomancers, but Saicho's presence on the mountain protected the new capital and brought him to the attention of the court. In addition, the court was interested in reforming Buddhism by patronizing serious monks without political aspirations and by supporting those teachings that would bridge the traditional rivalry between the Hosso (YogacaraYogacaraYogācāra is an influential school of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing phenomenology and ontology through the interior lens of meditative and yogic practices. It developed within Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism in about the 4th century CE...
) and Sanron (Madhyamika) schools. Soon
various court nobles, especially those of the Wake clan, began to show an interest in Saicho."
Trip to China
This trip became the basis of Tendai Buddhism after he returned. He found in T'ien t'ai a compelling theoretical teaching based on the concept of Ichinen Sanzen (3000 worlds in a Momentary State of Existence) and the Lotus Sutra
"In 804 and 805 Saichō made an eleven-month trip to ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, the aim of which was to bring to Japan the authentic transmission of the T’ient’ai Dharma lineage. During the last month of his stay on Chinese soil, while awaiting the arrival of his ship at the port city of Ming-chou,
Saichō traveled to Yüeh-chou to collect additional Buddhist texts."
Lotus Sutra
The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras, and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism were established.-Title:...
. From those teachers he collected Sutras and learned as much as he could planning to bring them to Japan. He founded what came to be called the Tendai
Tendai
is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...
School when he returned.
Relationship with Kūkai
Saichō traveled to China along with a number of other young monks, one of whom was named KūkaiKukai
Kūkai , also known posthumously as , 774–835, was a Japanese monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, and artist, founder of the Shingon or "True Word" school of Buddhism. Shingon followers usually refer to him by the honorific titles of and ....
. Saichō befriended him during his trip to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
who traveled with him going and coming. This turned out to be pivotal to the future development of Buddhism.
"During the last month of his stay on Chinese soil, while awaiting the arrival of his ship at the port city of Ming-chou, Saichō traveled to Yüeh-chou to collect additional Buddhist texts. At Lung-hsing ssu 龍興寺 Saichō chanced to meet the priest Shun-hsiao", and likewise returned with esoteric (tantric
Vajrayana
Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...
) Buddhist texts. Saicho was entranced with the new material and wanted to learn more. On the trip back he found that Kukai had studied these teachings in depth and had an entire library of tantric
Vajrayana
Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...
materials.
This friendship would influence the future of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Tendai
Tendai
is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...
.
It was Saichō performed the abhiṣeka
Abhisheka
Abhisheka is a Sanskrit term comparable to puja, yagya and arati that denotes: a devotional activity; an enacted prayer, rite of passage and/or religious rite or ritual...
, or initiatory ritual, for the court. "Saichō also endorsed the court’s bequest to Kūkai of the mountain temple of Takaosan-ji northwest of Kyoto as the first center for Kūkai’s Shingon school. Kūkai, in turn, responded to Saichō’s wish to incorporate Mikkyō into the eclectic system of Tendai by training Saichō and his disciples in the esoteric Buddhist rituals and by lending Saichō various Mikkyō texts that he had brought with him from China."
Founding of Tendai
On his return from China, Saichō worked hard to win recognition from the court and "in the first month of 806, Saichō’s Tendai Lotus school (Tendai-hokke-shū 天台法華宗) won official recognition when the court of the ailing emperor Kanmu issued another edict, this one permitting two annual ordinands (nenbundosha) for Saichō’s new school on Mt. Hiei. This edict states that, following Saichō’s request, the ordinands would be divided between two curricula: the shanagō course, centering on the study of the Mahavairocana Sūtra (this was the Mikkyō curriculum, shana being the abbreviation for Birushana, the Japanese transliteration of Vairocana), and the shikangō course, based on the study of the Mo-ho chih-kuan, the seminal work of the T’ien-t’ai patriarch Chih-i 智顗 (538–597) (thiswas the Tendai curriculum, shikan being the Japanese reading of Chih-i’s central practice of chih-kuan [cessation and contemplation]) (Kenkairon engi, DZ 1, pp. 294–96). Thus from its very inception the Tendai Lotus school was equally based on Mikkyō and T’ien-t’ai. It was as a subdivision of Saichō’s new school that Mikkyō first received the official acknowledgment of the imperial court and became a proper subject of study in Japanese Buddhism."
"[I]n 813 Saichō composed the Ehyō tendaishū (DZ 1, pp. 343–66), which argues that the principal Buddhist masters of China and Korea all relied on T’ien-t’ai doctrine in composing their own works. By identifying numerous references to and quotes from T’ient’ai treatises in the works of Chi-tsangPrevious to Saicho, all monastic ordinations took place at Todaiji temple under the ancient VinayaJizangJizang was a Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar who is often regarded as the founder of the Three Treatise School. He is also known as Jiaxiang or Master Jiaxiang , because he acquired fame at the Jiaxiang Temple.-Biography:...
吉蔵 of the San-lunSanlunMādhyamaka in East Asia refers to the Buddhist traditions in East Asia which represent the Indian Mādhyamaka system of thought. In Chinese Buddhism, these are often referred to as the Sānlùn school Mādhyamaka in East Asia refers to the Buddhist traditions in East Asia which represent the Indian...
三論 school, Chih-chou of the Fa-hsiangDharma character schoolEast Asian Yogācāra refers to the traditions in East Asia which represent the Indian Yogācāra system of thought. It is a school of Buddhism originating in China. In China, it is known as Wéishí-zōng , or Fǎxiàng-zōng...
法相 school, Fa-tsang of the Huayen 華嚴 school, I-hsing of Mikkyō, and other prominent teachers, Saichō asserted that T’ien-t’ai formed the foundation for all major Buddhist schools in East Asia."
Vinaya
The Vinaya is the regulatory framework for the Buddhist monastic community, or sangha, based in the canonical texts called Vinaya Pitaka. The teachings of the Buddha, or Buddhadharma can be divided into two broad categories: 'Dharma' or doctrine, and 'Vinaya', or discipline...
code, but Saichō intended to found his school as a strictly Mahayana
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
institution and ordain monks using the Bodhisattva Vows
Bodhisattva vows
The Sanskrit term Bodhisattva is the name given to anyone who, motivated by great compassion, has generated bodhichitta, which is a spontaneous wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. What makes someone a Bodhisattva is her or his dedication to the ultimate welfare of...
only. Despite intense opposition from the traditional Buddhist schools in Nara
Nara, Nara
is the capital city of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture, directly bordering Kyoto Prefecture...
, his request was granted by Emperor Saga
Emperor Saga
was the 52nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Saga's reign spanned the years from 809 through 823.-Traditional narrative:...
in 822, several days after Saichō died. This was the fruit of years of effort and a formal debate."
Exoteric Syncretic tradition versus esotericism
Thus esoteric Buddhism became an important aspect of the TendaiTendai
is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...
school, which was primarily focused on the Lotus Sutra
Lotus Sutra
The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras, and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism were established.-Title:...
. "Chinese T'ien-t'ai had been a syncretistic tradition, particularly at the T'ien-t'ai Yu-ch'uan monastery. Chinese monks had been interested in Ch'an and Esoteric Buddhism as well as in the Ssu-fen la and Fan wang precepts. Saicho inherited this tradition, but developed certain aspects of it in innovative ways. For example, Saicho considered Esoteric Buddhism to be essentially the same as Tendai (enmitsu itchi) and thus awarded Esoteric Buddhism a more central place in the Tendai tradition than it had been given by most Chinese monks. Like Kukai, Saicho emphasized the importance of striving for enlightenment as an immediate goal to be attained in this existence (sokushin jobutsu). Tendai and Esoteric practices, he felt, provided a direct path (jikido) to enlightenment, whereas the teachings of the Nara schools required aeons to bring the practitioner to enlightenment.
However,
During the years that Saicho studied Esoteric Buddhism (from 805-815), more than half of the Tendai yearly ordinands left Mount Hiei. Many of them defected to the Hosso school; others departed in order to study Esoteric Buddhism with Kukai or to support their ailing mothers. It became clear that if Tendai were to survive, Saicho would have to retain many more of his students on Mount Hiei.
Moreover, Saichō began to realize that his own idea of "enmitsu itchi" was not exactly shared by the Esoteric Shingon school, and especially its founder Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi).
Ryuichi Abe writes: "...what makes the relationship between Saichō and Kūkai decisive in Japanese Buddhist history is not so much their cooperation as the manner in which it came to an end. Their alliance began to deteriorate when Saichō, after receiving abhiseka from Kūkai, hurried back to Mt. Hiei, where the work of laying the foundation of the new Tendai school awaited him. Saichō continued to study and copy Mikkyō texts borrowed from Kūkai, but despite Kūkai’s repeated requests he did not return to Takaosan-ji to resume his studies. Their rapport finally terminated when Kūkai harshly condemned Saichō’s approach to Mikkyō as a transgression of the esoteric precept of samaya [the promise to keep the oral/esoteric teachings private], and Saichō retorted by denouncing Kūkai’s manner of instruction "Thus it was Mikkyō that brought Saichō and Kūkai together; it was also Mikkyō that drove them apart. The break between Saichō and Kūkai left a long-lasting legacy in the Tendai and Shingon schools, whose complex relationship, constantly oscillating between affiliation and rivalry, shaped the contours of Buddhist history in the Heian period."
During the last five or six years of his life, Saicho strove to secure the place of Tendai within Japanese Buddhism, and in the process composed almost all of his major works.
"In 816, Saichō added a new introduction to the work. This introduction chides Sanron, Hossō, and Kegon—the leading schools of Nara Buddhism—for ignoring the influence of T’ien-t’ai on the works of their Chinese patriarchs, but its criticism of Shingon stands out: “The esoteric Shingon Buddhist, the newcomer, went so far as to deny the validity of transmission through writing (hitsuju Ù4)” (DZ 3, p. 344). In this comment Saichō denounced Kūkai and Shingon for their approach to Buddhism and religious study."
Saichō's late life criticisms were ignored by his own leading disciples, and the Tendai Sect would continue to teach Mikkyō and Shikangō (Lotus). Saichō’s public condemnation of Kūkai would later form the Seeds for some of the Criticisms leveled by the founder of the Nichiren Sect, Nichiren, who would cite that work in his own debates.
Saichō was also an author. He wrote a number of texts, the main ones include: (817) (818-819) (818) (820)
See also
- TendaiTendaiis a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...
- EnninEnninEnnin , who is better known in Japan by his posthumous name, Jikaku Daishi , was a priest of the Tendai school.- Birth and origin :...