Jianzhen (; 688–763), or Ganjin in Japanese, was a Chinese monk who helped to propagate

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. In the eleven years from 743 to 754, Jianzhen attempted to visit Japan some six times. Ganjin finally came to

in the year 753 and founded

Tōshōdai-ji is a Buddhist temple of the Risshū sect in the city of Nara, in Nara Prefecture, Japan. The Classic Golden Hall, also known as the '' kondō'', has a single story, hipped tiled roof with a seven bay wide facade. It is considered the archety ...

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

. When he finally succeeded on his sixth attempt he had lost his eyesight as a result of an infection acquired during his journey. Jianzhen's life story and voyage are described in the scroll, "The Sea Journey to the East of a Great

Bonze A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist c ...

from the Tang Dynasty."

Life

Jianzhen was born in Jiangyin county in Guangling Prefecture (present day

Yangzhou Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with it ...

) China, with the surname of Chunyu (淳于). At the age of fourteen, he became a disciple of

Dayun Temple The Dayun Group () is a Chinese conglomerate based in Yuncheng, Shanxi, China. Through its subsidiaries, it manufactures heavy trucks, light trucks, motorcycles and engines. Divisions Yuanhang Auto On the 2022 Chengdu Auto Show a new EV bra ...

(大云寺). At twenty he travelled to

Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin ...

for study and returned six years later, eventually becoming abbot of Daming Temple. Besides his learning in the

Tripiṭaka ''Tipiṭaka'' () or ''Tripiṭaka'' () or ''තිපිටක'' (), meaning "Triple Basket", is the traditional term for ancient collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures. The Pāli Canon maintained by the Theravāda tradition in ...

, Jianzhen is also said to have been an expert in medicine. He opened the Buddhist temple as a place of healing, creating the Beitian Court (悲田院)—a hospital within Daming Temple. In autumn 742, an emissary from Japan invited Jianzhen to lecture in Japan. Despite protests from his disciples, Jianzhen made preparations and in spring 743 was ready for the long voyage across the

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated ...

to Japan. The crossing failed and in the following years, Jianzhen made three more attempts but was thwarted by unfavourable conditions or government intervention. In summer 748, Jianzhen made his fifth attempt to reach Japan. Leaving from Yangzhou, he made it to the

Zhoushan Archipelago Zhoushan , formerly romanized as Chusan, is an urbanized archipelago with the administrative status of a prefecture-level city in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. It consists of an archipelago of islands at the southern mouth of H ...

off the coast of modern

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

. But the ship was blown off course and ended up in the Yande (延德) commandery on

Hainan Island Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slight ...

. Jianzhen was then forced to make his way back to Yangzhou by land, lecturing at a number of monasteries on the way. Jianzhen travelled along the

Gan River The Gan River (, Gan: Kōm-kong) runs north through the western part of Jiangxi before flowing into Lake Poyang and thus the Yangtze River. The Xiang-Gan uplands separate it from the Xiang River of neighboring eastern Hunan. Two similarly sized ...

Jiujiang Jiujiang (), formerly transliterated Kiukiang or Kew Keang, is a prefecture-level city located on the southern shores of the Yangtze River in northwest Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. It is the second-largest prefecture-level cit ...

, and then down the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

. The entire failed enterprise took him close to three years. By the time Jianzhen returned to Yangzhou, he was blind from an infection. Toshodaiji Nara Nara pref02s3s4560

In the autumn of 753, the blind Jianzhen decided to join a Japanese emissary ship returning to its home country. After an eventful sea journey of several months, the group finally landed at

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

, on December 20. They reached

in the spring of the next year and were welcomed by the Emperor. At Nara, Jianzhen presided over

Tōdai-ji is a Buddhist temple complex that was once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples, located in the city of Nara, Japan. Though it was originally founded in the year 738 CE, Tōdai-ji was not opened until the year 752 CE. The temple has undergo ...

. The Chinese monks who travelled with him introduced Chinese religious sculpture to the Japanese. In 755, the first ordination platform in Japan was constructed at Tōdai-ji, on the place where including former

Emperor Shōmu was the 45th emperor of Japan, Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 聖武天皇 (45)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Shōmu's reign spanned the years 724 through 749, during the Nara period. Traditional narrative ...

and

Empress Kōmyō (701 – 23 July 760), born Fujiwara Asukabehime (藤原安宿媛), was the consort of Japanese Emperor Shōmu (701–756) during the Nara Period.Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan,'' pp. 57-58. Life A member of th ...

received ordination by Jianzhen a year earlier. In 759 he retired to a piece of land granted to him by the imperial court in the western part of Nara. There he founded a school and also set up a private temple,

. In the ten years until his death in Japan, Jianzhen not only propagated the Buddhist faith among the aristocracy, but also served as an important conductor of Chinese culture. Jianzhen died on the 6th day of the 5th month of 763. A dry-lacquer statue of him made shortly after his death can still be seen at Tōshōdai-ji. Recognised as one of the greatest of its type, it has been postulated by statue restoration experts that the statue incorporates linen clothing originally worn by Ganjin.NHK World, ''Mysteries of Ganjin's Statue'', 11/2/13. The statue was temporarily brought to Jianzhen's original temple in Yangzhou in 1980 as part of a friendship exchange between Japan and China. Jianzhen is credited with the introduction of the Ritsu school of Buddhism to Japan, which focused on the ''

vinaya The Vinaya (Pali & Sanskrit: विनय) is the division of the Buddhist canon ('' Tripitaka'') containing the rules and procedures that govern the Buddhist Sangha (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). Three parallel Vinaya traditions rema ...

'', or Buddhist monastic rules. In May 2010, the Taiwanese Buddhist organization

Tzu Chi Buddhist Tzu Chi Charity Foundation, known for short as the Tzu Chi Foundation ( zh, t=佛教慈濟慈善事業基金會, p=Fójiào Cí Jì Císhàn Shìyè Jījīn Huì, l=Buddhist Compassionate Relief Charity Foundation), is a Taiwanese in ...

organized and produced an animated drama on Jianzhen's life and journey to Japan.

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Bingenheimer, Marcus (2003).
A translation of the Tōdaiwajō tōseiden 唐大和上東征傳.” (Part 1)
" The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies 4, 168-189 * Bingenheimer, Marcus (2004).
A translation of the Tōdaiwajō tōseiden 唐大和上東征傳. (Part 2)
, The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies 5, 142-181 * * Genkai, Aomi-no Mabito; Takakusu J., trans. (1928)
Le voyage de Kanshin en Orient (742-754)
Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient 28 (1), 1-41 * Genkai, Aomi-no Mabito; Takakusu J., trans. (1929)
Le voyage de Kanshin en Orient (742-754)
Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient 29 (1), 47-62 * Zhou, Yuzhi (2016)
Ganjin: From Vinaya Master to Ritsu School Founder
Journal of Asian Humanities at kyushu University 1, 47-52

External links

{{Authority control Tang dynasty Buddhist monks Japanese Buddhist clergy Blind clergy 688 births 763 deaths Chinese emigrants to Japan Founders of Buddhist sects Nara period Buddhist clergy 8th-century Chinese physicians