Jianzhen Monk spreads the word in Japan

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Jianzhen，a Buddhist monk lived in the early Tang Dy-nasty（618-907 AD），is today widely remembered and revered by people in both China and Japan as a great dharma master who made strenuous attempts to go to Japan to spread Bud-dhism and Chinese culture more than 1，200 years ago.

Master Jianzhen was born into a pious Buddhist family in today’s Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province.Little is known about his childhood except that his family name was Chunyu.

According to some folk stories，when he was 14 years old，one day his father took him to worship in Dayun Temple，a big Buddhist temple in Yangzhou. And the young boy was awed by the gigantic and imposing Buddha statues. He was also fas-cinated by the script chanting and Buddhist ceremonies.

Next day, the boy asked for his father’s permission to study in the temple and become a monk. Being a devout Bud-dhist himself, his father agreed.

The young Chunyu spent the following six years studying Buddhism in the temple as a novice. At the age of 20, he was formally ordained as a monk and given the religious name Jianzhen.

After his ordination, Jianzhen began traveling the country to continue his study of Buddhist doctrines, sutras and particu-larly the Buddhist precepts. Soon, the young monk had earned himself a reputation as a master of Buddhist precepts. Also, through arduous study, he was knowledgeable in Chinese liter-ature, art, architecture and traditional Chinese medicine.

In 713 AD, Jianzhen returned to his hometown to preach Buddhism. As his reputation grew, he began to attract a big following.

Those were the prosperous years of the Tang Dynasty(618-907 AD), one of the most powerful regimes in Chinese history. Its strong economy, advanced technology and rich culture had attracted thousands from overseas every year.

Japan constantly sent students, monks and scholars to China to study its political system, culture and religion. Even today, people can still see the Tang influence in various aspects of life in Japan.

In 742 AD, two Japanese monks, Yoei and Fusho, visited Yangzhou to meet Jianzhen. They urged the master to go to Japan to preach Buddhism and particularly the Buddhist pre-cepts. At that time, Buddhism had already begun to spread in Japan, but the monks there were not properly ordained ac-cording to Buddhist rules, thus they couldn’t gain social accep-tance. Some even caused trouble because of lack of discipline.

However, the Tang laws then banned its people from going overseas by sea and Jianzhen’s disciples also didn’t want him to take the risk as seafaring was very dangerous at that time.

Still, Jianzhen decided to go. He told his disciples that many people had sacrificed their lives to pass down the Bud-dhist teaching to them and it was their obligation to preach Buddhism in Japan. But due to government intervention and unfavorable natural conditions, Jianzhen’s five attempts in the following 10 years to cross the East China Sea to Japan failed.

During the fifth attempt, strong northerly winds blew his ship off course and sent it all the way south to today’s Hainan Island in the South China Sea. And during the harrowing journey back to Yangzhou by land, Both Yoei, the Japanese monk, and one of Jianzhen’s favorite Chinese disciples who had accompanied him, died on the road. Jianzhen himself suf-fered an eye injury and later,a serious eye infection. By the time he returned to Yangzhou, the master was blind.

However, the setbacks failed to deter the master from fulfilling his mission. In 753 AD, at the age of 66, Jianzhen boarded a ship of a Japanese emissary returning home and after several months at sea, the master and a group of his dedicated disciples set foot in Japan.

Early next year, Jianzhen traveled to Nara, then capital of Japan, and was warmly welcomed by the Japanese emperor and his people.