The Jianzhen Monk
1 min readJianzhen was born in 688 in Yangzhou City , Jiangsu Province. When he was 20 years old, Jianzhen left his hometown for Luoyang and Chang’an to study. And he became a monk in Chang’an at the age of 21.
He mastered skillfully Vinaya, medicine, architecture, sculpture and so on. Jianzhen returned to his hometown in 733 and took charge of Daming Temple. In his hometown, he built many temples and Buddha statues. Moreover, Jianzhen wrote three works of Tripitaka and was devoted to charity. In 742, Jianzhen decided to go to Japan to spread Vinaya at the invitation of some Japanese monks studying in China.
Due to many difficulties, Jianzhen successfully arrived in Japan in 753. Jianzhen spread Vinaya in Japan and founded Japanese Vinaya. All in all, Jianzhen was not only a Chinese Vinaya master, but also the founder of Japanese Vinaya.
