Jianzhen

Jianzhen the Chinese Buddhist monk of the Tang dynasty (688-763) who, after repeated failed attempts, crossed the sea to Japan and established there the orthodox ordination tradition of Buddhism, becoming one of the most revered figures in Japanese religious history and the founder of the Toshodaiji temple.

Early Life and Monastic Career

Jianzhen was born in 688 in Yangzhou, a prosperous city on the Grand Canal in eastern China, and entered the monastic life at the age of fourteen. He studied at the great monasteries of the region and later travelled to the capital and to Luoyang, where he mastered the Buddhist scriptures, the rules of monastic discipline and the medical and pharmacological learning for which he became famous.

In time he became a leading master of the Vinaya, the body of rules governing the ordination and conduct of monks. His learning and his integrity made him the head of a large monastic community in Yangzhou, and he was widely respected as an authority on ritual and discipline. He also gained a reputation as a healer and a pharmacist, and he is credited with knowledge of many medicinal remedies.

By his sixties he was a distinguished elder of the Chinese Buddhist establishment, with no apparent reason to leave his comfortable position. It was at this point that envoys from Japan arrived with a request that would change the course of his life and of Japanese Buddhism.

The Mission to Japan

In the eighth century Japan was importing the culture, institutions and religion of Tang China on a large scale. Two Japanese monks who had come to study asked Jianzhen to travel to their homeland to establish a proper ordination platform, since without a valid line of ordination the Japanese Buddhist community could not be sure that its monks were properly consecrated. The request answered a genuine need of the Japanese church.

Jianzhen agreed, despite the objections of his own disciples, who feared for his safety. The voyage from China to Japan was extremely dangerous, and the authorities were often unwilling to let skilled men leave the empire. Over a period of more than ten years he made several attempts to cross the sea, each ending in failure, shipwreck or official obstruction.

One attempt ended with his ship driven far off course to the southern island of Hainan, from which he made his difficult way back to the mainland through disease and hardship. He lost his sight during these years, perhaps from illness or injury, and the expedition cost the lives of many companions. Yet he refused to abandon the mission, and at last, in 753, he succeeded in reaching Japan.

Establishing Buddhism in Japan

Jianzhen was received with great honour at the Japanese court, which had come to regard his arrival as a matter of the highest importance. He was given authority to establish a proper ordination platform, and in 754 he presided over the ordination of a large number of monks, including members of the imperial family, at Nara. This act gave the Japanese Buddhist community a legitimate line of succession and a firm foundation.

He was also instrumental in founding the temple of Toshodaiji, where he spent his final years and where his memory is chiefly preserved. The temple became a centre of Buddhist learning and discipline, and the school of training that grew from his teaching influenced Japanese monastic life for centuries. Its buildings and treasures, including a famous portrait statue of Jianzhen, survive as national monuments.

Beyond religion he brought with him a wealth of Chinese culture and knowledge. He and his companions introduced new medicines and methods of compounding them, contributed to the growth of Japanese architecture and sculpture, and helped to transmit the skills and techniques of the Tang world. He is remembered in Japan as much for this cultural bequest as for his religious role.

Medical and Cultural Contributions

Jianzhen's knowledge of medicine was widely celebrated in Japan. He is credited with introducing various drugs and remedies and with instructing the Japanese in their use, and tradition associates him with the correction of errors in the pharmacological knowledge of his new country. A number of texts and prescriptions were attributed to him, and later physicians honoured him as a founder of their art.

His inability to see did not end his usefulness. He is said to have used his senses of taste and smell to identify medicines and to check their quality, and his authority in matters of drugs was accepted by the court. The combination of religious learning and practical medicine in a single figure made him a model of the complete scholar-monk of his age.

The group that accompanied him included craftsmen, artists and artisans as well as monks, and their work left a deep mark on Japanese building and sculpture. The architectural style and the religious art associated with his temple reflect the Tang manner and shaped the development of Japanese Buddhist art. The whole mission was thus an act of cultural transmission on a broad scale.

Influence and Legacy

Jianzhen is remembered as the founder of the orthodox Vinaya tradition in Japan and as one of the most important cultural bridges between China and his adopted country. The ordination platform he established continued to function for centuries, and the temple he founded remains a place of pilgrimage. His statue, a celebrated work of portrait sculpture, is among the great treasures of Japanese art.

In China he is honoured as a monk of exceptional courage, who endured shipwreck, illness and the loss of his sight rather than abandon a mission he believed necessary for the good of Buddhism. His story is told as an example of perseverance and devotion, and the number of his failed voyages is remembered as a measure of his determination.

He died in Japan in 763, having lived his last decade in the country he had laboured so hard to reach. The exchange he promoted between the two civilisations enriched both, and his name stands with that of Xuanzang as a symbol of the movement of ideas and faith across the seas of East Asia. He is venerated in Japan to this day as a founding father of its Buddhist church.

See also

• Xuanzang
• Toshodaiji
• Vinaya
• Buddhism in Japan