Jianzhen | |
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鑒真 | |
 Japanese sculpture of Jianzhen inTōshōdai-ji temple.Nara period, 8th century AD. | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Chunyu (first name unknown) 688 |
| Died | 763 (aged 74–75) Tōshōdai-ji,Nara Prefecture,Japan |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| Temple | Daming Temple Tōshōdai-ji |
| School | Risshū |
| Lineage | 3rd generation |
| Dharma names | Jianzhen |
| Senior posting | |
| Teacher | Zhiman (智滿) Dao'an (道岸) |
Students
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| Jianzhen | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 鑒真 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 鉴真 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Ganjin | |||||
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| Japanese name | |||||
| Kanji | 鑑真 | ||||
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Jianzhen (688–763), also known by hisJapanese nameGanjin (Japanese pronunciation:[ɡaꜜɲ.dʑiɴ][1]), was aTangChinesemonk who helped to propagateBuddhism inJapan. In the eleven years from 743 to 754, Jianzhen attempted to visitJapan some six times, arriving in the year 753 and foundingTōshōdai-ji inNara. When he finally succeeded on his sixth attempt, he had lost his eyesight as a result of an infection acquired during his journeys. Jianzhen's life story and voyage are described in the scroll, "The Sea Journey to the East of a GreatBonze from the Tang Dynasty."[2]
Jianzhen was born in Jiangyin county inGuangling Prefecture (present dayYangzhou),China, with the surname of Chunyu (淳于). At the age of fourteen, he became a disciple ofDayun Temple (大云寺). At twenty he travelled toChang'an for study and returned six years later, eventually becoming abbot of Daming Temple. Besides his learning in theTripiṭaka, 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.[3] Despite protests from his disciples, Jianzhen made preparations and in spring 743 was ready for the long voyage across theEast China Sea 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 theZhoushan Archipelago off the coast of modernZhejiang. But the ship was blown off course and ended up in the Yande (延德) commandery onHainan Island. 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 theGan River toJiujiang, and then down theYangtze River. The entire failed enterprise took him close to three years. By the time Jianzhen returned to Yangzhou, he was blind from an infection.
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 atKagoshima,Kyūshū, on December 20. They reachedNara in the spring of the next year and were welcomed by the Emperor. At Nara, Jianzhen presided overTōdai-ji. 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 formerEmperor Shōmu andEmpress Kōmyō 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,Tōshōdai-ji. 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.
Jianzhen is credited with the introduction of theRitsu school of Buddhism to Japan, which focused on thevinaya, or Buddhist monastic rules.
A dry-lacquer statue of the monk made shortly after his death can still occasionally 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.[4] The statue is made public only during a limited number of days around the anniversary of Jianzhen's death. For example, it was exhibited from June 2nd to 10th in 2007. The statue was temporarily brought to Jianzhen's original temple inYangzhou in 1980 as part of a long-planned friendship exchange between Japan and China. In preparation, the Chinese dredged the entireSlender West Lake leading up to the temple from the old city center and rehabilitated Buddhist temples and other sites around the area.
