Saicho

Statue of Saichō in Hōshakuzan Nōfuku-ji ( 宝 積 山 能 福寺 ), Kobe

Saichō ( Japanese 最澄 'highest clarity'; * September 9, 767 ; † June 26, 822 ) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who is considered the founder of the traditional Tendai-shū in Japan. Building on the Chinese Tiantai tradition, which he had gotten to know on the Tiantai Mountain during his stay in China in 804, he founded the Tendai-shū with the main temple Enryaku-ji on the Hiei mountain near Kyoto . Posthumously he was given the title Dengyō Daishi ( 伝 教 大師 , in German about 'Great Master of the Tradition of Teaching').

Life

Saichō was born the son of devout Buddhists of Chinese descent. At the age of 12 he became a student of Gyōhyō ( 行 表 ; 722-797) in the provincial temple of Ōmi Province , where he was taught in the tradition of the northern Chan doctrine. At the age of 14 he officially joined the Sangha and at the age of 19 received full monk consecration in the Tōdai-ji of the Kegon-shū in Nara . He soon turned his back on the capital and retired to a hermitage in Hieizan, where he devoted himself to meditation and the study of the Huayan and Tiantai Zong. This was to eventually become one of the largest temple complexes in Japan: the Enryaku-ji.

But as early as 794 the capital was moving closer again, as the Kammu- tennō had made Heian-kyō , today's Kyōto, the new residential city. In fact, Saichō had participated in the dedication rites of the new city. The Tennō soon became aware of the learned monk, encouraged him and commissioned him with the mission to study Buddhism in China . Saichō accepted and traveled to China in a group of four ships in 804, only two of which finally reached the mainland. On board the other was Kūkai , the later founder of the Shingon-shū , who would later become Saicho's friend and then one of his bitterest rivals in Japan.

Saichō became a pupil at the monastery mountain Tiantai in the ox-head school of Chan under Master Hsiao-jan ( 翛 禪 ) and studied Tiantai zong under Daosui ( 道 邃 ) and Zhenyan ( 眞 言 , Japanese Shingon ) under Shunxiao ( 順 曉 ), was finally in the Tiantai zong ordained and returned to Japan in 805 with a large number of sutras and commentaries.

In 806 Saichō founded the Tendai-shū, whose monks, however, had to make a pilgrimage to the mighty monasteries of Naras for ordination , just like the monks of the esoteric Shingon-shū, also founded by Kūkai around this time. It was only under the Saga -tennō in 822 that both orders received the right to set up their own ordination platform ( 戒壇 , kaidan ), which is considered the great moment of Japanese Mahayana . Saichō had died a week earlier. He had appointed Gishin as his successor, who was succeeded by Ennin , who had grown up in the temple under the care of Saicho.

literature

• Paul Groner: Saicho. The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School. University of Hawaii Press, 2000.
• The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism. Soka Gakkai , 2002, ISBN 4-412-01205-0 .
• Abe Ryūichi: Saichō and Kūkai. A conflict of interpretations. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies Vol: 22 / 1–2, p. 103-137, 1995

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism. Soka Gakkai, 2002, ISBN 4-412-01205-0 Gyōhyō
2. ↑ Groner, Paul (2000). Saicho: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0824823710 , pp. 38-64.
3. ^ The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism. Soka Gakkai, 2002, ISBN 4-412-01205-0 . tendai school ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• Bernhard Scheid: Saichō and Tendai Buddhism
• Saichō's Monastic Reforms
• Dengyo Daishi's Life and Teachings access date10 December 2012