On Repaying Debts of Gratitude

Chapter11(The Propagation of the Teachings by the Great Teacher Dengyō in Japan)

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Turning now to Japan, we find that, in the reign of the thirtieth sovereign Emperor Kimmei, on the thirteenth day of the tenth month in the thirteenth year of his reign (552), cyclical sign mizunoe-saru, a copy of the Buddhist scriptures and a statue of Shakyamuni Buddha were brought to Japan from the Korean kingdom of Paekche. And in the reign of Emperor Yōmei, Prince Shōtoku began the study of Buddhism. He dispatched a court official named Wake no Imoko to go to China and bring back the copy of the Lotus Sutra in one volume that had belonged to him in a previous life,³³ and expressed his determination to honor and protect the sutra.

Later, by the reign of the thirty-seventh sovereign Emperor Kōtoku, the Three Treatises, Flower Garland, Dharma Characteristics, Dharma Analysis Treasury, and Establishment of Truth schools were introduced to Japan and, in the time of the forty-fifth sovereign Emperor Shōmu, the Precepts school was introduced, thus making a total of six schools. But during the time from Emperor Kōtoku to the reign of the fiftieth sovereign Emperor Kammu, a period of over 120 years under fourteen reigns, the T’ien-t’ai and True Word schools had not yet been introduced.

During the reign of Emperor Kammu, there was a young priest named Saichō who was a disciple of the Administrator of Priests Gyōhyō of Yamashina-dera temple. He made a thorough study of Dharma Characteristics and the others of the six schools mentioned above, but he felt that he had yet to reach a true understanding of Buddhism. Then he came upon a commentary that the Dharma Teacher Fa-tsang of the Flower Garland school had written on The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana, and in it were quotations from the works of the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai.

These works of T’ien-t’ai seemed to be worthy of special attention, but Saichō did not even know whether they had yet been brought to Japan or not. When he questioned someone about this, the person replied that there had been a priest named the Reverend Chien-chen, [known as Ganjin in Japan], of a temple called Lung-hsing-ssu in Yang-chou in China who had studied the T’ien-t’ai teachings and had been a disciple of the Discipline Master Tao-hsien. Toward the end of the T’ien-pao era (742–756), he journeyed to Japan, where he worked to spread a knowledge of the Hinayana rules of monastic discipline. He had brought with him copies of the works of T’ien-t’ai, but had not attempted to disseminate them. All this took place, Saichō was told, during the time of the forty-fifth sovereign Emperor Shōmu.

When Saichō asked if he could see these writings, they were brought out and shown to him. On his first perusal of them, he felt as though he had been awakened from all the delusions of birth and death. And when he began to consider the basic doctrines of the six schools of earlier Buddhism in the light of what he found in these writings, it became apparent that each of the schools was guilty of doctrinal error.

Immediately he vowed to do something about the situation, saying, “Because the people of Japan are all patrons of those who are slandering the correct teaching, the nation will surely fall into chaos.” He thereupon expressed his criticisms of the six schools, but when he did so, the great scholars of the six schools and the seven major temples of Nara rose up in anger and flocked to the capital, until the nation was in an uproar.

These men of the six schools and seven major temples were filled with the most intense animosity toward Saichō. But as it happened, on the nineteenth day of the first month in the twenty-first year of the Enryaku era (802), Emperor Kammu paid a visit to the temple called Takao-dera, and he summoned fourteen eminent priests—namely, Zengi, Shōyū, Hōki, Chōnin, Kengyoku, Ampuku, Gonzō, Shuen, Jikō, Gen’yō, Saikō, Dōshō, Kōshō, and Kambin—to come to the temple and debate with Saichō.

These various men of the Flower Garland, Three Treatises, Dharma Characteristics, and other schools expounded the teachings of the founders of their respective schools just as they had learned them. But the Honorable Saichō took notes on each point put forward by the men of the six schools and criticized it in the light of the Lotus Sutra, the works of T’ien-t’ai, or other sutras and treatises. His opponents were unable to say a word in reply, their mouths as incapable of speech as if they were noses.

The emperor was astounded and questioned Saichō in detail on various points. Thereafter he handed down an edict criticizing the fourteen men who had opposed Saichō.

They in turn submitted a memorial acknowledging their defeat and apologizing, in which they said, “We, students of the seven major temples and six schools, . . . have for the first time understood the ultimate truth.”

They also said, “In the two hundred or more years since Prince Shōtoku spread the Buddhist teachings in this country, a great many sutras and treatises have been lectured upon, and their principles have been widely argued, but until now, many doubts still remained to be settled. Moreover, the lofty and perfect doctrine of the Lotus Sutra had not yet been properly explained and made known.”

They also said, “Now at last the dispute that has continued so long between the Three Treatises and Dharma Characteristics schools has been resolved as dramatically as though ice had melted. The truth has been made abundantly clear, as though clouds and mist had parted to reveal the light of the sun, moon, and stars.”

The Reverend Saichō, in his appraisal of the teachings of his fourteen opponents, wrote as follows: “You each lecture upon the single scripture [of your own school], and though you sound the drums of the teachings within the deep valleys, both lecturers and hearers continue to go astray on the paths of the three vehicles. Though you fly the banners of doctrine from lofty peaks, and both teachers and disciples have broken free from the bonds of the threefold world, you still persist on the road of the enlightenment that takes countless kalpas to achieve, and confuse the three kinds of carts with the great white ox cart outside the gate.³⁴ How could you possibly attain the first stage of security and reach perfect enlightenment in this world that is like a house on fire?”

The two court officials [Wake no] Hiroyo and Matsuna³⁵ [the brothers who were present at the debate] commented as follows: “Through Nan-yüeh, the wonderful Law of Eagle Peak was made known, and through T’ien-t’ai, the wonderful enlightenment of Mount Ta-su³⁶ was opened up. But one regrets that the single vehicle of the Lotus is impeded by provisional teachings, and one grieves that the unification of the three truths has yet to be made manifest.”

The fourteen priests commented as follows: “Zengi and the others of our group have met with great good fortune because of karmic bonds and have been privileged to hear these extraordinary words. Were it not for some profound karmic tie, how could we have been born in this sacred age?”

These fourteen men had in the past transmitted the teachings of the various Chinese and Japanese patriarchs of their respective schools such as Fa-tsang and Shinjō of the Flower Garland school, Chia-hsiang and Kanroku of the Three Treatises school, Tz’u-en and Dōshō of the Dharma Characteristics school, or Tao-hsüan and Ganjin of the Precepts school. Thus, although the vessel in which the water of the doctrine was contained had changed from generation to generation, the water remained the same.

But now these fourteen men abandoned the erroneous doctrines that they had previously held, and embraced the teachings of the Lotus Sutra as expounded by Saichō, the Great Teacher Dengyō. Therefore, how could anyone in later times assert that the Flower Garland, Wisdom, or Profound Secrets Sutra surpasses the Lotus Sutra?

These fourteen men had of course studied the doctrines of the three Hinayana schools [Establishment of Truth, Dharma Analysis Treasury, and Precepts]. But since the three Mahayana schools [of Flower Garland, Three Treatises, and Dharma Characteristics] had suffered a doctrinal defeat, we need hardly mention the Hinayana schools. However, there are some people today who, being unaware of what actually happened, believe that one or another of the six schools did not suffer a doctrinal defeat. They are like the blind who cannot see the sun and moon, or the deaf who cannot hear the sound of thunder, and who therefore conclude that there are no sun and moon in the heavens, or that the skies emit no sound.

Notes

33. This story appears in The Genkō Era Biographies of Eminent Priests, written in Japan by the Zen priest Kokan Shiren (1278–1346). Tradition also has it that, in a previous life, Shōtoku was Nan-yüeh, T’ien-t’ai’s master.

34. Reference is to the parable of the three carts and the burning house in chapter 3 of the Lotus Sutra.

35. Hiroyo and Matsuna were sons of Wake no Kiyomaro, a court official. In 802, in response to an imperial command, they assembled fourteen learned priests from the seven major temples of Nara at Mount Takao to debate with Dengyō. Later, they supported Dengyō in establishing the Tendai school.

36. The place where T’ien-t’ai studied under Nan-yüeh and is said to have awakened to the truth of the Lotus Sutra.

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