Yuanren (794 – February 24, 864), a Japanese monk, was a Japanese monk, the third ancestor of the Tendai Sect of Japan, and a master of Cijue, who entered the Eight Houses of the Tang Dynasty (Most Cheng, Kukai, Changxiao, Yuanxing, Yuanren, Huiyun, Yuanzhen, and Zongrui). Born in Shimono Kunito-gun, he entered daici-ji temple at the age of 9 and entered The Enrysa-ji Temple at the age of 15 to receive the most enlightened teachings.
In the third year (838) of Tang Wenzong's reign, as a monk, he accompanied the last batch of Tang envoys to China to seek the Dharma, first to the Chishan FahuaYuan on the Shandong Peninsula to chant the sutra, and during the Fahua Temple, he heard that the famous Tiantai Sect Leader Zhiyuan was promoting the Tiantai teachings on Mount Wutai, so he decided to change his original intention and change the place of practice to Mount Wutai.
In March of the fifth year (840) of Emperor Wenzong of Tang's reign, Yuanren and his disciples Wei Zheng, Wei Xiao, and others left the FahuaYuan, and the master of the FahuaYuan, Master Faqing, personally sent them to Wendeng County, one hundred and thirty miles away, to bid them farewell. After finishing his practice at Mount Wutai, Yuanren traveled to Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, the largest city in the world at that time and home to the most cutting-edge culture.
Yuanren and his party passed through Qingzhou (present-day Yidu, Shandong), Zizhou (present-day Zibo), Qizhou (present-day Jinan), Dezhou, Tangzhou, Jizhou (present-day Jixian County, Hebei), Zhao Prefecture (present-day Zhao County), and Zhenzhou, and arrived at Mount Wutai on June 2, 1955, to study the Tendai religious teachings under the Zhiyuan Gate. Two months later, on August 8, he left Mount Wutai and traveled to Chang'an on September 19 via Hezhou (present-day Taiyuan), Fenzhou (present-day Fenyang, Shanxi), Jinzhou (present-day Pingyang), Puzhou (present-day Yongji), and Tongzhou (present-day Dali, Shaanxi), where he lived for nearly five years. The first worship of Daxingshan Temple Yuanzheng Ah Yan Li learned the Vajrayogini Dafa.
In the first year (841) of The Tang Wuzong Huichang, he also learned the Fetal Tibetan Boundary Law from the Qinglong Temple and received an empowerment, and then received the ritual of passing on the Yuanfa Temple,000 rituals, and practiced meditation according to Zong Ying of Liquan Temple, realizing his long-cherished wish for many years of seeking the Dharma.
When he was living in Chang'an, he happened to encounter the Tang Wuzong Huichang extinction incident ("Huichang Fa Difficulty"), and Yuanren was also deeply affected. Yuanren himself was "ordered to return to his homeland because he did not have a Tang ancestral temple" because he did not have a Tang Ancestral Temple. He was extremely bitter of Emperor Wuzong, and in the "Records of entering the Tang Dynasty to Seek the Law", he lashed out at Tang Wuzong's destruction of the law. On June 5, 845, in the fifth year of Huichang (845), Yuanren pretended to be vulgar and left Chang'an.
In the process of entering the Tang Dynasty to seek the Dharma, Yuanren wrote the "Record of the Visit to the Tang Dynasty", which is the earliest official travel record in Japanese history, which records the relevant situation of the Tang Wuzong Huichang's destruction of the Buddha movement, and makes a detailed description of the social customs of China in the 9th century, which has high historical value and is one of the important historical materials for the study of the history of the late Tang Dynasty.
The book begins on June 13 of the third year of Emperor Wenzong's reign (July 2, 838 AD), departs from Hakata Bay, Japan, and continues to be written until December 14, 1988, when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang returned to Japan, Hakata, from China on December 14, 848 (January 23, 848 AD), which lasted nine years and seven months. Although the whole book is not recorded day by day, it is basically divided into schedules, with a total of 597 articles totaling more than 80,000 words, divided into four volumes.
The "Record of entering the Tang Dynasty to Seek the Dharma" was originally stored in Kyoto's Enriku-ji Temple, and has been lost for a long time. However, after the "Record of entering the Tang Dynasty and Seeking the Law" was written, it was once widely circulated. The earliest documentary record of the book "Entering the Tang Dynasty and Seeking the Law and Traveling rituals" is the earliest to be counted as the "Biography of Master Cijue", which was created 49 years after Yuanren's death, which clearly states: "The deeds of entering the Tang Dynasty are recorded according to this book."
In addition, the Japanese monk Cheng Xunzhi, who came to China in the fifth year of The Year of Emperor Xining of Song Shenzong (1072 AD), in the "Records of Mount Wutai of The Tower", when recording the gifts to Song Shenzong in the "Fourteenth Day of October in the Fourth Year of Yanjiu", mentions: "The three volumes of the Master Jue's Tour Book are entered in turn, and the fourth volume of the Tour Book is hidden, and the evil deeds of Yi Si Hui Chang Tianzi are also there." It can be seen from this that the "Record of the Journey to the Tang Dynasty" was presented as a state gift at that time, and it was four volumes at the beginning of the book. The reason why Cheng Xun withheld the fourth volume was because the fourth volume involved Tang Wuzong's evil deed of "destroying the Buddha", and there were many words of resentment in the text. Later, until the Kamakura shogunate period (1192-1333 AD), the manuscript of the "Journey to the Tang Dynasty and Seeking the Law" was still circulated among monks and laymen. But it has been unknown for more than five centuries.
After the 16th year of Meiji (1883 AD), dr. Sanjo And others, while investigating the documents collected by the Kanchi-in Temple in Kyoto, rediscovered the manuscript of the "Records of the Journey to the Tang Dynasty" copied by the old monk of Changraku-ji Temple in the fourth year of Emperor Fushimi's reign (1291 AD). The discovery shook the Japanese government and the public, and in the 36th year of Meiji (1903 AD), the book, which served as a secret repository, was the oldest manuscript, and the "Journey to the Tang Dynasty" was revered as a national treasure. In the seventh year of Taisho (1918 AD), the book was included in the "Complete Book of Great Japanese Buddhism" and the "Youfang Biography Series" published by the Buddhist Periodicals.
During the Tang Dynasty, one of the most open times in Chinese history, the Tang Empire welcomed people from any country with open arms and awarded full scholarships to foreign students. This has attracted a large number of envoys and students from all over the world, especially Japan and South Korea, to study China's advanced culture. At such a good time, the famous Japanese monk Yuanren sent a Tang delegation to Tang in the third year of Tang Kaicheng (838). At that time, Japan and the Korean Peninsula were at odds with Silla, and the fleet could not continue to sail safely along the korean peninsula island chain to reach China's Shandong Peninsula, so they had to take advantage of the rare northwesterly wind in May and June every year to travel westward, cross the dangerous open sea, land from Yangzhou or Ningbo in the south, and then march to Chang'an.
Yuanren and his group arrived in Yangzhou on July 25, 838, after experiencing hardships and nine deaths. He was full of hope and submitted a request to go up Tiantai Mountain in Taizhou and then to Chang'an to study Buddhism, but the Yangzhou government refused, believing that he was already a highly learned "please yi monk" ("please yi monk" was a monk who had expertise in Buddhist studies and came to The Tang Dynasty with difficult questions), far higher than the "study abroad monk", and could not enjoy the preferential treatment of the Tang Dynasty government's full scholarship to stay and study. Yuanren, who had never been able to pass customs clearance, studied the Fa in Yangzhou for 7 months and then had to return home with the fleet of missions that had completed the visit to Min'an. On March 22, the fourth year of Tang Kaicheng (839), Yuanren was sent out of the country under the supervision of the government.
Unwillingly, Yuanren became ill on his way back to China via Haizhou (present-day Lianyungang City) and went ashore with his three apprentices, trying in every possible way to stay in seclusion in China. Although he was also black-haired and yellow-skinned, he was recognized by the local people and forced to catch up with the fleet in a second boat, which had lost contact with the other 8 ships in the fleet. Due to clouds, rain, mist, and unstable winds, after nearly 20 days of sea turbulence, I finally saw land on April 17. Everyone was ecstatic, thinking that they had arrived in the south of the Silla Kingdom, but Yuanren's apprentices and sailors came ashore and knew that it was the south of Tangyang Tao Village in Muping County, Dengzhou, Tang Dynasty (south of the present-day Da Tao Jia Village in Rushan City), and they could not help but be a little disappointed. He submitted a message to the local government and set up a tent on the shore, waiting for the convoy to meet and wait for the wind to change so that the voyage back home could continue. A few days later, Muping County sent a judge to comfort him, help prepare the food, and reported to the prefecture to give him a wine cake silk brocade.
They arrived in Rushanpo at midnight on 26 April. It's a port where you can add water and food and repair ships. The unique landscape here attracts the attention of Yuanren. He wrote: "On the twenty-sixth day, in the morning dynasty, the clouds and mist were faint, and I saw Mount Rushi, close to the west. The wind rises to the northeast, and the sails hang. At the end of the day, go to The West Pu of Milk Mountain, and the berthing boat will stop. The mountains and islands are guarded, such as around the wall. The body of its milk mountain: the peak is high, the top is like a front, and the mountain root refers to the six directions from the bottom of the ridge. In the west of Australia, there are also stone mountains (referring to the West Milk Mountain), rock peaks and ridges, and gao xiu half a day. ”
Because there is no official customs clearance document, Yuanren's master and apprentice are illegally living in China. He thought of his ambitions and the expectations of the monks when he left, and he felt extremely ashamed of the feats of the master of the Zhen Zhen Dynasty, Rokudo Japan. If you go back empty-handed like this, you will regret it for the rest of your life. He also vaguely felt that due to the heavy burden of high expenditure, the Japanese Government may no longer send missions to study abroad to China in the future, and it must seize this opportunity and never resign itself to fate.
On April 29, a well-thought-out Yuan-jin consulted with The Silla interpreter Dao Xuan on board to discuss whether it was feasible to stay in China, and the answer was "stable and convenient." He also tentatively asked Wang Xun, the person in charge of the local village, and said that there was no problem. His chest was full of heat, and he thought that during his stay in the Rushan Pass area, he had many dealings with the government, the people, and the Silla people, and he deeply felt that the people here were friendly, simple and warm, and courteous, not only helping to repair ships and raise food for treatment, but also telling him that there was a Chishan Hohwa Temple fifty or sixty nautical miles away from the sea. This made Yuanren's heart shine a lot brighter, so he resolutely made up his mind not to return to Japan with the Tang envoys, but to stay in China, go to Chishan, and then look for an opportunity to go west to Chang'an.
In this way, due to the rare continuous rain, the wind was not smooth, coupled with the fact that there were many islands and reefs around the Rushan Pass, the coastline curved and turned, and the unfamiliar terrain of Yuanren actually went in and out of the roundabout for more than 40 days, until the third day of June, under the guidance of the locals, Fang rode the tide from Shaocunpu, or sailed or bridge, and pointed to the Red Mountain. In the Chishan Hokke-in Temple, created by the Silla man Jang Po-gyu, the three of them repeated the same trick, saying that the ship had left at night and pretended to be abandoned by accident, which was successfully retained. With the help of local monks and people, Yuanren finally obtained the Customs Clearance And embarked on his pilgrimage.
In master Yuanren's entire journey into the Tang Dynasty to seek the Fa, Rushan Pass was a key node, a turning point that changed his life's destiny and achieved his great cause. Interestingly, the fate of Yuanren and Rushan Pass is not over. On July 20, 847, Master Yuanren entered the Tang Dynasty to seek the Dharma, and returned to China on the Silla Jinzhen boat to return to China again via Rushan Pass, this time carrying hundreds of sutras and the deep friendship of the Tang people.
Professor Yasumin Suzuki said that Genjin has a high reputation in Japan and has been highly valued by Japanese historians. After returning to Japan, he became the third ancestor of the Tendai Sect in Japan, and after his death, he was given the title of Master of Cijue by the Emperor. Every year at 9:00 a.m. (8:00 a.m. Beijing time) on April 14, about 80 monasteries in Japan and China simultaneously ring bells to commemorate the birthday of Gen-jin. Written in ancient Chinese, this "Journey to the Tang Dynasty and Seeking the Law" is the earliest official travel record in Japanese history, a precious historical document about the early stage of Sino-Japanese relations, revered as a national treasure, and is known as the world's three major travel records in the history of world culture, together with Xuanzang's "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" of the Chinese Tang Dynasty and Marco Polo's "Records of Oriental Observations" in Italy.
Not far to the east of rushan pass, there is a sense of "a bridge across the sea and land, stepping on the heavens and the earth", the monk cave under the bridge has left a good story for thousands of years, the scene of Master Yuanren meditating and chanting in the monk's cave has become the history of local people's word of mouth, and Rushan City has also erected an inscription near the monk cave to commemorate it. In addition, the name "Rushan" was recorded in the annals of history in the book "Records of the Visiting ceremony of entering the Tang Dynasty", which is the earliest record of "Rushan" in historical books.
Exotic mountains and rivers
Wind and moon on the same day
Send the Buddhas
Get together