Editing Talk:Emperor Shōmu

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==The Japanese ruler mentioned in ''Dynasty''==
It's not entirely clear that the ruler mentioned in Abe no Nakamaro's letter as receiving Bodhisattva precepts from Master Jianzhen was Emperor Shōmu. The main problem is that while Abe no Nakamaro mentions that it was the ''tennō'', i.e. the Japanese monarch, who received the precepts, {{wiki|Jianzhen's Wikipedia article}} expressly says that this individual was "former Emperor Shōmu" and his consort. He was not the reigning ''tennō'' at the time. In fact, the reigning ''tennō'' was {{wiki|Empress Kōken}}. If not for the uncited line in the Wikipedia article specifying that it was the retired Emperor Shōmu, taken at face value, the letter would have been referring to Empress Kōken. Since ''tennō'' is technically a gender-neutral term, it's hard to know for sure. Either the author made a mistake, Abe no Nakamaro made the mistake, or the idea was that Abe no Nakamaro didn't bother with the technicality that Emperor Shōmu had retired. In any case, I fear that it may be premature of us to create this article. I would be comfortable with it if we have an authoritative source that retired Emperor Shōmu historically received the Bodhisattva precepts from Master Jianzhen at Tōdai-ji in 755 instead of just an uncited line on Wikipedia and if we can verify that Empress Kōken didn't also receive the precepts there in 755 as well (that the Wikipedia article didn't happen to omit this...). [[User:Sol Pacificus|<span style="color:#990000;font-family:Monotype Corsiva;font-size:17px">'''Sol Pacificus'''</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:Sol Pacificus|<span style="color:#D4AF37;font-family:Californian FB;font-size:11px">(Cyfiero)</span>]]</sup> 02:07, 3 April 2023 (UTC)