Jianzhen
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Jianzhen (Chinese: 鑒真; 688 – 763), born Chunyu (淳于),[1] was a Chinese monk who helped to propagate Buddhism in Japan. He was a friend of the poets Abe no Nakamaro.
Biography
Jianzhen was born in Guangling Commandery within the Tang dynasty which, in present day, is Yangzhou in Jiangsu province. At the age of fourteen, Jianzhen left home to join the Dayun Temple in Liangzhou along the Northern Silk Road, and at eighteen, took his bodhisattva vows with the monk Dao'an and devoted himself to the studies of Risshū Buddhism. At the age of twenty-one, Jianzhen took his upasampada vows in Chang'an and spent the next six years travelling between the former and Luoyang for his Tripiṭaka studies. At the end of his studies, Jianzhen returned to his hometown and became a teacher in the Daming Temple, where he taught the monastic commandments in and around the Jianghuai region.[1]
In 742, the first year of the Tianbao Era, after receiving an invitation from Japanese monks Yoei and Fushō, Jianzhen sought to travel east to Japan with his disciples, and made a total of five failed attempts to do so between 742 and 748.[1]
Appearances
References
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