Talk:Emperor Shōmu
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, 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 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...). Sol Pacificus(Cyfiero) 02:07, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
- For what is worth, the French used "l'empereur" (masculine form for emperor) instead of "monarque" (direct translation of monarch, both masculine and feminine forms are identical). On the other hand, the wikipedia page for Tōdai-ji says that both Shōmu and Kōken received the ordination: "In 754 CE, ordination was given by Ganjin, who arrived in Japan after traveling over 12 years and six attempts of crossing the sea from China, to Empress Kōken, former Emperor Shōmu and others." I should also point out that our translation also uses "Emperor", but if it's monarch, we should change that there too. - Soranin (talk) 02:30, 3 April 2023 (UTC)