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The art of dwarfed potted
tree culture is said to have been introduced to Japan by
Jianzhen (688-763) [aka Ganjin and Chien-chen]. This noted Chinese monk from Jiangsu
province traveled to Nara in Japan in early 754. During a ten-year stay in Japan,
he not only preached Buddhism but with his companions/disciples also imparted his
knowledge about Chinese medicine, language, literature, architecture, sculpture,
calligraphy, and printing to the Japanese people. He greatly contributed to
the cultural exchanges and development between China and Japan. It was his
knowledge that contributed to the beginning of the art of dwarf potted trees in
Japan. Or so the story goes.
1
Jianzhen (688-763) was born in Jiangyin county in Guangling (present day Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province in East China) with the surname of Chunyu. At the age of fourteen he began to study Buddhism in Yangzhou's Dayun Temple (Ta-yün-ssu). Then he left his hometown for Luoyang where he entered the Buddhist church as a disciple of Daming Temple to study the T'ien-t'ai and Precepts teachings. [Damingso, Grand Brightness Temple, a monastery on Shugang Hill in the northwest suburb of Yangzhou, dates back to the Southern Dynasties in the fifth century.] At age twenty, he traveled to the Tang capital of Chang'an for study. He apprenticed to many celebrated monks such as Dao'an, Hengjing, and others. Under the guidance of his teachers, Jian Zhen became well versed not only in Buddhism, but also in literature, art, medicine, architecture, sculpture and so on, which was an important reason that Jianzhen could make great progress with Vinaya, the Buddhist monastic rules. Jianzhen is also said to have been expert in medicine. He opened the Buddhist church as a place of healing, creating the Beitian Court -- a hospital within Daming Temple. In 713, Jianzhen, who by that time had become a renowned Buddhism master, went back to Yangzhou to preach Buddhism and attracted a following. He also organized the transcription of over 33,000 rolls of scriptures, and designed more than 80 temples and monasteries. Many Japanese monks studying Buddhism in China greatly admired him. By the age of 40, Jianzhen had returned to his hometown Yangzhou and took charge of Daming Temple. Through such deeds he got much experience of leadership and cultivated many friendships with many experts, which would later facilitate his travel to Japan. At 45, he became an authority in the Vinaya. More than 40,000 monks were ordained by him. He spent 10 years in promulgating the theories of Vinaya and was known as a Vinaya master like his teacher Dao'an. At the same time, he constructed many temples and Buddha statues, and he wrote three works of Tripitaka, the three divisions of the Buddhist canon: the sutras (the Buddha's doctrinal teachings), vinaya (rules of monastic discipline), and abhidharma (commentaries on the sutras and vinaya). Now, during these golden years (between the 7th-8th centuries) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), China's economy and national power reached a new high. This led to unprecedented prosperity in the friendly relations and cultural exchanges between China and Japan (and many other states with China). In order to learn of the political system and the profound culture of the Tang Dynasty, Japan sent various envoys -- including students, monks, and scholars as well as knowledgeable intellectuals -- to China by sea many times. Chinese envoys also sailed to Japan for cultural exchanges. So it was that in 742, two Japanese monks, Yoei and Fusho, studying Buddhism in China made a special trip to Yangzhou. They came to invite Jianzhen to do missionary work in Japan and instruct priests and nuns there in the precepts. This was also the wish of the Japanese Government for the pair were dispatched by the Japanese emperor Shomu to invite Chinese priests well-versed in Buddhist teachings and precepts to teach in Japan. In addition, the emperor wanted them to establish an authentic Buddhist ordination platform, which Japan lacked. That autumn, Jianzhen decided to go to Japan to lecture and spread Vinaya. Despite protests from his disciples, he made preparations. In the spring of 743, then aged 55 and together with some of his disciples and some artisans, Jianzhen started off by the long voyage across the East China Sea to Japan. In the end, however, he would have to try six times to cross to Japan. He was thwarted the first five times by natural disasters or a Chinese imperial prohibition against leaving the country. In the summer of 748, Jianzhen made his fifth attempt to reach Japan. Leaving from Yangzhou, he made it to the Zhoushan Archipelago off the coast of modern Zhejiang province. But the ship was blown off course and ended up in the Yande commandery on Hainan Island, just south of China. Hainan is at least 50% further from Zhejiang -- but in the opposite direction -- as Japan is from Zhejiang. This disastrous journey took the lives of 36 members of Jianzhen's crew -- including that of Eiei, one of the Japanese monks who had accompanied him. More than 200 others abandoned him out of fear and frustration. Jianzhen was then forced to make his way back to Yangzhou by land, lecturing at a number of monasteries on the way. He travelled along the southern Chinese Gan River to Jiujiang (an important port city on the middle stretch of the Yangtze River), and then down the Yangtze. The entire failed enterprise took him close to three years. By the time he returned to Yangzhou, he was blind from an infection. Still, his determination to go to Japan remained firm. Undeterred, Jianzhen made the sixth and final attempt five years later at the age of 66. On the date equivalent to October 19, 753, he left from Longxing Temple in Yangzhou and started off for Japan from Huangsipu in Suzhou (also in East China's Jiangsu Province). This was onboard the ship of the Japanese envoys to China. After an eventful sea journey, the group finally landed on December 20 at Kagoshima on the southwest tip of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four largest islands. (The cities of Kagoshima and Yangzhou are approximately at the same latitude. And they are just slightly further apart "as the crow flies" than Kagoshima is from Nara.) Forty days later, Jianzhen and his entourage arrived in Nara, then the capital of Japan, where they were formally welcomed. The Japanese highly respected Jianzhen and the Mikado (emperor) showed his welcome at the monk's arrival. Jianzhen was invited to teach at Todai-ji, now among the oldest Buddhist establishments in Japan. (This was barely three years after the great bronze statue of Buddha was first completed there.) In the ten years he was in Japan, Jianzhen not only propagated the Buddhist faith among the aristocracy, but also served as an important conductor of Chinese culture. Many of his Chinese disciples and travel companions were eminent architects and sculptors who then introduced Chinese religious sculpture to the Japanese. Most of his disciples were good at Chinese verses, which greatly influenced Japanese literature. In 755, Jianzhen had an ordination platform erected at Todai-ji temple and conducted ceremonies conferring the precepts on the Retired Emperor Shomu and some four hundred others. In the fifth month of the same year, he established the Precepts school of Buddhism, which stressed discipline over doctrine. (The Precepts school (Sanskrit, Vinaya; Chinese, Ly; Japanese, Ritsu) and five others would form the Nara sects, the oldest sectarian division of Japanese Buddhism). Jianzhen also brought with him the scriptures of the T'ien-t'ai school. (Dengyo (767-822), the founder of the Japanese Tendai school, would later study them.) Ganjin is the Japanese reading of his Chinese name and is the name by which Jianzhen became known in Japan. In the fifth month of 756, he was appointed general supervisor of priests, and in the eighth month, general administrator of priests. In 759 Jianzhen retired to a piece of land granted to him by the imperial court in the western part of Nara. There he founded a school and also set up a private temple, Toshodai-ji, under the patronage of Empress Koken. This was built using the most advanced building techniques. Constructions there were all planned and overseen by the blind Jianzhen and his disciples. Toshodai-ji became the model of Japanese Buddhist arts that influenced later temples greatly. Jianzhen's visit to Japan added new elements into Japanese culture and promoted the Sino-Japan cultural exchange. Jianzhen introduced the advanced technology and culture of the Great Chinese Tang Dynasty to Japan. This provided much fuel for the development of Japanese culture. In the field of Arts, he introduced Chinese Calligraphy and sculptures. Jianzhen also introduced Traditional Chinese Medical Science to Japan and is regarded as the founder of Japanese pharmaceutics. It is recorded that he could easily determine whether the medicine was right just by smelling it. In Japan he is still honored as the Patriarch of sugar extraction, sewing, beancurd making, and soya sauce production. Jianzhen died on the 6th day of the 5th month of 763 in Japan's Toshodai Temple. He was posthumously called the Great Teacher Kakai, or the Great Teacher Who Crossed the Sea. Entrusted by Jianzhen's disciples, a famous writer of the Nara Era (710-784) wrote a book, which recorded the hardships of the master's six attempts to cross the sea. This enabled later generations to understand both China and Japan's shipbuilding and navigation technologies during the Tang Dynasty. His biography, The Life of the Great Priest of Tang China Who Journeyed to the East, was written in 779 by Omi no Mifune, a scholar and court official.
A dry-lacquer statue of Jianzhen made shortly after his death can still be seen in his temple at Nara. Recognised as one of the greatest of its type, the statue was temporarily brought to Jianzhen's original temple in Yangzhou in 1980 as part of a friendship exchange between Japan and China. Above the gate of Daminge is the inscription "Fajing Temple." This was written in 1765 by Emperor Qian Long of the Qing Dynasty when that monarch came on an inspection tour. A three-port, three-storied archway leads to Heavenly Gate Hall (Tianmendian) and to the Grand Hall, which stands at the rear of the temple. To the east is Clear Sky Chamber (Qinggongge), now serving as Monk Jian Zhen's memorial hall. Built more than 1,600 years ago, the major Buddhist temple of Daming in Yangzhou is now best known for its Jian Zhen Memorial Hall, dedicated to the Tang dynasty abbot of the temple. The Hall, built in 1974, is modeled after the main hall of the Toshodai Temple in Nara, Japan, which Jianzhen built. A cedarwood statue of the teacher stands in the hall and there are still religious and cultural exchanges between Nara and Yangzhou. 2
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