Text Documents And Extracts Chiefly From Manuscripts in Bodleian Vol 01 Part 02

SR No.: 020817
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller, Bunyiu Nanjio
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1883
Total Pages: 131
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English & Book_Devnagari
File Size: 10 MB

Page 27

SUKHÂVATI-VYOHA.
xxi
the patriarchs'. The schools of Thien-thâi and Shân continue to hold the doctrine of Amitâyus in China, though in a somewhat different way.
In Japan, the principal sect of the doctrine of the Pure Land' dates from the twelfth century of the Christian era. But long before that date this doctrine was known there. In A.D. 640 the third Chinese translation of the Large Sukhâvati-vyûha now in existence was lectured on by a priest named Ye-on, in the presence of the Emperor Zið-mei?. In A.D. 774 a nun, who was called by the official title of Kiu-zio, and who died in her thirty-ninth year, is said to have been a believer in this doctrine In A.D. 972 a priest, Ku-ya by name, who died in his seventieth year, and is said to have been a son of the Emperor Dai-go (reigned from A. D. 898 to 930), taught this doctrine to the people in Kioto, then the Imperial capital. There is still a certain number of his followers there, who from time to time assemble in a small temple, in which his statue is installed, within the large temple, Roku-haramitsu-si (Shat-pâramitavihara), in Kioto.
In A.D. 1017 another teacher, Gen-shin, also called Ye-shin, died in his seventy-sixth year. He was a priest of the Ten-dai sect, but truly followed the orthodox doctrine of Amitâyus, agreeing with the opinions of the Chinese priest Shân-tão (Zen-do), the fifth patriarch of the Shinshiu. In A.D. 984-985 he wrote a work entitled Wô-zió-yô-shiu, or
Collection of Important information on the doctrine of going to be born in Sukhâvati.' On account of the authorship of this useful book he is considered to be the sixth patriarch of this doctrine, according to the Shin-shiu.
About a century later, there were two priests, Yo-kwan and Rio-nin, the former died in A.D. IIII, and the latter in 11326. Yo-kwan left a work entitled Wô-ziô-ciu-in, or . Ten Causes for going to be born in Sukhâvati.' Riô-nin founded his sect in A.D. 1127. His sect is called after its principle, Yu-dzû-nen-butsu, or 'Circulation of the Merit of Remembering Buddha Amitâyus or repeating his name,' that is to say,
1 See the Tsin-thu-shan-hhien-lu, or Records or Memoirs of the Sages and Wise Men of the Pure-Land Sect, compiled by Phan Tshai-thsin, in A.D. 1783; and its continuations, by two others, about A.D. 1850.
? See the Nihon-sho-ki, and Koku-shi-riaku, fasc. 1, fol. 24 b. * Butsu-zô-dzu-i, fasc. 5, fol. 9 b. Ibid., fol. 4 a. • Ibid., fol. 9 b.