back, the one with the Shingon, the other with the Tendai. Again it is significant that these sects, and especially the Tendai, which became practically the State religion of Japan for many centuries, were the very sects which had organized the persecution against Zendo, when he first began to preach his doctrine of Salvation by Faith in Amida.

But the light still shone, in spite of the opposition of the Tendai. Zendo's books came over to Japan, Mr. Tada tells us, at different times between 996 and 858, and several monks, such as Kuya and Eikwan, kept alive the faith in Amida, invoking His Name on Hieizan, or wandering, disguised as travelling priests or horse dealers (umakata), from province to province, preaching a simple faith to country peasants. [**] And finally, the great Honen (Genku), breaking with the Tendai, as so many others had

done, in order to return to the teaching of Zendo, founds at Kurodani a temple, still known as Konkai Komyoji, "the Illustrious Temple of the Golden Precept," which is to this day one of the chief seats of the Chinsei sub-division of the Jodo Sect. And it is this Chinsei-ha which preserves Zendo's rule of making the Nembutsu an invocation of the Great Amida alone, to the exclusion of all the rest.

Footnotes

^154:* The Sui dynasty ruled in China from 589-659. A.D. They came to power at the close of a long period of division, the Empire having been previously divided into many small Kingdoms, with Chinese rulers south of the Yangtse, and Tartar or Turkish chieftains in the northern districts. Such were the Wei (Tartars), the Hsia (Hun), the Northern Yen (Tartar), the Western Liang (Turkish), and the Western Tsin (Tibetan). These smaller Kingdoms are of great importance in the History of Buddhism, for it was in them rather than in China proper that Buddhism flourished before the Tang period. The Sui family had but two Sovereigns, Wenti (589-606), who united China and carried the Chinese name far among the Turks in the N. and East, and Yangti (605-617), a man of violent temper, prone to debauchery and extravagance, who brought the Empire to the verge of ruin. He was overthrown by Li-yuan of the Tang family, who ascended the throne in A.D. 618, as Kaotsu.

^155:* It will be well to remember that under the earlier Tang Emperors, Chinese Viceroyalties extended as far as the frontiers of the Persian Empire, and that even monarchs like Siladitya Harsha of Kanauj acknowledged Chinese influence. It must also be remembered that Kaotsu suppressed Buddhist monasteries, sending 100,000 bonzes and nuns about their business, being stimulated thereto by petitions from Chinese literati. Buddhism had many enemies; e.g. in India, where Harsha's predecessor had likewise (in 601) dissolved the monasteries, and even uprooted the famous Bodhi-tree. V. A. Smith, Early History of India.