CHAPTER XX

HEIAN BUDDHISM

IT was in the year A.D. 767, in the first year of the period known to the Japanese as Jingo Keiun, that a child was born in a village in Omi, not far from the shores of Lake Biwa, who was destined to exercise a great influence on the Buddhism of his country. The father, a Confucianist scholar, and yet withal a man of religion and piety, had often prayed for a son, and, having obtained his desire, showed his gratitude to Heaven by the care which he bestowed upon his son's education. Saicho (that was the name by which the son was later known) grew up a well-trained lad, with a liking for books and a wisdom a little (possibly) beyond his years.

His father was a man of religion and piety; it was small wonder that the son should follow so near an example. Buddhism was at its flood-tide of popularity during the eighth century, and the Court, dissolute and luxurious, and yet, like the Athenians, given to superstition, encouraged a very magnificent system of ritualism as a make-weight for its moral and ethical deficiencies. It was very natural that the boy's imagination should be caught by the outward splendour of the worship he saw around him, and that his favourite pastime should be

playing at church. His companions nicknamed him the "Little Abbot."

As he grew older his religious sense deepened, and he saw that splendour of ritual was only one side of religion, and by no means the most important. He understood that the outward magnificence of devotion might co-exist with a worldly and unregenerate heart, and the age in which he lived gave him many warning examples. When he was born Japan was ruled over by a woman, the Empress Shotoku. Shotoku first came to the throne in the year 749. She was then styled Koken, and succeeded her father, Shomu (823-840), who, after a reign of twenty-five years, had abdicated and retired to a monastery. Shomu, like his aunt Gensho (715-823) who preceded him, had been a liberal patron of agriculture, arts, letters, and religion. The "Nihongi" was published in the reign of Gensho; under Shomu were commenced the great temples of Hase-dera and Todaiji, and the celebrated Daibutsu of Nara. Dispensaries and hospitals were opened, bridges built, tiles used for the roofing of houses, and examinations instituted for the selection of candidates for Orders and the public service. Shomu was the first Emperor of Japan to receive Baptism; his whole life

was devoted to the furtherance of Buddhism and the exaltation of the monks, and in the end he joined the Order, and with his mother, the Empress Dowager, took the vows of the Bosatsu Kai.