Chuánjiào dàshī jiānglái Tāizhōu lù 傳教大師將來台州錄
The Catalog of [Texts] Brought Back from Tāi-zhōu by the Great Master of Transmission of the Teaching by 最澄 (撰), = Saichō 最澄 (767–822)
About the work
A single-juan Japanese Buddhist canonical-importation catalog by Saichō 最澄 (767–822, posthumous title Dèngyō dàishī 傳教大師 / Dèngyō Daishi), the founder of Japanese Tiāntái = Tendai Buddhism. The work catalogs the texts that Saichō brought back from his 804–805 Tang study mission to Tāizhōu 台州 (modern Tāizhōu in Zhèjiāng, the principal Tiāntái-school home base under the SòngTāizōng successors). The Kanripo catalog meta classifies the work as Japanese 日本 — a useful reminder that the Tāizhōu lù and its companion (KR6s0106 Yuèzhōu lù) are documents of Japanese Buddhism’s Tang-period origin rather than works of Chinese Buddhism per se. Preserved at T55 no. 2159.
Prefaces
The text has no preserved auto-preface in the canonical version; the body of the text provides the systematic catalog of texts brought back, organized by source-temple and -text. The byline identifies Saichō by his posthumous Japanese title.
Abstract
Authorship and date: composed by Saichō 最澄 (767–822, Dèngyō Daishi 傳教大師) immediately upon his return to Japan in 805 CE from his Yánlì 延曆 23 (804) – 24 (805) Tang study mission. notBefore = 805, notAfter = 805. Catalog dynasty 日本 (Japan).
Saichō’s 804–805 Tang mission — and his concurrent shipmate Kūkai’s 空海 (774–835) parallel mission (KR6s0107 Yù qǐnglái mùlù) — are foundational moments in the history of Japanese Buddhism: they together brought the entire Tang-period Buddhist canonical-and-doctrinal apparatus to Japan, establishing the Tendai and Shingon schools as institutional pillars of Japanese Buddhism that have continued to the present.
Saichō spent his Tang study at Tāizhōu under the Tiāntái master Dàosuì 道邃 (744–823?), studying the Tiāntái doctrinal corpus and receiving the bodhisattva precepts at the canonical Tiāntái precept-platform. He brought back 230 sutras and treatises (per his own count in the Tāizhōu lù) — primarily Tiāntái-tradition canonical works including the Sìjiào yì 四教義 of Zhìyǐ, Móhē zhǐguān 摩訶止觀, Dàshèng zhǐguān fǎmén 大乘止觀法門, and many other foundational Tiāntái doctrinal works.
The Tāizhōu lù documents the Tāizhōu portion of the importation; its companion KR6s0106 Yuèzhōu lù documents the Yuèzhōu portion of his return route (where he received additional texts and Esoteric initiation under Shùnxiǎo 順曉 of Lóngxīngsì 龍興寺 in Yuèzhōu).
Translations and research
A vast scholarly literature on Saichō; selected major works:
- Paul Groner, Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School (Hawai’i, 1984; reprinted 2000) — the standard English-language treatment.
- Ryūichi Abé, The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse (Columbia, 1999) — context for the parallel Kūkai mission.
- Robert F. Rhodes, Saichō’s Treatise on the Bodhisattva Vows (Hawai’i, 2017) — Saichō’s doctrinal contribution.
- Comprehensive Japanese-Tendai scholarly tradition including Sonoda Kōyū 園田香融, Suzuki Tetsu’o 鈴木哲雄, and successors.
Other points of interest
The SaichōKūkai twin missions of 804–805 are the single most consequential moment in the history of Japanese Buddhism — together importing the entire Tang Buddhist canonical-and-doctrinal apparatus and establishing the dual Tendai-Shingon institutional structure that has defined Japanese Buddhism since. The two catalogs (KR6s0105–KR6s0106 for Saichō; KR6s0107 for Kūkai) are the principal documentary witnesses to this foundational moment.
Links
- DILA authority: (Saichō has no Chinese DILA entry; Japanese Buddhist authority resources should be consulted)
- CBETA: T55n2159
- Author: Saichō 最澄 (767–822, Dèngyō Daishi 傳教大師), founder of Japanese Tendai
- Tang study mission: 804–805 at Tāizhōu under Dàosuì 道邃 (Tiāntái) and Yuèzhōu under Shùnxiǎo 順曉 (Esoteric)
- Companion catalog: KR6s0106 Yuèzhōu lù
- Parallel mission catalog: KR6s0107 Yù qǐnglái mùlù of Kūkai 空海
- Foundational for: Japanese Tendai 天台 school