Rìběnguó Chénghé wǔnián rùTáng qiúfǎ mùlù 日本國承和五年入唐求法目錄
The Catalog of Tang-Pilgrimage Dharma-Seeking, Japanese Country, Chéng-hé Year 5 by 圓仁 (撰), = Ennin 圓仁 (794–864)
About the work
A single-juan Japanese Tang-pilgrim importation catalog, the first of four importation catalogs by Ennin 圓仁 (Japanese Ennin, 794–864, posthumous title Cíjué Dàshī 慈覺大師 / Jikaku Daishi), the most famous of the Tendai-tradition nittō hakke and one of the most consequential Japanese Tang-pilgrim figures. The work is dated Chénghé 承和 5 = 838 (the Japanese embassy year) — but the actual catalog reflects the 839 initial return and the texts brought back by Ennin in that initial phase. Preserved at T55 no. 2165.
Abstract
Authorship and date: by Ennin 圓仁 (Japanese, 794–864), the great Tendai-school nittō hakke who spent 838–847 in Tang China — by far the longest of any of the nittō hakke. The present catalog represents an early phase of his importation. notBefore = 839, notAfter = 839. Catalog dynasty 日本.
Ennin’s Tang study was extraordinarily extensive — he spent nine years (838–847) traveling and studying throughout Tang China, including the famous Mount Wǔtái pilgrimage, and produced not only the multiple importation catalogs but the great travel-diary RùTáng qiúfǎ xúnlǐ xíngjì 入唐求法巡禮行記 (Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law) — the principal pre-modern foreign-traveler’s account of Tang Chinese society. He was also personally present at the Huìchāng 會昌 persecution of 845, providing one of the principal eye-witness accounts of that pivotal event in Chinese Buddhist history.
His four importation catalogs are:
- KR6s0111 Rìběnguó Chénghé wǔnián rùTáng qiúfǎ mùlù (T2165, this catalog) — the initial 839 catalog.
- KR6s0112 Cíjué dàshī zàiTáng sòngjìn lù (T2166) — the in-Tang sent-back catalog.
- KR6s0113 RùTáng xīnqiú shèngjiào mùlù (T2167) — the comprehensive importation catalog at his return.
- KR6s0114 Cháng’ān Yuánrén lìshū (related material).
His subsequent founding of the Tendai-Esoteric (Taimitsu 台密) tradition at Mount Hiei made him the principal architect of the institutional Tendai-school post-Saichō.
Translations and research
A vast scholarly literature on Ennin; selected major works:
- Edwin O. Reischauer, Ennin’s Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law (Ronald Press, 1955; reprinted multiple times) — the standard English translation of the Rù-Táng qiú-fǎ xún-lǐ xíng-jì.
- Edwin O. Reischauer, Ennin’s Travels in T’ang China (Ronald Press, 1955) — comprehensive companion analysis.
- Paul Groner, Saichō (1984) and successor scholarship on Tendai post-Saichō.
- Comprehensive Japanese Tendai-school scholarly tradition.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved Chinese DILA entry)
- CBETA: T55n2165
- Author: Ennin 圓仁 (794–864, Cíjué Dàshī 慈覺大師), great Tendai nittō hakke
- Tang mission: 838–847 (9 years)
- Companion Ennin catalogs: KR6s0112–KR6s0114
- Travel-diary: RùTáng qiúfǎ xúnlǐ xíngjì 入唐求法巡禮行記 (preserved separately)
- Eyewitness to: Huìchāng 會昌 persecution of 845