Shunjō 俊芿 (Jùnréng, 1166–1227, dates Wénzhì 文治 2 – Ānzhèn 安貞 1; sometimes recorded 1167–1228 by alternate calendar conventions, the form preserved in DILA A000811), Japanese Vinaya monk and the principal early-Kamakura transmitter of Sòng Buddhist learning to Japan. Native of Higo 肥後 (modern Kumamoto, Kyūshū), childhood-name Bùkěqì 不可棄 (“Not-to-be-Discarded” — a jūnshō 童子 sobriquet recorded in his hagiographies). Posthumous titles: Yuèlún dàshī 月輪大師 (Gachirin Daishi) and Dàxìng zhèngfǎ guóshī 大興正法國師 (Daikō Shōbō Kokushi).
In Qìngyuán 慶元 5 (1199) Shunjō travelled to Sòng China, landing first at Jìngshān 徑山 to study under its 30th-generation abbot Méngān Yuáncōng 蒙庵元聰; he subsequently studied Tiāntái under Zōngyìn 宗印 and Vinaya under the Língzhī 靈芝 school’s heirs in the Hángzhōu region. He spent twelve years in Sòng China before returning to Japan in Jiànlì 建曆 1 (1211) carrying over two thousand fascicles of Buddhist texts, secular learning, and Sòng-period painting and calligraphy. On his return he was patronized by retired emperor Go-Toba 後鳥羽 and the Kanjuji 勧修寺 line of the Fujiwara, who in 1218 transferred to him the dilapidated Sen-yū-ji 仙遊寺 in north-eastern Kyōto; Shunjō rebuilt and renamed it Sennyū-ji 泉涌寺 (“Welling-Spring Temple,” named for a spring that erupted on the precincts during construction).
Shunjō’s Sennyū-ji became the center of Hokkyō-ritsu 北京律 (“Northern-Capital Vinaya”), the integrated Tiāntái–Chán–Vinaya–Pure-Land synthesis that he had brought back from Sòng China — a contrastive counterpart to Eison’s 叡尊 Saidaiji 西大寺 Nankyō-ritsu 南京律 lineage. The fourfold integration meant that Vinaya was practiced at Sennyū-ji under a Tiāntái doctrinal framework and a Chán meditative discipline, while Pure Land devotion served as the laity-orientated practice — the very model of the late-Sòng jièzōng 戒宗 reformist programme.
Shunjō’s textual contributions to Sòng China include the Lǜzōng wèndá 律宗問答 (KR6k0256, X1108) — a record of Vinaya-doctrinal questions he submitted to three Sòng Vinaya masters of the Língzhī–Tiāntái milieu in Jiādìng 嘉定 2 jǐsì (1209): 了然 Liǎorán of Línānfǔ Bùkōng jiàoyuàn 臨安府不空教院, 智瑞 Zhìruì of Huìjī Jílèyuàn 會稽極樂院, and 妙音 Miàoyīn of Zhīyán Jìnghuái Jìngfànsì 芝嵓淨懷淨梵寺. The thirty questions probe the Nánshān triple-contemplation programme, the relation of doctrinal Vinaya to ascetic practice, and the standing of various procedural rules. The work survives in two fascicles (上下).
Shunjō died at Sennyū-ji on the 8th day of the intercalary 3rd month of Ānzhèn 安貞 1 dīnghài (1227), aged 62. His Japanese disciples Tankai 湛海 and Shinjō 信如 carried the Hokkyō-ritsu lineage forward into the late Kamakura.
Wikidata: Q11385613.