The most famous of the Heian-era Japanese Tang-pilgrim Buddhist monks (nittō hakke 入唐八家). Japanese name Ennin 圓仁; posthumous title Jikaku Daishi 慈覺大師 (“Great Master of Compassion-Awakening”). Born 794 CE; died 864 CE.
He was a senior Tendai 天台 disciple of Saichō 最澄 (最澄), and undertook the great Tang study mission of 838–847 — the longest Tang study tour of any of the nittō hakke. He spent nine years in Tang China, traveling extensively including the famous Wǔtáishān 五臺山 pilgrimage, and produced the principal pre-modern foreign-travel account of Tang Chinese society:
- RùTáng qiúfǎ xúnlǐ xíngjì 入唐求法巡禮行記 (Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law, in 4 juan) — one of the most important pre-modern foreign-traveler accounts ever written, providing detailed eyewitness observations of Tang Chinese society, Buddhist institutions, religious practice, and (uniquely) the Huìchāng 會昌 persecution of 845 which Ennin personally lived through.
He also produced four importation catalogs:
- KR6s0111 Rìběnguó Chénghé wǔnián rùTáng qiúfǎ mùlù (T2165)
- KR6s0112 Cíjué dàshī zàiTáng sòngjìn lù (T2166)
- KR6s0113 RùTáng xīnqiú shèngjiào mùlù (T2167)
- KR6s0114 (companion material)
After his return to Japan in 847, he became the principal architect of the post-Saichō Tendai institutional consolidation at Mount Hiei, particularly its Taimitsu 台密 (Tendai-Esoteric) integration that defined Japanese Tendai’s distinctive form. He served as the third zasu 座主 (Mount Hiei abbot) from 854 until his death in 864.
He was posthumously titled Jikaku Daishi 慈覺大師 in 866, becoming (together with Saichō = Dengyō Daishi) one of the two principal Tendai-tradition imperial-honored masters.
The English translation of Ennin’s diary by Edwin O. Reischauer (Ennin’s Diary, Ronald Press, 1955) is one of the foundational English-language documents of Western Sinology.
Source: KR6s0111–KR6s0114 (Ennin’s importation catalogs); Edwin O. Reischauer, Ennin’s Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law (Ronald Press, 1955); Edwin O. Reischauer, Ennin’s Travels in T’ang China (Ronald Press, 1955); standard Japanese Tendai-school biographical sources.