T'IEN-T'AI

Japanese Tendai, rationalist school of Buddhist thought that takes its name from the mountain in southeastern China where its founder and greatest exponent, Chih-i, lived and taught in the 6th century. The school was introduced into Japan in 806 by Saicho (q.v.), known posthumously as Dengyo Daishi. The chief scripture of the school is the Lotus Sutra (Chinese: Fa-hua Ching; Sanskrit: Saddharmapundarika-sutra), and the school is thus also known as the Fa-hua (Japanese: Hokke), or Lotus, school. The basic philosophical doctrine is summarized as the triple truth, or chikuan (perfected comprehension): (1) all things (dharmas) lack ontological reality; (2) they, nevertheless, have a temporary existence; (3) they are simultaneously unreal and temporarily existingbeing the middle, or absolute, truth, which includes and yet surpasses the others. The three truths are considered to be mutually inclusive, and each is contained within the others. Because existence is ever-changing, the phenomenal world is regarded as identical with the world as it really is. The doctrine of the triple truth was first taught by Hui-wen (550577); but Chih-i, the third patriarch, is regarded as the founder of the school because of his own great contributions. Chih-i organized the whole of the Buddhist canon according to the supposition that all the doctrines were present in the mind of Sakyamuni (the historical Buddha) at the time of his enlightenment but were unfolded gradually according to the mental capacities of his hearers. The Lotus Sutra was considered the supreme doctrine, embodying all of the Buddha's teachings. In 804 Saicho, a Japanese monk, was sent to China expressly to study the T'ien-t'ai tradition. The inclusiveness of the T'ien-t'ai school, which arranged all Buddhist learning into one grand hierarchical scheme, was attractive to Saicho. On his return to Japan he attempted to incorporate within the framework of the T'ien-t'ai doctrine Zen meditation, vinaya discipline, and esoteric cults. The Tendai school, as it is called in Japanese, also encouraged an amalgamation of Shinto and Buddhism in the Ichijitsu (One Truth), or Sanno Ichijitsu Shinto. The monastery founded by Saicho on Mount Hiei, near Kyoto, the Enryaku Temple, became the greatest centre of Buddhist learning of its time in Japan. Honen, and many other famous monks who later established their own schools, came there for training. Saicho's efforts to establish a Tendai ritual of ordination that would be more in keeping with Mahayana teachings and independent from the kaidan (ordination centre) at Nara bore results only after his death but was an important step in the Mahayana development in Japan. After the death of Saicho, rivalry broke out between two factions of the school, which separated in the 9th century into the Sammon and the Jimon sects, headed by the two monks Ennin and Enchin. A third branch, the Shinsei, emphasizes devotion to the Buddha Amida.