View source for Jianzhen

{{Short description|Chinese monk who spread Buddhism in Japan}}
{{redirect|Ganjin|the village in Iran|Ganjin, Iran}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| honorific-prefix = 
| name             = Jianzhen
| honorific-suffix = 
| native_name      = 鑒真
| native_name_lang = zh
| image            = Ganjin wajyo portrait.JPG
| caption          = Japanese sculpture of Jianzhen in [[Tōshōdai-ji]] temple. [[Nara period]], 8th century AD.
| religion         = [[Buddhism]]
| school           = [[Risshū (Buddhism)|Risshū]]
|lineage           = 3rd generation
| temple           = [[Daming Temple]]<br>[[Tōshōdai-ji]]
| alma_mater       =
| other_names      =  
| dharma_names     = Jianzhen
| pen_name         = 
| posthumous_name  = 
| nationality      = Chinese
| birth_name       = Chunyu (first name unknown)
| birth_date       = 688
| birth_place      = [[Yangzhou]], [[Jiangsu]], China
| death_date       = {{death year and age|763|688}}
| death_place      = Tōshōdai-ji, [[Nara Prefecture]], [[Japan]]
| education        = 
| resting_place    = 
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|latitude|longitude|type:landmark|display=inline,title}} -->
| spouse           = 
| children         = 
| parents          = 
| title            = 
| period           = 
| predecessor      = 
| successor        = 
| rank             = 
| teacher          = Zhiman ({{zh|t=智滿|labels=no}})<br>Dao'an ({{zh|t=道岸|labels=no}})
| students         = Xiangyan ({{zh|t=祥彥|labels=no}})<br>Daoxing ({{zh|t=道興|labels=no}})<br>Situo ({{zh|t=思托|labels=no}})<br>Fajin ({{zh|t=法進|labels=no}})
| works            = 
| website          = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
| background       = #FFD068
}}
{{infobox Chinese
|pic=File:Jianzhen memorial hall.jpg
|picsize=250px
|piccap=Jianzhen Monk Memorial Hall, [[Daming Temple]] in [[Yangzhou]], [[China]]
|altname=Chinese name
|t2={{linktext|鑒|真}}
|s2={{linktext|鉴|真}}
|p2=Jiànzhēn
|w2=Chien-chen
|mi2={{IPAc-cmn|j|ian|4|.|zh|en|1}}
|j2=Gaam3-zan1
|y2=Gaamjān
|ci2={{IPAc-yue|g|aam|3|.|z|an|1}}
}}
{{chinese
|title=Ganjin
|pic=File:Toshodaiji Nara Nara pref02s3s4560.jpg
|picsize=250px
|piccap=Golden Hall of [[Tōshōdai-ji]] in [[Nara, Nara|Nara]], [[Japan]]
|kanji={{linktext|鑑|真}}
|romaji=Ganjin
}}
'''Jianzhen'''<!--script name in infoboxes; cf. [[WP:MOS-ZH]]--> (688–763), also known by his [[Japanese language|Japanese]] name '''Ganjin''' ({{IPA|ja|ɡaꜜɲ.dʑiɴ}}<ref>{{cite book|script-title=ja:新明解日本語アクセント辞典|edition=2nd|editor-last=Kindaichi|editor-first=Haruhiko|editor-link=Haruhiko Kindaichi|editor-last2=Akinaga|editor-first2=Kazue|publisher=[[Sanseidō]]|date=10 March 2025|lang=ja}}</ref>), was a [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] [[Han people|Chinese]] [[Buddhist monk|monk]] who helped to propagate [[Buddhism]] in [[Japan]]. In the eleven years from 743 to 754, Jianzhen attempted to visit [[Japan]] some six times, arriving in the year 753 and founding [[Tōshōdai-ji]] in [[Nara, Nara|Nara]].  When he finally succeeded on his sixth attempt, he had lost his eyesight as a result of an infection acquired during his journeys. Jianzhen's life story and voyage are described in the scroll, "The Sea Journey to the East of a Great [[Bonze]] from the Tang Dynasty."<ref>A Blessing over the Sea: The [[Tōshōdai-ji]] Exhibition, in [[Shanghai]], {{YouTube|5c4Lv400XlE&t|What are the Highlights of an Exclusive visit to the Tangzhaoti Temple Exhibition?}}, Documentary on Buddhist Monk, Jianzhen, who made a sea voyage to the East (to Japan), to teach the precepts of Buddhism to the Japanese. / Dec 2019, minutes 1:19 (with subtitles).</ref>

==Life==
Jianzhen was born in Jiangyin county in [[Guangling Commandery|Guangling Prefecture]] (present day [[Yangzhou]]), [[China]], with the surname of Chunyu ({{lang|zh|淳于}}). At the age of fourteen, he became a disciple of [[Dayun Temple]] ({{lang|zh|大云寺}}). At twenty he travelled to [[Chang'an]] for study and returned six years later, eventually becoming abbot of Daming Temple. Besides his learning in the [[Tripiṭaka]], Jianzhen is also said to have been an expert in medicine. He opened the Buddhist temple as a place of healing, creating the Beitian Court (悲田院)&mdash;a hospital within Daming Temple.

In autumn 742, an emissary from Japan invited Jianzhen to lecture in Japan.<ref>A Blessing over the Sea: The [[Tōshōdai-ji]] Exhibition, in [[Shanghai]], {{YouTube|5c4Lv400XlE&t|What are the Highlights of an Exclusive visit to the Tangzhaoti Temple Exhibition?}}, Documentary on Buddhist Monk, Jianzhen, who made a sea voyage to the East (to Japan), to teach the precepts of Buddhism to the Japanese. / Dec 2019, minutes 0:40–0:51 (with subtitles).</ref> Despite protests from his disciples, Jianzhen made preparations and in spring 743 was ready for the long voyage across the [[East China Sea]] to Japan. The crossing failed and in the following years, Jianzhen made three more attempts but was thwarted by unfavourable conditions or government intervention.

<gallery class="center" heights=300px widths=400px >
File:Travels of Jianzhen.png | Map of Jianzhen's travels
</gallery>

In summer 748, Jianzhen made his fifth attempt to reach Japan. Leaving from Yangzhou, he made it to the [[Zhoushan Archipelago]] off the coast of modern [[Zhejiang]]. But the ship was blown off course and ended up in the Yande (延德) commandery on [[Hainan|Hainan Island]]<!--"島" is not in current use in CPR.-->. Jianzhen was then forced to make his way back to Yangzhou by land, lecturing at a number of monasteries on the way. Jianzhen travelled along the [[Gan River]] to [[Jiujiang]], and then down the [[Yangtze River]]. The entire failed enterprise took him close to three years. By the time Jianzhen returned to Yangzhou, he was blind from an infection.

In the autumn of 753, the blind Jianzhen decided to join a Japanese emissary ship returning to its home country. After an eventful sea journey of several months, the group finally landed at [[Kagoshima]], <!-- "兒" is not in current use in Japan, 児 is; please don't revert it. -->[[Kyūshū]], on December 20. They reached [[Nara, Nara|Nara]] in the spring of the next year and were welcomed by the Emperor. At Nara, Jianzhen presided over [[Tōdai-ji]]. The Chinese monks who travelled with him introduced Chinese religious sculpture to the Japanese. In 755, the first ordination platform in Japan was constructed at Tōdai-ji, on the place where including former [[Emperor Shōmu]] and [[Empress Kōmyō]] received ordination by Jianzhen a year earlier. In 759 he retired to a piece of land granted to him by the imperial court in the western part of Nara. There he founded a school and also set up a private temple, [[Tōshōdai-ji]]. In the ten years until his death in Japan, Jianzhen not only propagated the Buddhist faith among the aristocracy, but also served as an important conductor of Chinese culture.

Jianzhen died on the 6th day of the 5th month of 763.

==Legacy==
Jianzhen is credited with the introduction of the [[Risshū (Buddhism)|Ritsu]] school of Buddhism to Japan, which focused on the ''[[vinaya]]'', or Buddhist monastic rules.

A dry-lacquer statue of the monk made shortly after his death can still occasionally be seen at Tōshōdai-ji. Recognised as one of the greatest of its type, it has been postulated by statue restoration experts that the statue incorporates linen clothing originally worn by Ganjin.<ref>NHK World, ''Mysteries of Ganjin's Statue'', 11/2/13.</ref> The statue is made public only during a limited number of days around the anniversary of Jianzhen's death. For example, it was exhibited from June 2nd to 10th in 2007. The statue was temporarily brought to Jianzhen's original temple in [[Yangzhou]] in 1980 as part of a long-planned friendship exchange between Japan and China. In preparation, the Chinese dredged the entire [[Slender West Lake]] leading up to the temple from the old city center and rehabilitated Buddhist temples and other sites around the area.

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography ===
*  Bingenheimer, Marcus (2003). "[http://mbingenheimer.net/publications/bingenheimer.ganjin1.pdf A translation of the Tōdaiwajō tōseiden 唐大和上東征傳." (Part 1)]," The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies 4, 168-189
*  Bingenheimer, Marcus (2004). "[http://mbingenheimer.net/publications/bingenheimer.ganjin2.pdf A translation of the Tōdaiwajō tōseiden 唐大和上東征傳. (Part 2)]", The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies 5, 142-181
* {{cite book|editor1-last=Buswell|editor1-first=Robert Jr|editor2-last=Lopez|editor2-first=Donald S. Jr.|editor1-link=Robert Buswell Jr.|editor2-link=Donald S. Lopez, Jr.|title="Ganjin", in Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism.|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|isbn=9780691157863}}
*  Genkai, Aomi-no Mabito; Takakusu J., trans. (1928). [http://www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1928_num_28_1_3115 Le voyage de Kanshin en Orient (742-754)], Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient 28 (1), 1-41
* Genkai, Aomi-no Mabito; Takakusu J., trans. (1929). [http://www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1929_num_29_1_3237 Le voyage de Kanshin en Orient (742-754)], Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient 29 (1), 47-62
* Zhou, Yuzhi (2016). [https://web.archive.org/web/20161003224600/http://catalog.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/handle/2324/1654587/p047.pdf Ganjin: From Vinaya Master to Ritsu School Founder], Journal of Asian Humanities at kyushu University 1, 47-52

==External links==
* [https://toshodaiji.jp/english/index.html Tōdai-ji Homepage]

{{Chinese travellers}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Tang dynasty Buddhist monks]]
[[Category:Japanese Buddhist clergy]]
[[Category:Blind clergy]]
[[Category:688 births]]
[[Category:763 deaths]]
[[Category:Chinese emigrants to Japan]]
[[Category:Founders of Buddhist sects]]
[[Category:Buddhist clergy of the Nara period]]
[[Category:People from Yangzhou]]
[[Category:8th-century Chinese physicians]]
[[Category:Physicians with disabilities]]
[[Category:Chinese blind people]]
[[Category:Japanese blind people]]