Saicho: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School

by Paul Groner

Book Overview

Saicho (767-822), the founder of the Tendai School, is one of the great masters of Japanese Buddhism. This edition, which includes a new preface by the author, makes available again a classic work on this important figure's life and accomplishments. Groner's study focuses on Saicho's founding of the great monastic center on Mount Hiei, the leading religious institution of medieval Japan, and his radical move to adopt for purposes of ordination the Mahayana bodhisattva precepts--a decision that had far-reaching consequences for the future of Japanese Buddhist ethical thought, monastic training and organization, lay-clerical relations, philosophical developments, and Buddhism-state relations.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0824823710
• ISBN13: 9780824823719
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.2" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

Knowledgeable and lots of detail. I would prefer Japanese sutra names to sandscrit names, my only quarrell.

Definitive!

This Berkeley Buddhist series volume is the definitive work of the founder of Tendai Buddhism in Japan. This volume of the series steps you through the beginning of Saicho's life into his later years fighting for an ordination platform on Mount Hiei. Included are details concerning the rise of Tendai Buddhism away from the influential Buddhism of Nara. Saicho's views of the bodhisattva precepts and his wish to move away from the Hinayana goals of the Ssu fen lu precepts. This is a treasure of Buddhist history in the Heian period.This work is a must for any serious Buddhist researcher. Critical for any Tendai researcher to read.