弘仁七年謁四天王寺聖徳太子廟詩
A Poem [on the occasion] of Visiting the Mausoleum of Prince Shōtoku of Shitennōji [Temple] in the 7th year of Kōnin (816 A.D.)
(JPN: Kōnin Nananen Etsu Shitennōji Shōtoku Taishi no Myōshi)
ATTRIBUTION
Translated into English by Rev. Jikai 慈海 Tyler Dehn デイーン
©Translation by Jikai Tyler Dehn @ The Saichō Repository 最澄典藏 Project, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Available at: [insert URL of specific text page].
You may share this work freely with attribution (as above), but no modifications or commercial use is allowed without express permission from Jikai Tyler Dehn. See USE/ATTRIBUTION for more information.
Text Overview:
This very short text is perhaps on first glance, simply a dedicatory poem made by Master Saichō before the grave of Prince Shōtoku 聖徳太子. This is in its own right, historically significant. Nevertheless, the text hints at something far more important.
We might wonder why Master Saichō (767-822 A.D.) specifically, was asked to compose such a poem for an admittedly very famous and deified prince? Prince Shōtoku had certainly been a devotee of the Lotus Sūtra, but having lived from 574-622 A.D., the two men could never have personally met; at least not in their respective embodiments as Saichō, and Prince Shōtoku. To understand the relationship between these two figures, we must look briefly at a piece from the biography of a Chinese Vinaya and Tiantai Monk, named Jianzhen, or Ganjin in Japanese. Great Precept Master Jianzhen 鑒真大和上 (688-763 A.D.), had been asked to travel to Japan a generation earlier, in order to transmit the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya 四分律, so that Japanese monastics could be ordained properly. When he was asked to do this, his biography recounts the following episode:
《遊方記抄》「大和上答曰: 昔聞南岳思禪師, 遷化之後, 託生倭國王子, 興隆佛法, 濟度眾生。又聞: 日本國長屋王, 崇敬佛法, 造千袈裟, 棄施此國, 大德眾僧。其袈裟緣上, 繡著四句曰:
山川異域;
風月同天;
寄諸佛子;
共結來緣。
以此思量, 誠是佛法興隆, 有緣之國也! 今我同法眾中, 誰有應此遠請, 向日本國傳法者乎? 時眾默然, 一無對者。良久有僧, 祥彥進曰: 彼國太遠, 性命難存, 滄海淼漫。百無一至, 人身難得, 中國難生。進修未備, 道果未剋。是故, 眾僧咸默, 無對而已。大和上曰: 為是法事也! 何惜身命! 諸人不去, 我即去耳! 祥彥曰: 大和上若去, 彥亦隨去。」(CBETA 2023.Q4, T51, no. 2089, p. 988b17-29)
The Great Precept Master [Jianzhen] responded by saying: “In the past I heard that Meditation Master Nanyue Huisi had been reborn as a prince in Japan, after having passed away [here]. [This is because he wanted] to promulgate the Buddha-Dharma, and liberate the sentient beings [there].
I’ve also heard that King Nagaya of Japan so deeply revered the Buddha-Dharma, that he had made a thousand kāṣāya-robes which he offered to the praiseworthy sangha of this land. On the hem he had embroidered four lines:
[Though] the mountains and rivers are different [in our] lands,
The wind [we feel] and the moon [we see, course] in the same sky.
I convey these to all the Buddha’s sons,
[In the hope that these] shared bonds will be future connections.
Considering these [reports, Japan] is indeed a land possessing the conditions for the promulgation of the Buddha-Dharma! Among our Dharma-assembly [here], who will go to the Land of Japan to promulgate the Dharma at the behest of this distant request?” At that time the assembly was silent, for no one responded. After a good while there was a Monk [named] Xiangyan, who proceeded to say: “That land is extremely far away, and it is difficult to keep one’s life on the waves and swells of the vast ocean. This human form is difficult to attain, and it is difficult to be born in China [with access to the Dharma]; of the hundred [who go] not even one will arrive [there]. [furthermore] our progress in the cultivation of the Path is still incomplete, and we have yet to gain the Fruits of the Path. It is only for these reasons therefore, that this assembly of monks is totally silent, and no one responds.” The Great Precept Master [Jianzhen] responded: “This is a matter of Dharma! How could you begrudge your body and life! As everyone here will not go, then I will go!” Xiangyan responded: “If the Great Precept Master goes, then I, Xiangyan, will also go.”
Master Jianzhen tells us that Nanyue Huisi 南嶽禪師 慧思 (515–577 A.D.), the Tiantai Patriarch and teacher to Great Master Tiantai Dashi Zhiyi 天台大師 智顗 (538–597 A.D.), had chosen to be reborn in a land to the East, identified with Japan. What’s more, he tells us that he had there been reborn as ‘a prince‘. And this later manifestation was already identified with Prince Shōtoku by Saichō‘s time. This alone, might therefore explain why a devotee of the Tiantai School like Saichō, would have been invited to recite a poem before the grave of Nanyue Huisi 南嶽禪師 慧思.
But, the text itself provides something more:
日本玄孫，興福寺沙門最澄，雖愚願弘我師教，不任渇仰心!
Although I, the śramaṇa Saichō of Kōfukuji and a distant descendant of Japan, am foolish, I yearn to spread the teachings of my master, out of unquenchable thoughts of admiration!
Did you catch it? If Saichō was born in 767 A.D., and Prince Shōtoku died in 622 A.D., then they could not have shared a teacher-disciple relationship! But as we just learnt, Prince Shōtoku was identified as a later manifestation 後身 of the Chinese Tiantai Master Huisi. And so if Saichō is here referring to himself as Huisi’s disciple, then Saichō is identifying himself, as a later manifestation of Huisi’s disciple: Tiantai Dashi Zhiyi 天台大師 智顗! He too then, must have followed his teacher and been reborn in the East!
This is remarkable. And whether or not we imagine Master Saichō to have personally believed this about himself, the fact that he was asked to recite a poem in honour of Huisi/Prince Shōtoku, tells us that the Court and perhaps society at large, were quickly coming to believe this about him in any case. And even if this was not something that Saichō actually said, his disciple Kōjō who recorded these words, and therefore the first generation descendants of the master, believed this at the very least.
TEXT:
| ENGLISH | UNPUNCTUATED TEXT | PUNCTUATED TEXT |
|---|---|---|
| Our fellow Dharma Flower [Sūtra devotee,] Prince Shōtoku, is the later incarnation of Great Master Nanyue Huisi. [Prince] Umayadono (廐戸皇子) took on rebirths to draw in and guide [beings from] the four corners [of India], seeking to uphold the Sūtra in the Great Tang [Lands,] and then to raise up the Sublime Dharma in the Land of [the Rising] Sun. His wooden-clapper called in Tiantai [Zhiyi], and transmitted to him the very Flavour of the Dharma. | 今我法華聖徳太子者。是南嶽慧思大師後身也。廏戸託生汲 引四國。請持經於大唐。興妙法於日域。木鐸振天台。相承其法味。 | 今我法華聖徳太子者，是南嶽慧思大師，後身也。廏戸託生汲引四國，請持經於大唐，興妙法於日域。木鐸振天台，相承其法味。 |
| Although I, the śramaṇa Saichō of Kōfukuji, and a distant descendant of Japan, am foolish, I yearn to spread the teachings of my master out of unquenchable thoughts of admiration! | 日本玄孫興福寺沙門最澄雖愚願弘我師教。不任渇仰心。 | 日本玄孫，興福寺沙門最澄，雖愚願弘我師教，不任渇仰心! |
| [And so I] humbly offer a poem: Searching in the [four] seas for the karmic conditions; My heart returns to the Palace of Shōtoku. Now I spread the Sublime Dharma; That the teachings of [my] master may never fade. Though the twin [śālā] trees part in the spring; The three grasses adapt to the seasons together. And I yearn only to employ the Perfect Teachings; [That it may] safeguard and support the prosperity [of all]. | 謹奉一首。 海内求縁力。歸心聖徳宮。我今弘妙法。師教令無窮。兩樹隨春別。三卉應節同。願唯使圓教。加護助興隆。 | 謹奉一首: 海内求縁力； 歸心聖徳宮。 我今弘妙法； 師教令無窮。 兩樹隨春別； 三卉應節同。 願唯使圓教； 加護助興隆。 |
右天台霞標所録。