priests speaking Chinese

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Japanese priests speaking Chinese

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Does anyone know of any sources mentioning the use of spoken Chinese
in Kamakura Zen circles?

Tachi notes that in the late Heian period, there was no opportunity to study vernacular Chinese in Japan. But he lists up several monks who traveled to China, among them Kakua (who learned to speak Chinese while being in Japan), Eisai/Yōsai (who probably spoke Chinese, although there is no written proof to support this), and Shunjō, who again learned spoken Chinese while in China and apparently used it later for rituals that he instituted at Sennyūji. Since Eisai invited Shunjō to Kennin-ji, there is a certain possibility that he taught spoken Chinese to its monks. 260-261

Whether Dōgen was able to witness rituals conducted in Chinese at Kennin-ji is unclear, but there is a document showing that he studied with Shunjō. He may have used this opportunity to familiarize himself with spoken Chinese before traveling to China. 262

Rankei Dōryū did not speak Japanese, in his temples (Jufuku-ji, Jōraku-ji and Kenchō-ji), he apparently used Chinese for his lectures and in ritual life. It should be noted that Dōryū was accompanied by a couple of younger monks, and that there is evidence that a certain number of other Chinese monks were traveling to Japan at this time (1240s). 263

However, there is an episode from the recorded sayings of Dōryū showing that, while he taught in Chinese, he could not expect his disciples to understand, and pointed them to a Japanese monk for further explanation in their own language. Tachi emphasizes that this episode belongs to the early stage after the founding of Kenchōji, and that Dōryū, who lived in Japan for 33 years, subsequently learned the language. The use of sōrō in his recorded sayings bears testimony to his efforts in this regard, as does a passage from the record of Mugaku Sogen. In other words, in later stages of his Japanese career, Dōryū apparently taught in the Japanese language, but continued to use Chinese on occasions of formal teaching, such as in his jōdō and shōsan. 263-265

Later records show, however, that even after decades, the teaching delivered in Chinese was not understood by the monks, and added information in Japanese was necessary. 266-267 Even close attendants of the Chinese masters at Kenchō-ji were not able to follow conversations in Chinese and used written exchanges to communicate with the master. 268

The same holds for Mugaku Sogen: he used a Japanese monk conversant in Chinese to have him explain his teachings to the assembly. All in all, Tachi finds that the Chinese masters in Kenchō-ji up to the fifth generation used Chinese for their teaching, esp. on formal occasions, but had to have it translated to the assembly in order for their larger audience to understand it. 269-270.

What about the language capacities of the monks who went to China? Kakua had no oppotunity to learn spoken Chinese before his travels. Eisai may have acquired some basic capacities in his two months in Hakata before his first trip, and Dōgen at Kennin-ji and Sennyū-ji. Enni Ben'en again probably studied basic spoken Chinese with a merchant in Hakata. All of them achieved a certain degree of fluency while in China. There were others, however, who never learned spoken Chinese. 272-273

It is unclear whether Dōgen used Chinese in his formal, jōdō teachings. What is obvious is that he often quotes Chinese cases without kundoku transformation in the kana Shōbō genzō - which may be taken as evidence that he would have delivered them in Chinese in his verbal teaching. But there is no hard evidence to prove this. 274-275

A later source, dating 1382, however, shows that Japanese monks with knowledge of spoken Chinese from their travels to the Yuan empire used it in their formal lectures. Again, the source also shows that such teaching was not understood by the larger part of the assembly. 275

In general, it can be said that monasteries tried to emulate the Chinese model of ritual life as far as possible, even if this meant that many monks would not understand what was being said.

- source : pmjs listserve -


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Tamamura Kozaburo (1856-1923?) - 1883-1900.


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