Background
Chōnen was born in Kyoto, he was a son of Fujiwara no Masatsura.
Chōnen was born in Kyoto, he was a son of Fujiwara no Masatsura.
He entered religious training at Todai-ji in Nara, studying Sanron doctrine under Kanri and Esoteric Buddhism under Gengo.
In August of 983, he and his disciple Josan and others boarded a ship owned by the Chinese merchants Ch’en Jen-shuang and Hsu Jen-man, and in the tenth month sailed to China. Chonen first paid a visit to the temple called K’ai-yuan-ssu in Yang-chou and then journeyed to the Sung capital at Pien (K’ai-feng), where he was received in audience by Emperor T’ai-tsung. The following year he visited the Buddhist temples at Mt. Wu-t'ai and then returned to the capital.
He was generously treated by Emperor T’ai-tsung, who bestowed upon him a purple robe and the title Fa-chi Ta-shih (Hosai Daishi). He returned to Japan in 986 on a ship belonging to a Chinese merchant named Cheng Jen-te, bringing with him a copy of the Tripitaka, a collection of Buddhist sacred texts, and a sandalwood image'of the Buddha Sakyamuni.
The Tripitaka had been completed in 983 and contained over five thousand volumes. The sandalwood image was a copy of an image housed in a temple called K’ai-pao-ssu in the Sung capital. The image was said to have come originally from India by way of Central Asia and to have been housed for a long time in K’ai-yiian-ssu in Yang-chou. Chonen was given special permission to make a copy of it. When he returned to Japan, he intended to house the image in a hall in Saga in the western suburbs of Kyoto, but this plan met with opposition from the monks of Enryaku-ji on Mt. Hiei, and he was unable to carry it out. Only after his death was his disciple Josan, who had accompanied him to China, able to build the hall as Chonen had planned. The hall and the statue remain in existence today at the temple known as Shoryo-ji in Saga.
In 989 Chonen became head of Todai-ji. He is said to have kept a diary of his trip to China entitled Nisso nikki, but it is no longer extant.
From his early years he developed a strong desire to visit China, at this time under the rule of the Sung dynasty.