Saichō was a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai school of Buddhism based on the Chinese Tiantai school he was exposed to during his trip to Tang China beginning in 804.
He is said to have written books totaling 1,280 volumes, or 400 according to other sources. Books attributed to him which still exist today total 160 volumes. The Imperial Court accorded the posthumous name of Dengyo Daishi to him (866).
Background
Saichō was born in the year 766 in the city of Ōmi, in present Shiga Prefecture, with the given name of Hirono. According to family tradition, Saichō's ancestors were descendants of emperors of Eastern Han China. However, no positive evidence exists for this claim. The region where Saichō was born did have a large Chinese immigrant population, so Saichō likely did have Chinese ancestry.
Education
During Saichō's time, the Buddhist temples in Japan were officially organized into a national network known as the provincial temple system, and at the age of 13, Saichō became a disciple of one Gyōhyō (722–797, 行表). He took tonsure as a novice monk at the age of 14 and was given the ordination name "Saichō". Gyōhyō in turn was a disciple of Dao-xuan (702–760, 道璿, Dōsen in Japanese), a prominent monk from China of the Tiantai school who had brought the East Mountain Teaching of Chan Buddhism, Huayan teachings and the Bodhisattva Precepts of the Brahmajala Sutra to Japan in 736 and served as the "precept master" for ordination prior to the arrival of Jianzhen.
Career
By the age of 20, he undertook the full monastic precepts at the Tōdai-ji, thus becoming a fully ordained monk in the official temple system. A few months later he abruptly retreated to Mount Hiei for an intensive study and practice of Buddhism, though the exact reason for his departure remains unknown. Shortly after his retreat, he composed his Ganmon (願文, "Saichō's Prayer") which included his personal vows to.
In time, Saichō attracted other monks both on Mount Hiei, and from the Buddhist community in Nara, and a monastic community developed on Mount Hiei, which eventually became Enryaku-ji. Saichō was said to have carved an image of the Bhaiṣajyaguru and enshrined it. Additionally, he lit a lamp of oil before the Buddha and prayed that the lamp would never be extinguished. This lamp is now known as the Fumetsu no Hōtō (不滅の法灯, "Inextinguishable Dharma Lamp") and has remained lit for 1200 years.
The capital of Japan was moved from Nara to Nagaoka-kyō in 784, and then to Kyoto in 795. Because Mount Hiei was coincidentally located to the northeast of Kyoto, a direction considered dangerous according to Chinese geomancy, Saichō's presence on the mountain was thought to protect the new capital and brought him to the attention of the court. Saichō and his community on Mount Hiei also started to correspond and exchange ceremonies with the established communities in Nara, in addition to the monks at the Court, further enhancing his prestige.
One of Saichō's earliest supporters in the Court was Wake no Hiroyo, who invited Saichō to give lectures at Takaosan-ji along with fourteen other eminent monks. Saichō was not the first to be invited, indicating that he was still relatively unknown in the Court, but rising in prominence.
In 802, at the request of Hiroyo Wake, he preached the doctrine of the Tendai Sect.