The Essentials of the Eight Traditions
The Essentials of the Eight Traditions 八宗綱要 (hasshū kōyō) is a work written by Gyōnen 凝然 (1240–1321) in 1268 (at the age of 28). He was a Japanese Kegon monk who lived in Tōdai-ji Temple during the late Kamakura period.
The work is the result of his study of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian Buddhism providing both a comprehensive overview of Japanese Buddhism as well as its origins. It would become a textbook used for Japanese monastics during the Meiji period while also spread to China via Nanjō Bunyū's gifting to Yang Wenhui highly influencing Chinese understandings of their own Buddhism.
Gyōnen ordered the traditions as Kusyashū (Jushe zong 俱舍宗), Jōjitsushū (Chengshi zong 成實宗), Risshū (Lü zong 律宗), Hōssōshū (Faxiang zong 法相宗), Sanronshū (Sanlun zong 三論宗), Tendaishū (Tiantai zong 天台宗), Kegonshū (Huayan zong 華嚴宗), and Shingonshū (Zhenyan zong 真言宗 “dharani/esoteric”).[1] This does not include the Zen (Chan) school and Jōdo (Pure Land) which were only just becoming popular new schools.
- ↑ Chen, Jidong. 2024. P. 12.
