Who Was Jianzhen (Ganjin)? The Monk Who Brought Zen to Japan

Jianzhen was born in 688 CE in Jiangyang County, Yangzhou, during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian. His family belonged to the respected Chunyu clan. At the time, Yangzhou was the glittering economic and maritime juggernaut of the Tang Empire, where the Grand Canal met the Yangtze River and ocean traders from Persia, India, and Japan anchored their ships.

唐垂拱四年（688年），鉴真出生于扬州江阳县的淳于氏望族。当时的扬州乃大唐首屈一指的水陆都会与海运枢纽，大运河与长江在此交汇，商贾云集、梯航百货。在富足开放的商业与深厚文风浸润中，鉴真自幼展现出聪慧仁厚的秉赋。

Growing up in a devout Buddhist household, young Jianzhen frequently visited Dayun Monastery with his father. At age fourteen, deeply moved by the majestic serenity of the Buddhist statues, he asked his father for permission to renounce the secular world. He entered Dayun Monastery under Chan Master Zhiman as a novice, dedicating his youth to strict scriptural recitation and ascetic self-discipline.

十四岁那年（约701年），鉴真随父入扬州大云寺瞻仰佛像法相庄严，豁然生大欢喜心，遂恳求舍俗出家。在名德智满禅师门下剃度受沙弥戒后，鉴真晨钟暮鼓精进不懈，白昼深研经藏，夜间定坐观心，展现出高尚的持戒风范。

Around 705 CE, eager to deepen his scholarship, Jianzhen traveled west to the twin imperial capitals of Luoyang and Chang'an. In 708 CE, at age twenty-one, he received full monastic ordination (Upasampadā) at Chang'an's Shiji Monastery under Master Hengjing. He spent the next five years studying under Dao'an and other grandmasters of the Nanshan Vinaya school, while also mastering pharmacology, architectural design, and classical sculpture.

神龙初年（约705年），鉴真辞别江南西赴洛阳与长安游学。景龙二年（708年），二十一岁的鉴真于长安实际寺依止恒景律师受具足戒。在两京求法期间，他师从道岸律师等南山律宗一代名宿，不仅穷究《四分律》精微义理，更兼修本草方剂、建筑营建与雕塑造像，奠定了通达内外的宏阔学养。

Returning south to Yangzhou around 713 CE, Jianzhen was appointed abbot of Daming Monastery on Mount Shugang. Over the next three decades, he delivered more than forty comprehensive lecture series on the Vinaya, conferring vows upon upwards of forty thousand monks and lay adherents. He was universally hailed across southeastern China as the 'Spiritual Beacon of the Huai River.'

开元初年（约713年），学成归吴的鉴真荣任扬州蜀冈大明寺住持。此后三十载间，他登坛开讲南山律疏四十余遍，受度门徒四万余众，名震江南，被尊为‘江淮之化主、东南之导师’。

Beyond ecclesiastical scholarship, Abbot Jianzhen championed humanitarian medicine. He established the Beitian Clinic (Field of Compassion) at Daming Monastery—a charitable dispensary providing free medical treatment, food, and shelter to impoverished sufferers. He cultivated medicinal herbs, compounded prescriptions, and oversaw temple construction with exacting standards.

鉴真不仅传法授戒，更大行菩萨仁道，在大明寺创立‘悲田院’慈善医馆，广植药草、研制方剂，亲自施医舍药济度贫苦百姓；同时主持营建殿宇、督造法相，德化广被四海。

In the winter of 742 CE, two Japanese emissary monks, Yōei and Fushō, arrived at Daming Monastery. Having traveled across treacherous waters under imperial decree, they knelt before Jianzhen, begging him to travel to Japan to establish an authentic ordination lineage. When the Tang assembly sat frozen in terror of the killer seas, fifty-five-year-old Jianzhen stood up, declaring that mortal danger paled before the duty of the Dharma.

天宝元年（742年）冬，日本留学僧荣叡、普照受圣武天皇嘱托风尘仆仆抵临大明寺，稽首哀请鉴真东渡传授正统戒法。面对茫茫沧海万顷凶涛，座下众弟子面面相觑尽皆失色。五十五岁的鉴真慨然挺身而出，立誓舍命东渡。

Jianzhen quickly funded the construction of a large seafaring vessel and purchased dried grain and pharmaceuticals. However, before the first voyage could sail in 743 CE, a petty squabble broke out between disciples Ruhai and Rubao. Ruhai filed a malicious accusation with the Yangzhou prefecture, claiming the expedition was secretly colluding with coastal pirates. Imperial officials confiscated the vessel, extinguishing the first attempt.

鉴真立即出资造船备粮、采购大批医药物资。然而在743年首航出海前夕，随行弟子如海与同门如宝发生龃龉，愤而向官府诬告修造大船系‘勾结海盗’。官府当即查抄巨舟，第一次东渡被迫夭折。

Refusing to yield, Jianzhen bought an eighty-guan military ship and departed Yangzhou in the winter of 743 CE. In the open waters near the Zhoushan archipelago, violent winter squalls battered the vessel against submerged reefs. The hull fractured and took on freezing brine, forcing the crew to abandon ship on a barren crag. Stranded for days without fresh water or provisions, they were eventually rescued by coast guard patrol boats.

鉴真百折不回，转而出资八十贯购得军船出航。743年冬船队行至舟山大屿山海域，突遭狂暴飓风怒潮将船底猛烈撞碎在暗礁之上。船体断裂灌水，众人涉险登上荒岛礁石，在寒风中绝水断粮漂困数日，终蒙官船搜救脱险，第二次东渡惨遭重创。

The master relocated to King Asoka Monastery in Mingzhou (Ningbo) to organize a third expedition. Anxious disciples in Yangzhou, terrified that their beloved master would drown, secretly petitioned the provincial governor of Yuezhou to halt the voyage for his own protection. Armored soldiers intercepted the party and escorted Jianzhen back to Yangzhou under house guard in 744 CE.

鉴真移驻明州阿育王寺积极筹划第三次出航。然而扬州弟子深知海路九死一生，出于对恩师安危的极度担忧，暗中恳请越州官府出面拦截。官兵闻讯赶至明州阻截，将鉴真护送护卫押解回扬州，第三次东渡再次抱憾受阻。

In the spring of 748 CE, Jianzhen launched his fourth expedition with thirty-five disciples aboard a newly outfitted flagship. Past the mouth of the Yangtze, an apocalyptic tropical typhoon slammed the ship. For fourteen terrifying days and nights, the crew was tossed across raging seas without drinking water, surviving by chewing raw uncooked rice and moistening their lips with ocean spray.

天宝七载（748年）春，鉴真率弟子三十五人开启第四次东渡。船出长江口后，遭遇狂暴至极的特大黑风暴。巨轮在无边骇浪中颠簸漂流整整十四个昼夜，淡水饮尽，众人嚼生米润海水挣扎求生，生死悬于一线。

The shattered vessel drifted thousands of miles southwest before washing ashore on the tropical reefs of Zhenzhou (modern Sanya, Hainan Island). Treating calamity as opportunity, Jianzhen spent a year preaching the Vinaya, building local temples, and teaching medical sanitation to indigenous tribes across Hainan before commencing a grueling overland journey back through southern China.

残破海船向西南漂流数千里，奇迹般搁浅于极南蛮荒之地的振州（今海南三亚崖州）。鉴真安之若素，因地制宜在海南开坛弘法、督建寺宇、传授先进中原医道，造福海疆一方黎庶，次年方启程跋山涉水北返扬州。

Tragedy struck repeatedly during the northern march across Lingnan. At Duanzhou (Zhaoqing, Guangdong), Japanese monk Yōei succumbed to chronic exhaustion and tropical illness. Jianzhen wept inconsolably at the grave of his steadfast friend. In the sweltering jungle heat, severe ophthalmia inflamed Jianzhen's eyes, and without proper medication, he permanently lost his vision. Soon after, his trusted disciple Xiangyan died on the road. Yet out of absolute physical darkness, Jianzhen's spiritual resolve burned brighter than ever.

然而在翻越南岭北归途中，悲剧接踵而至。行抵端州（今广东肇庆）时，相伴八载的日本高僧荣叡因水土不服积劳成疾溘然长逝，鉴真抚棺恸哭欲绝；加之岭南恶劣瘴疠酷暑摧残，鉴真眼疾突发恶化，双目不幸完全失明。不久得力弟子祥彦又在途病故。身陷无光永夜与痛失至亲的双重绝境中，鉴真的东渡宏愿却愈挫愈坚。

By 753 CE, Jianzhen was sixty-six years old, blind, and under imperial travel restrictions from Emperor Xuanzong, who deemed the sea crossing too perilous. When the Japanese diplomatic mission (Kentōshi) under Ambassadors Otomo no Komaro and Kibi no Makibi prepared to sail home, they secretly smuggled Jianzhen and twenty-four loyal disciples onto their flagship at Huangsipu harbor (near Suzhou).

天宝十二载（753年），鉴真已是六十六岁高龄的双目失明老僧，且唐玄宗下诏禁止私自出海。适逢日本遣唐使船队回国，副使大伴古麻吕与吉备真备密邀鉴真同行。大和上携弟子二十四人秘密登船，于苏州黄泗浦扬帆隐蔽出海，开启第六次壮烈东渡。

The four-ship flotilla was scattered by ocean gales, but the vessel carrying Jianzhen navigated treacherous currents and made triumphant landfall on December 20, 753 CE, at Akime Bay in Satsuma Province (modern Kagoshima, southern Kyushu). After eleven agonizing years, five catastrophic shipwrecks, and total blindness, Jianzhen had finally set foot on Japanese soil.

船队在狂涛中几经离散，鉴真所乘海船冲破惊涛骇浪，终于在公元753年12月20日（日本天平胜宝五年十二月二十日）成功登陆日本九州萨摩国阿多郡秋妻屋浦（今鹿儿岛县坊津）。历经整整十一年艰险、五次惨败与双目失明，一代高僧终以血肉之躯践行了神圣誓言。

In the spring of 754 CE, Jianzhen entered the imperial capital of Heijō-kyō (Nara). The imperial court welcomed him with unprecedented pomp. Retired Emperor Shōmu, Empress Kōmyō, and reigning Empress Kōken received him warmly, granting him the supreme title 'Grand Master of Transmitting the Lamp' (Dento Daihoshi) and sovereign authority over all Japanese monastic affairs, honoring him as 'Tang Dahasang' (Ganjin Wajō).

754年春，鉴真一行抵达成平城京（今奈良），日本朝野倾城欢迎。圣武太上皇、光明皇太后与孝谦天皇亲切接见，敕封‘传灯大法师’位，敕命全面执掌日本僧尼戒务，尊称为‘唐大和上’。

In front of the colossal Great Buddha Hall of Tōdai-ji, Jianzhen erected Japan's first formal white-stone ordination platform. He personally administered the Bodhisattva vows to Emperor Shōmu, Empress Kōmyō, and the Crown Prince, followed by full monastic ordinations for over four hundred scholars and monks. This milestone marked the formal founding of the Risshū (Vinaya) School in Japan, giving the country an autonomous, internationally recognized monastic hierarchy.

在东大寺大佛殿前，鉴真督造了日本第一座正规白石戒坛，登坛亲自为圣武上皇、光明皇太后及皇太子受菩萨戒，并为四百余位日本僧人授具足戒，日本律宗自此正式创立，终结了日本僧尼自行受戒的混乱局面。

In 759 CE, Emperor Junnin granted Jianzhen the estate of the late Prince Niitabe on the western outskirts of Nara. There, the master and his Tang artisans founded Tōshōdai-ji (The Monastic Cloister of the Tang Master). Jianzhen supervised the construction of the Golden Hall (Kondō) and Lecture Hall (Kōdō), introducing the finest timber-frame bracket systems, symmetrical proportions, and pure Tang aesthetics to Japan. Tōshōdai-ji remains one of the world's crowning treasures of eighth-century architecture.

天平宝字三年（759年），朝廷赐淳仁天皇旧宅予鉴真，大和上率中日工匠营建唐招提寺。鉴真亲自指导修造金堂与讲堂，将盛唐成熟宏伟的木构榫卯斗拱、对称布局与大唐美学完整移植扶桑，使唐招提寺成为享誉全球的古代建筑艺术巅峰孤本。

Beyond architecture, Jianzhen transformed Japanese medicine. Despite being blind, he used his extraordinarily refined senses of taste, smell, and tactile handling to inspect Japan's imported herb stocks, distinguishing authentic remedies from adulterated substitutes. He authored medical treaties such as 'Jianzhen's Secret Prescriptions' and established public dispensaries, earning veneration across Japan as a founding patron of Kampo pharmacology.

除建筑之外，鉴真更彻底革新了日本医药界。虽双目失明，他凭借通灵般的嗅觉、味觉与指尖触感，逐一辨析日本从大唐引进的各类生药真伪，纠正长期混淆的药性炮制误区，撰述医方并开辟药园，被后世日本医界尊崇为‘汉方医学鼻祖’。

On May 6, 763 CE, at the age of seventy-six, Master Jianzhen passed away peacefully in the lotus meditation posture facing west at Tōshōdai-ji. Anticipating his death, his disciple Renji crafted a life-sized portrait statue using the Tang hollow dry-lacquer (dakkatsu kanshitsu) technique. This serene statue captures Jianzhen's closed eyes, composed posture, and transcendent calm; designated a National Treasure of Japan, it has radiated timeless compassion for over twelve centuries.

天平宝字七年（763年）五月初六，一代大宗师鉴真于唐招提寺结跏趺坐面西端坐安详圆寂，享年七十六岁。圆寂前夕，弟子忍基运用大唐干漆夹苎绝技塑造了栩栩如生的‘鉴真和尚坐像’。这尊双目微合、宁静慈悲的造像被奉为日本国宝，历经千二百年风霜依然光华璀璨，千古昭彰。