Ennin's Travels in T'ang China

by Edwin O. Reischauer, Valerie Hansen (Foreword)

Edges of text block foxed. Edges of frontispiece and half-title page yellowed.

Genres: Buddhism, History, Nonfiction, China

366 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Edwin Oldfather Reischauer was an American diplomat, educator, and professor at Harvard University. Born in Tokyo to American educational missionaries, he became a leading scholar of the history and culture of Japan and East Asia. Together with George M. McCune, a scholar of Korea, in 1939 he developed the McCune–Reischauer romanization of the Korean language.

Reischauer became involved in helping create US policy toward East Asia during and after World War II. President John F. Kennedy appointed Reischauer as the United States Ambassador to Japan, where he served from 1961 to 1966. Reischauer founded the Japan Institute at Harvard University in 1973 and was its founding director. It was later named in honor of him.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ennin was a Japanese monk who traveled to China and lived there for around nine years during the 9th century/Tang dynasty. Reischauer translated a copy of his diary into English in the mid 50s. I read this while I was studying at SOAS and tried to get my own copy for ages, but it is very rare and very expensive. I bought this book off Ebay, it's the history book that goes along with the translation. It explains a lot of the events, gives the context to what was happening and also contains excerpts from the diary. It is definitely the next best thing to having a copy of the actual translation.

While I was reading this I had to keep reminding myself that it was written in 1955. For a contemporary history book it is a little dry and dull in places, but when I remembered when it was written I was very impressed. There is no cultural imperialism here by the author, there is a deep understanding of the culture and the history, both of Japan and China. The book takes a fairly chronological look at Ennin's visit, after giving historical background. However, there are also chapters on Chinese festivals, popular Buddhism and the persecution of the Buddhists. These were the most interesting to me. It was interesting to see how Buddhism was attempting to treat men and women equally during this part. Ennin quoted a story where the Boddhisatva Mojushiri showed up at a feast as a pregnant woman and the monks refused to feed her extra for the child and she rebuked them and turned into the Buddha.

It was also an interesting look at the end of the Tang it challenged the ideas that as it was the "decline" of the dynasty things must be falling apart. The China that Ennin descriped was still thriving in lots of different ways and there was no shortage of inns and houses for the monks to stay in (often for free). One interesting things was the huge ammount of non-official monastaries. It would seem that it was only 20 percent or so of monastaries that were official. Which makes the number of Buddhists in the country much higher than the officail numbers given.

I'm very glad I finally got around to reading this book.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the accompanying volume to a translation of the Diary of Ennin, a Japanese Buddhist monk who lived in China during one of the most tumultuous and fascinating periods of Chinese history--the 840s when Buddhism was at its apogee, only to succumb to the suppression launched by the arch-Taoist (and probably insane) Emperor Wuzong ('Martial Emperor') in 845 CE.

Reischauer's handling of the material is nearly flawless--a short introduction explaining the significance of the work and a summary of the work's contents, then a recounting of the diary with each chapter focusing on an aspect of Ennin's diary--departure from Japan, arrival in China, his travels from the coast to the ancient capital of Ch'ang-an, the beginning of the suppression starting with Wuzong's ascension to the throne, his defrocking and departure back to Japan. The missing element was a more thorough explanation of the teachings and practise of the Buddhism Ennin encountered as our knowledge of the esoteric practices of this time and location are woefully lean. On this subject Reischauer bids us turn to other sources (unnamed).

Because most of the official Chinese dynastic histories gloss over this period, Ennin's diary is critical to anyone wanting to understand Tang China during this decade. It's a mesmerizing and horrific tale of how a land so bound to Buddhism, where one couldn't travel from one town to another without encountering parties of monks or nuns or pilgrims on the road, where monasteries dotted almost every hill, and monks were welcome visitors (at most, but not all establishments)...at an emperor's decree defrocked hundreds of thousands of monks and nuns, tore down established monasteries, confiscated lands and wealth, melted down Buddhist statues, burned its sutras and paintings, and terrorized its citizens into denying their faith.

Absolutely anyone interested in Chinese history and the history of Buddhism must read this book and I am ashamed I hadn't deemed Ennin's diary (and this accompanying volume) important enough to read when I was a student. It had literally sat on my shelves for decades, unread, until now. Mea culpa!