Chapter 11 Chapter 10 Eisai - the Japanese Zen master who spread the wind of drinking tea

The custom of drinking tea originated in China. As early as the Three Kingdoms and Jin Dynasties, tea drinking was popular among scholar-bureaucrats, and it spread throughout the country during the prosperous Tang Dynasty. In 780, Lu Yu, revered as the god of tea, wrote China's first tea book "The Classic of Tea", detailing the origin, way and utensils of tea.Chinese tea was introduced to Japan during the Nara period. According to historical records, Emperor Shomu and Emperor Koken both presented tea to reward monks.The monks Yongzhong, Zuicheng and Kukai who entered the Tang Dynasty were all enthusiastic propagators of Chinese tea.However, at that time, the habit of drinking tea in Japan was limited to the court aristocrats, Tang monks and other classes. Tea mainly relied on imports from China, and it was difficult to popularize it among the people. After the 9th century, with the suspension of the dispatch of Tang envoys, the import of tea from China dropped sharply, and the habit of drinking tea gradually declined.It was Eisai who was respected as the ancestor of Japanese tea who brought Chinese tea species and tea cultivation and drinking methods back to Japan to promote them, and wrote Japan's first tea book "Eating Tea for Health", thus laying the foundation for Japanese tea ceremony .

Eisai (1141-1215 A.D.), the founder of Rinzai Zen Buddhism in Japan, had a common surname of Heyang, style name of Ming'an, nickname of Ye Shangfang, and was honored as Patriarch Qianguang later.Born in a family of priests in Beizhong (now Okayama Prefecture).Since childhood, he has been extremely intelligent and has never forgotten.At the age of eight, he studied Buddhism at Enjoji Temple. At the age of 11, he worshiped Anyang Temple as his teacher. At the age of 14, he went to the altar of Mount Hiei to receive precepts. He officially became a monk under the name of Eisai. In 1162, he went to Dashan Temple in Hoqi (now Daoto County) to learn Tiantai sect from Master Ji Hao, and became the 11th generation of Dharma heir after Master Cijue Yuanren.Because of learning from others' strengths, Rongxi became an outstanding figure in Buddhist cultivation at that time.

In order to learn more about Chinese Buddhism, Rongxi made up his mind to cross the sea and enter the Song Dynasty. In 1168, he took a Chinese trade ship to Japan from Hakata, Kyushu, and entered the Song Dynasty. He landed in Mingzhou and visited Tiantai Mountain and Ashoka Mountain in Zhejiang Province.He witnessed the prosperity of Zen in the Southern Song Dynasty centered on the capital Lin'an (now Hangzhou).After returning to China, Eisai devoted himself to research for more than ten years. In order to further seek Buddhism and revive Japanese Buddhism, Eisai decided to go to China again, and tried to go to Tianzhu (India) from China to seek Dharma and visit Buddhist sites.Therefore, Rongxi entered the Song Dynasty again in 1187 and arrived in Lin'an.He asked the government of the Southern Song Dynasty to issue a license to go to Tianzhu, but was rejected, so he went to Wannian Temple in Tiantai Mountain, Taizhou to learn Zen from the famous Zen Master Xu'an of the Huanglong School of Linjizong, and then moved to Jingde Temple in Tiantong Mountain with Xu'an.During the five years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Rongxi also prayed for Song Xiaozong to eliminate disasters, and was awarded the title of Master Qianguang.He also donated to build the three gates of Wannian Temple in Tiantai Mountain and the Thousand Buddha Pavilion in Tiantong Mountain.

In 1191, Eisai returned to Japan on a Chinese merchant ship. He first built temples in Kyushu to propagate Zen Buddhism, but was attacked and slandered by Tiantai religious believers. The imperial court summoned Eisai to Kyoto for interrogation. Promoting Zen can protect the country and refute the slander of Tiantai monks.Eisai also went to Kamakura, the seat of the shogunate, to preach Zen, and received the support of the Shogun Minamoto Yori's family.He built Shoufu Temple in Kamekura Mountain, Kamakura, and Kennin Temple in Kyoto, becoming the founder of the two temples.The imperial court allowed Jianren Temple to be used as an official temple, and at the same time set up the three schools of Tiantai, Shingon and Zen.Later generations regard Eisai as the founder of the Rinzai Sect of Zen in Japan. In 1206, Eisai was appointed as Daikinshin of Todai-ji Temple in Nara, and presided over the restoration of the east tower of Todai-ji Temple and the nine-storied pagoda of Hosho-ji Temple in Kyoto. The imperial court rewarded him with purple clothes.In his later years, he devoted himself to the study of Zen Buddhism, and passed away in 1215 at the age of 75.

When Eisai returned to the Song Dynasty for the first time in 1168, he brought Chinese tea seeds back to Japan. He first tried planting them on Beizhen Mountain in Hizen (now Saga Prefecture), and found that it was very suitable for the growth of tea trees. The rock tea he made is famous in Japan. . In 1207, Gao Bian, the master Minghui of Tochio, came to ask Rong Xi about Zen.Rongxi invited him to drink tea, and told him that drinking tea can relieve sleepiness, relieve food, refresh the mind, refresh the mind, and relieve qi. He also gave him tea seeds.Takabe then planted tea trees on Mt. Tochio, which produced precious native tea, and became a famous tea-producing area in Japan. Most of the tea varieties in later generations of famous tea-producing areas such as Uji were transplanted from Tochio. In 1191, when Rongxi returned to the Song Dynasty for the second time, he landed on Hirado Island in Nagasaki Prefecture due to the wind, and sowed tea seeds in Fuchun Garden there.The following year, Eisai dedicated his book "Eating Tea for Health", which was the first tea book in Japan, to the shogunate.At the beginning of the book, it is written: "Tea is also the elixir of health, and the magic of prolonging life. It is born in the valley, and its gods are also. It is cultivated by human relations, and its life is long. The land of Tianzhu and Tang Dynasty is as precious as it is. When I was in Japan, I was fond of it, and the ancient and modern strange medicines must be picked." Most of the quotations in this book are from the Song Dynasty "Taiping Yulan" and other books.Rong Xi's motives for advocating tea drinking are mainly for health preservation, longevity and Zen practice.He pointed out that there are three major obstacles in practicing meditation, the first is drowsiness, and drinking tea has the effect of "waking up from drowsiness", which is beneficial to sitting meditation.Therefore, the custom of drinking tea first prevailed among Zen monks, and then spread to secular society.With the popularization of tea tree cultivation, drinking tea has become a custom among the general public in Japan.In the book, Eisai introduced the functions and types of tea, tea utensils, and the methods of picking, making, and ordering tea, which laid the foundation for Japanese tea ceremony.Eisai's tea ceremony theory was later inherited and carried forward by Murata Zhuguang and Takeno Numagull in the Muromachi period. Sen Rikyu in the Warring States period further popularized the tea ceremony and founded the Caoan tea ceremony, which made this culture popular among ordinary people in urban and rural areas, pursuing Respecting the tranquility and cultivating one's temperament has become a form of self-cultivation and social interaction favored by all walks of life in Japan.

Rongxi also spread the art of Chinese calligraphy. He focused on the calligraphy of Huang Tingjian, a calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, with strong and concise strokes.Together with his disciples Mingquan and Dogen, he formed the school of yellow-style calligraphy, sweeping away the dreary atmosphere in the Japanese calligraphy world, and was called "Zen-like".Most of Rongxi's ink marks have been lost, and the handed down ink treasures include "Original Origin of the First Grade of the Ullambana Basin in the Temple of Oath". Eisai borrowed from the Zen architectural style of the Song Dynasty to build Shoufu Temple in Kamakura and Kennin Temple in Kyoto, bringing the architectural style of Chinese Zen temples to Japan.