Treatise 121: Buddhist Affairs I

¶In ancient times, when the sage emperors of successive ages governed the realm, they made the Way of the Kami clear and performed the rites of worship; they were pure and single-hearted, the kami responded to them, their spiritual power was manifest, and it could not be carelessly defiled. The customs of the people were thereby made simple and united, and the strength of the state thereby flourished. Even if there were heretical teachings overseas in those days, there was no one at all who had heard of them. But as the ages went down, the Way of the Kami was obscured, there was no one to carry it on, and it could no longer shine forth its light. Then foreign creeds and heterodox doctrines slipped in through the gap. This was the natural course of events, given the forces at work.

¶When the Buddhist Law first entered China, it preached what are called the doctrines of the heavenly halls and the hells, and so led people's hearts astray. At that time, those who argued for correcting this were instead cast aside, while princes and ministers exerted themselves to spread it, teaching that "whoever serves the Buddha well will have the hindrance of their sins swept away and will surely be born in the Pure Land." They vied with one another in building monasteries, to display them to the eyes and ears of the people. They read the sutras and expounded the Law, hoping to convert the whole realm. How could the foolish common people fail to be swayed and to follow? Even so, the teaching by which the sage emperors of successive ages revered the kami still remained within people's hearts, and could not easily be taken away.

¶Presently the monk Gyōki appeared and began to advance the idea that kami and Buddhas are of one body. Saichō and Kūkai went further, contriving the doctrine of honji suijaku, "original substance and manifest trace," and taught that "the Buddha is the original substance, and the kami are his manifest traces; there must first be the Buddha, and only afterwards the kami." Thus the kami, whose manifest spiritual power had allowed no careless defilement, were placed beneath a Buddha who is strange, obscure, and impossible to grasp. If even the kami were made servants of the Buddha, what could there be beyond his reach? Moreover, the court honored and exalted him and left everything to his devices, so that the deception of the people and the confusion of the world reached their extreme.

¶From then on, the court's ceremonies and festivals became mixed up with Buddhist affairs, the laws of the world fell into disorder and ruin, and the civilizing influence of the imperial house declined. That the monks of Enryakuji and Kōfukuji defied the court's commands, repeatedly resorted to force of arms, thronged the court to press their demands, and would not desist until their wishes were granted was likewise the natural course of events. Furthermore, the building of temples and pagodas continued from generation to generation; the cost was enormous and wore out the labor of the people. What Miyoshi Kiyoyuki said, that "it is not enough to say that half of the realm's expenditure goes to this," was precisely this matter. The central provinces were exhausted by it, the strength of the state was sapped by it, and its harm cannot be fully told. Yet the whole world was immersed in it, deluded and unwilling to return to its senses. Even among men of talent and virtue and heroes of exceptional stature, there was no one who set out to eliminate it. Was it because they could not see where the evil lay? Or was it because, given the tendency of the times, nothing could be done?

¶Only the Shrine of Amaterasu-Ōmikami, the Jingū, has stood in solemn majesty through ten thousand ages, and to this day does not allow monks to worship there. Even those who present offerings at the Jingū may not meet monks or nuns unless they first set aside their abstinence and purification. The strength with which the teaching of the world and the hearts of the people were sustained may truly be called slender. Yet for that reason, although Buddhism ran so rampant and disorderly, enlightened sovereigns still appeared in turn, tightened the bonds of discipline, set customs right, and now and then managed to restrain somewhat the heterodox doctrines and licentious conduct. If later sovereigns had been able to carry on and put into practice the example of the Taihō Code and the government of the Enryaku years, the harm done by the Buddhist Law would not have been so severe.

¶The rights and wrongs of its teachings, and the talents or lack of talent among its monks, we have no leisure to discuss here; but that the way of the world has declined and people's hearts have gone astray because of it cannot go unrecorded. Now we set out the whole course of events, examine their development in detail, and set it all down in this section. Thus we compose the Treatise on Buddhist Affairs.