In Japanese history, China's traditional culture had a great influence, and its dissemination channel was just after Sui and Tang Dynasties, when it was spread to this island country with the help of the Buddhist missionary movement, that is, it was attached to the eastward crossing of Buddhism.
the eastward spread of Zen in China coincided with the Song Dynasty; The establishment and prosperity of Japanese Zen Buddhism has also been in Kamakura and after that, so since then (that is, China's Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties), the spread of Japanese traditional culture in Japan mainly depends on Zen monks in China and China. Zen is closely related to Japanese culture.
The Song Dynasty culture spread from Zen to Japan is the most prominent one. The earliest disseminator was Japanese lawyer Saman Junru. He entered the Song Dynasty in the 1th year of Jianjiu (1199) to study Tiantai, Zen and Harmony, and returned to China in the first year of Jianli (1211), bringing back a large number of Buddhist scriptures and Confucian classics. After him, Tofuku-ji Temple, the founder of Zuyuaner, also brought back thousands of books and records from the Song Dynasty in 1242, and personally wrote the Catalogue of Books and Records of the Three Religions. These ancient books have greatly promoted the prosperity of Confucianism and poetry literature in Wushan, Japan. In addition, Buddhist monks Lanxi Daolong and Yishan Yining also contributed a lot to the spread of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty. When Daolong taught Zen in class, he often borrowed the ideas from the Confucian Four Books, and mixed the philosophy of Song Confucianism into Buddhism and Zen by telling Buddhist practitioners about Zen. Yining is knowledgeable. During his twenty years in Japan, he not only greatly promoted Zen, but also actively spread Song studies. Later, the famous Japanese Song Xuexian drove Tiger Pass Master Lian and Yukimura Yukimura were all his students.
in the muromachi era, five mountains and ten temples were formally established. Wushan not only became the center of Zen at that time, but also gradually became the research center of Song studies. The "Five Mountains Edition", which was published under the auspices of Miaopa in Chunwu, has not only a large number of Zen books, but also many Confucian classics. Many scholars who are proficient in Song studies have emerged among the Zen monks in Wushan. Because of their efforts, Song Xuebian spread widely among Japanese intellectuals. It was not until the Edo period that Song studies, originally attached to the cultural form of Zen, gradually left its ontology and became an independent existence, becoming an important content in Japanese culture.
Besides, because of the close contact between Chinese and Japanese Zen, there are numerous forms and contents. China's tea-eating habits and methods were introduced from Rong Xi's "Eating Tea for Health", and a large number of paintings and calligraphy were brought by Yin Yuan in the late Ming Dynasty, so Huangboshan became the China Painting and Calligraphy Art Museum. The concept of Japanese "Zen culture" with special significance today has been formed, from the top images brought back from China by Bian Yuan, Shao Ming and Dao Yuan, to the "three strokes of Huang Berberis" represented by Hidden Yuan, Mu An and Fei Fei in the history of Japanese calligraphy in Edo, and even the essays of Zhou Xin in Yitang, the poems of the poem "Harmony in the Sea", the publishing of wonderful flowers in spring houses, and the courtyard buildings with sparse dreams and stones. "Zen culture" is an important part of Japanese traditional culture, which can be said to be a rich cultural form formed on the basis of the introduction, development and spread of Zen in Japan. It is the product of the combination of China culture and Japanese culture.
Indian Zen was introduced into China, and after development, China's Zen came into being. China's Zen Buddhism moved eastward to Japan, and there was Japanese Zen Buddhism. Japanese Zen Buddhism does not just absorb China's Zen Buddhism completely, and it is not a simple copy. Because of the different historical clues and cultural backgrounds, Zen must have new development in order to adapt to the political and cultural atmosphere of this island country. In fact, it began when Rong Xi set up the Prayer School and the Stop School in Kenninji, placed three schools of Zen, Prayer and Tiantai, and merged the three ideas to form the Japanese Linji School. Therefore, although Japanese Zen originated in China, the thoughts and styles of various schools have basically maintained the characteristics of China Zen, but it is also the development of China Zen, which has its own characteristics regardless of its ideological system or practice methods. Japanese Zen is an independent and complete religious system and an important aspect of Japanese Buddhist culture.
Significantly, from Indian Zen to China Zen, from China Zen to Japanese Zen, this is a step-by-step "eastward spread" of Zen. However, after completing its ideological and organizational construction, Japanese Zen returned to the "westward journey", contacted with western thoughts and spread in the western world-Europe and America, which made Zen popular in Europe and America in recent years and greatly influenced the spiritual world and cultural life of westerners.
Zen's westward journey began in the Meiji era and is still going on today. Among them, Shizong, the host of Yuanjue Temple in Kamakura, played the role of "guiding the husband to lead the way", while Suzuki Teitaro Daisetz, a high-ranking scholar, took it as his responsibility all his life, which played a great role in introducing Zen to the west and promoting Zen in Europe and America.
If Zen Buddhism in China was fruitful in Japan, it is another great development of Zen Buddhism in Japan today.