However, Jian Zhen's trip to the East was very bumpy. As for the reason, apart from the shipbuilding technology at that time and his ignorance of the meteorological conditions of ocean currents and monsoons, the lack of support from the Tang government was also a very important factor. During the Tang Dynasty, if you want to cross Japan to the east, you must get the permission of the imperial court, otherwise you are not allowed to go to sea, and Jian Zhen didn't get the permission of the imperial court at that time, so Jian Zhen and his party could only raise money to cross the sea privately, but without the support of the imperial court, it became very difficult to cross Japan to the east. After all, everyone is not a professional in the sea and there is not enough material preparation.
From 742 to 753, Jian Zhen made six attempts to cross the East. During this period, he experienced many difficulties and even paid a heavy price for his blindness.
So, why did Jian Zhen insist on going eastward despite the imperial ban? In fact, the reason is not so complicated, but Jian Zhen's persistent pursuit of promoting Buddhism, and his choice to go to Japan was also based on a social background in Japan at that time.
At that time, Japan was in the heyday of comprehensive study of Central Plains culture and system. Therefore, before Jian Zhen's eastward crossing, they reformed according to the system of the Tang Dynasty. However, after the reform, the Japanese government found that a considerable number of Japanese became monks themselves in order to avoid government taxes. At that time, Japanese monks were not required to pay taxes. However, although the Japanese government knew that many monks became monks themselves in order to avoid taxes, it suffered from the lack of effective screening methods, so it thought of going to the Tang Dynasty to seek ways to control Buddhist monks.
Later, they studied the Tang Dynasty. Be consecrated? The way to adjust monks, that is, an ordinary person, must be investigated by eminent monks and be willing to preside over them? Be consecrated? Ritual, can become a real monk, enjoy the real treatment of monks, similar to what we now call the qualification examination. However? Be consecrated? Not all monks can preside over the ceremony, only truly enlightened monks are qualified, which was not available in Japan at that time, so the Japanese government sent two young monks, Rong Rui and Zhao Pu, to Datang to find real monks and invited them to Japan to preside over the monk's rite of passage.
It was in this situation that Jian Zhen decided to travel eastward to promote Buddhism in Japan and give Japanese monks the precepts.
After coming to Japan through hardships, Jian Zhen was highly valued and reused by two Japanese emperors, and was named? Big monk? He is in charge of Japanese monks. To this end, he has awarded precepts to more than 500 monks, and Japan has also built a temple specially for them, namely the Tang and Zhao Temple in Nara today. Since then, Jian Zhen has been lecturing in Tang Zhao Ti Temple until his death.
In fact, when monk Jian Zhen traveled to Japan, he not only brought a lot of Buddhist scriptures to Japan, but also brought a lot of medical books and calligraphy, which greatly promoted the spread and development of Central Plains culture in Japan.
However, among these things brought by Jian Zhen, there are also many very valuable cultural relics, and they are all orphans, especially calligraphy works. Among them, many original works by calligraphers Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty are the most precious, such as Wang Xizhi's funeral stickers.
Because of Jian Zhen, in recent 1300 years, many original calligraphy works, such as funeral labels, have been lost overseas, which is definitely a huge loss for us, and this is also where many people criticize Jian Zhen now.
However, at that time, because there was no concept of cultural relics protection and no relevant laws and regulations, there was no right or wrong for Jian Zhen to bring these orphans to Japan. This is just a simple personal behavior. Therefore, we can't criticize a monk who made great contributions to Chinese and Japanese culture more than 1000 years ago from the current moral and legal standpoint, which is unreasonable.