Honen the Buddhist Saint by Shunjo Hoin; Harper Havelock Coates; Ryugaku IshizukaReview by: George SartonIsis, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Jun., 1927), pp. 365-367Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/223722 .

Accessed: 09/05/2014 00:19

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Isis.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Fri, 9 May 2014 00:19:51 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Reviews

[Shunj] H6in, fl. at the beginning of XlVth. cent.]. - HONEN the Bud- dhist saint. His life and teaching. Compiled by imperial order. Trans- lation, historical introduction, explanatory and critical notes by HARPER HAVELOOK COATES and RYUGAKU ISHIZUKA. XCIv+956 p., 4 loose pages of errata, many large plates, one of which colored.

Ky6to, Chionin, 1925. Through the kindness of the Very Rev. GENYUf YAMASHITA, Lord

Abbot of the Chionin (1) Temple, a copy of this sumptuous volume was presented to the Widener Library and I had thus occasion to examine it. Sumptuous publications must be treated more severely and not less severely, than others. Many such publications indeed are nothing but bluff, a bluff that pays, because critics are often

ignorant, or foolish, or timid. However this volume is a very valuable publication; its sumptuousness, the beauty of its illustra-

tions, are thus only added blessings. HONEN, alias GENKUi (born 1133, died in Otani, 1212) is the father

of the Pure Land (J6do) sects which have influenced Japanese life and thought to an immense extent and continue to do so (2). He was an authentic saint, and every religious minded person, whether Buddhist or not, will enjoy reading his life.

- In contrast to EISAI'S religion of compromise, H6NEN refused all worldly hon-,rs and offices, urged the impracticability of the old traditional precepts, treated prayers for nought but temporal goods as a travesty of religion, and taught that with all its plausible profundity,the attempt to get an intuition of the Buddha within one's own soul (3) was a counsel of perfection, quite beyond the reach of , the man in the street ,,, whose spiritual eye is blinded by evil passion,

(1) The Chion-in is one of the most famous and one of the most magnificent Buddhist temples of Japan. It is the headquarters of the J6do sect and is situated in Shimo-KyOku, Ky6to. It was founded by HCNEN in 1211, but the present buildings date mostly from c. 1640.

(2) According to the latest Japanese statistics (1923) the number of believers belonging to the J6do sect proper amounts to 2,189,083, But if one takes into account all the Amidaist or Nembutsu sects, that is, all the sects which were influenced by H6NEN'S teaching, we find a grand total of 16,398,915 believers.

(3) H6NEN's contemporary, EISAI (1141-1215) taught that it was possible by means of silent meditation (dhyana) to obtain a pure intuitive knowledge of the Baddha's heart, what the Hindus call prajfiparamita (i. e. knowledge of univer sal voidness, the knowledge which refuses all conceivable limitations).

Vol. ix-2. 25

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Fri, 9 May 2014 00:19:51 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

isis, ix. 1927

and who is powerless to save himself by his own exertions. H6NEN brought a veritable evangel to the heart-weary men of his generation, in the proclamation of salvation by faith in the Buddha Amida - the Buddha of Boundless Light and Life - whose compassionate power alone can, he said, effect the great delive- rance, for which in their despair helpless mortals yearn. His religious tolerance showed itself in his treatment of the teaching of the meditative and non-meditative sects, which had down to his time held the field as adapted only to men of supe- rior capacity, who might possibly have lived in by-gone ages, but who were all but an unknown quantity in these latter degenerate times. He saw no hope for common humanity anywhere but in that , Other Power ,, impersonated in Amida Buddha. ,

HONEN founded the Jodo sect in 1175. T'he enormous success of that sect, and of others guided by the same general principles, proves that he had admirably divined what the majority of people wanted. The spirit of Amidaism might be compared to some extent with that of Roman Catholicism, that is, it satisfied the same

aspirations in the Buddhist world which Catholicism satisfied in Christendom.

This biography of HONEN was compiled by order of the retired

emperor Go-FusHIMI (1288-1336). The author was a J6do priest called SHUNJO, born in Shiga in the province of Omi. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. He became eventually the chief priest of the Chionin temple and was given the honorary title of H6in. SHUNJO'S work including 48 volumes (or chapters) was transcribed by the emperor and other members of the imperial family and prominent bonzes. Still another copy was begun at about the same time (1307) by the emperor and his assistants. These two imperial copies, which are in fact the original fair

copies of SHUNJO'S work, are still extant, one in the Chionin

temple, the other in the Ojoin temple at Taima, Yamato. The translation of this great work has occupied the two trans-

lators for some sixteen years. It was quite difficult to English exactly the archaic Japanese style and besides it was necessary to study the glosses of many Japanese commentators. The intimate and generous collaboration of these two men, one a Christian, sometime professor of New Testament exegesis in Aoyama Gakuin, Toky6, the other, a Buddhist, sometime professor of Buddhist ethics in Shukyo Daigaku, also in Tokyo, - was in itself an admirable

spectacle. They have added to this translation an elaborate his- torical introduction and notes so abundant that this work is

considerably more than the title promises: it might be called an

encyclopedia of Japanese Buddhism. This is in my opinion a fault of method; one ought not to explain

a large subject apropos of a more special one. It would be more natural to assume that the readers approaching such a book have

366

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Fri, 9 May 2014 00:19:51 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

already a sufficient knowledge of Buddhism in general, and of Japanese Buddhism in particular. However it would be ungracious to reproach the learned authors for having given us much more than we needed. Moreover even the readers who are best acquainted with Buddhism will be glad to find well known facts restated upon the basis of Japanese traditions.

At the beginning of this bulky volume, the Rev. ISHIZUKA gives a detailed and charming account of his long collaboration with the Rev. COATES and of the many vicissitudes of itheir great under- taking which was almost ruined at the very end by the terrible T6kyO ,ea!rthquake (Sept. 1, 1923). This is followed by a briefer preface by the Rev. COATES and an extensive Japanese bibliogra- phy. The work is completed by a very full index, including a large number of technical terms, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese, and finally by a very long list of Chinese characters classified according to strokes. The illustrations reproducing early Japanese paintings, give a genuine artistic value to the book.

We owe much gratitude to the Buiddhist and Christian authors of this work for an important contribution to the study of Buddhism, for a valuable evocation of XIIth century Japan, and last not least, for an inspiring example of religious toleration.

GEORGE SARTON.

Die Handschrift des Schnitt- und Augenarztes CASPAR STROMAYR in Lindau am Bodensee. - Thle Lindau MS (P. I. 46), dated July 4, 1559; with an historical introduction and evaluation by Prof. WALnrER VON BRUNN, M. D. Berlin. 1925, 364 p. Idra-Verlags- anstalt.

The fifteenth century witnessed a general decline of surgery throughout the world, and a particular one in Germany. The days of the famous mediaeval medical surgeons were over; WILLIAM OF SALI- CET, HENRI DE HERMONDEVILLE, LANFRANC and later GuY Dr CHAUJLIAC were not followed by spiritual issue, BENIVIENI was the last of the order, so to speak. In the German lands, the School of Strasbourg began suddenly to bloom, in a period initiated by BRUNSWIcH and ter- minated by JOHN OF GERSDORF, 1497 1517, roughly. EUCHARIUS REOSI1N

published his Rosengarten soon after, but then there was a renewed relapse into silence. Surgery was not practised by men of learning any more, but that art was exercised by crude and illiterate local or itine- rant surgeons of whom JOHAN LANGE says with such scorn: (( they are

already a sufficient knowledge of Buddhism in general, and of Japanese Buddhism in particular. However it would be ungracious to reproach the learned authors for having given us much more than we needed. Moreover even the readers who are best acquainted with Buddhism will be glad to find well known facts restated upon the basis of Japanese traditions.

At the beginning of this bulky volume, the Rev. ISHIZUKA gives a detailed and charming account of his long collaboration with the Rev. COATES and of the many vicissitudes of itheir great under- taking which was almost ruined at the very end by the terrible T6kyO ,ea!rthquake (Sept. 1, 1923). This is followed by a briefer preface by the Rev. COATES and an extensive Japanese bibliogra- phy. The work is completed by a very full index, including a large number of technical terms, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese, and finally by a very long list of Chinese characters classified according to strokes. The illustrations reproducing early Japanese paintings, give a genuine artistic value to the book.

We owe much gratitude to the Buiddhist and Christian authors of this work for an important contribution to the study of Buddhism, for a valuable evocation of XIIth century Japan, and last not least, for an inspiring example of religious toleration.

GEORGE SARTON.

Die Handschrift des Schnitt- und Augenarztes CASPAR STROMAYR in Lindau am Bodensee. - Thle Lindau MS (P. I. 46), dated July 4, 1559; with an historical introduction and evaluation by Prof. WALnrER VON BRUNN, M. D. Berlin. 1925, 364 p. Idra-Verlags- anstalt.

The fifteenth century witnessed a general decline of surgery throughout the world, and a particular one in Germany. The days of the famous mediaeval medical surgeons were over; WILLIAM OF SALI- CET, HENRI DE HERMONDEVILLE, LANFRANC and later GuY Dr CHAUJLIAC were not followed by spiritual issue, BENIVIENI was the last of the order, so to speak. In the German lands, the School of Strasbourg began suddenly to bloom, in a period initiated by BRUNSWIcH and ter- minated by JOHN OF GERSDORF, 1497 1517, roughly. EUCHARIUS REOSI1N

published his Rosengarten soon after, but then there was a renewed relapse into silence. Surgery was not practised by men of learning any more, but that art was exercised by crude and illiterate local or itine- rant surgeons of whom JOHAN LANGE says with such scorn: (( they are

367 367 REVIEWS REVIEWS

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Fri, 9 May 2014 00:19:51 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions