Paper short abstract:

The paper will focus on the lectures on the Flower Garland Sutra (Jap. Kegonkyō 華厳経) that took place at the Konshuji (named Tōdaiji in 742) in preparation for the Eye-Opening Ceremony of the Tōdaiji Great Buddha.

Paper long abstract:

Even if the officials' education was regulated by the State Academy, we don't have enough information about the circulation of Chinese texts and about the actual state of knowledge transmission in other milieux not strictly connected to ritsuryō. The most relevant case is that of Buddhist institutions: for example, the Daianji, the largest Nara State monastery, inherited Buddhist knowledge directly from 7th-century Chinese monks Xuanzang, Daoxuan, and Daoshi of the Ximing Monastery in Chang'an. The Daianji, which should be well considered as an academy, included also facilities where several monks coming from the continent were hosted, and it functioned as the pivotal institution for the study of the Buddhist canon. These monks were invited by other monasteries to give lectures and explain the Buddhist texts, all events that were not regulated by ritsuryō.

As the educational methodology was that of "reading and learning", the reception of Chinese sources should be investigated also by taking into consideration the dedicated lectures and commentaries. In this paper I will clarify how Buddhist texts were studied in Daianji and transmitted to other monasteries: in particular, I will focus on the lectures on the Flower Garland Sutra (Jap. Kegonkyō 華厳経) that took place at the Konshuji (named Tōdaiji in 742) in preparation for the Eye-Opening Ceremony of the Tōdaiji Great Buddha.