Encyclopedia of Buddhism

lier than circa 1451 in Korea, 1682 in China, or 1715
in Japan. Although the term is relatively late, it can be
used to retrospectively designate earlier phenomena.
Buddhist scriptures prohibit the use of force and the
taking of life. Nonetheless, East Asian history records
many instances during times of political conflict, re-
gional unrest, dynastic change, or foreign invasion
when Buddhist institutions relied on armed forces to
defend their interests. During the years from 1553 to
1555, for example, Chinese monastic forces fought
alongside government troops to repel coastal raiders.
Likewise, in 1592 Korean Buddhist monks formed
armed bands to help fight invading Japanese armies.

Neither Chinese nor Korean examples, however,
have been as historically prominent or as well studied
as those of early and medieval Japan. Throughout most
of that period the institutions of secular government
in Japan derived legitimation from the divine protec-
tion of buddhas (enshrined in temples) and local gods
(placated at shrines), while the temples and shrines en-
gaged in the secular activities of controlling large tracts
of land and the people who worked thereon. Begin-
ning in the tenth century, major shrines (such as Ise)
developed the tactic of protesting unfavorable govern-
ment actions by sending armed bands of men to the
capital, where they would parade the divine body of
the gods in front of the residences of terrified govern-
ment officials. Major Buddhist centers (Mount Hiei,
Onjo
ji, Ko
fukuji, To
daiji, etc.) soon adopted this tac-
tic. By the end of the eleventh century, they were
directing their armed forces not just to protest gov-
ernment authorities but also to attack one another.

Mount Hiei, the main center of the Japanese Tendai
school, became infamous for its men of arms. During
the twelfth century they repeatedly attacked and
burned Onjo
ji, a rival Tendai center. English-language
accounts of these conflicts frequently render the term
so
heias “warrior monks,” although membership in
those armed bands was not limited to the clergy, but
consisted primarily of laborers (shuto, jinin,etc.) in
various degrees of servitude to the temples and shrines.
The warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) campaigned
to eliminate the military power of Japanese Buddhist
institutions beginning with Mount Hiei, which he
torched in 1571. His successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi
(1537–1598) successfully concluded this campaign in
1585 when he defeated the Shingon school’s strong-
hold of Negoroji and eradicated monastic militias
from Japan.

See also:Hyujo ̆ng; Martial Arts; War; Yujo ̆ng

Bibliography

Adolphson, Mikael S. The Gates of Power: Monks, Courtiers, and

Warriors in Premodern Japan.Honolulu: University of

Hawaii Press, 2000.

Hirata Toshiharu. “Akuso
 ni tsuite.” In Shu
kyo
 shakaishi

kenkyu
,ed. Rissho
Daigaku Shigakkai. Tokyo: Yu
zankaku.

1977.

Kuroda Toshio. Jisha seiryoku: mo
 hitotsu no chu
sei shakai.

Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1980.

McMullin, Neil. Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth Century

Japan.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Nishigaki Harutsugu. “Ritsuryo
taisei no kaitai to Ise jingu
.”

Chicho
56 (1955): 37–51.

WILLIAMM. BODIFORD

MONGOLIA

In the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, a

confederation of Mongol tribes rose up in Outer and

Inner Mongolia under the leadership of Genghis Khan

(Chinggis Khan, named Temujin, 1162?–1227).

Though the Mongols had certainly had contact with

Buddhist neighbors (Jurchen, Tanguts, and Chinese),

Genghis continued to support indigenous shamanist

practices. However, following his death in 1227 and

the subsequent conquest of China and much of

Central and Western Asia by his sons and grandsons,

Buddhism—specifically Tibetan Buddhism—began

to have a significant impact on Mongolian concepts

of rulership and empire.

Buddhism during the Mongol Yuan dynasty

(1260–1368)

Genghis’s son Ogodei (r. 1229–1241) established a

Mongol empire that stretched from Korea (occupied

in 1238) to present-day Poland and Hungary (1241).

Ogodei’s second son, Gödan Khan, invaded Tibet sev-

eral times and in 1244 brought three prominent Ti-

betan SA SKYA(SAKYA) lamas as guests (or hostages)

to his court in Liangzhou (modern Gansu province).

They were SA SKYA PANDITA (SAKYA PANDITA,

1182–1251), head of the Sa skya pa, and his two

nephews, ’Phags pa (1235–1280) and Phyag na rdo rje

(1239–1267). Under duress, Sa skya Pandita wrote a

letter to Tibet’s great nobles and lamas praising Gö-

dan Khan, but he also initiated him into Tibetan Bud-

MONGOLIA