Encyclopedia of Buddhism

600–664) brought 150 relic grains, as well as seven im-
ages and 657 chapters of Buddhist scriptures, from his
sixteen-year journey to India.

See also:Relics and Relics Cults; Ritual Objects

Bibliography

Wang, Eugene Y. “Of the True Body: The Famensi Relics and
Corporeal Transformation in Tang Imperial China.” In Body
and Face in Chinese Visual Culture,ed. Wu Hung et al. Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard Asia Center and Harvard University
Press, 2003.

Whitfield, Roderick. “Buddhist Monuments in China: Some
Recent Finds of S ́ar
ra Deposits.” In The Buddhist Heritage:
Papers Delivered at the Symposium of the Same Name Con-
vened at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Univer-
sity of London, November 1985,ed. Tadeusz Skorupski. Tring,
UK: Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1989.

RODERICKWHITFIELD

RENNYO

Rennyo (1415–1499) was the eighth head of the Hon-
ganji temple of the Jo
do Shinshu
tradition of PURE
LANDBUDDHISMin Japan. The Shinshu
, which origi-
nated in the teachings of SHINRAN (1173–1263),
emerged during Rennyo’s period as the largest and
most powerful Buddhist movement in Japan. Rennyo
is largely credited with the Shinshu
’s expansion and
success in the fifteenth century and with building Hon-
ganji from a minor temple in Kyoto into a formidable
institution.

Early in his career Rennyo’s initiatives incensed ri-
vals at the Tendai monastic complex on Mount Hiei
outside Kyoto, which dominated religious affairs in the
region. Its agents attacked and destroyed Honganji in
1465, and sent Rennyo fleeing into the provinces,
where he spent the next decade and a half proselytiz-
ing. Gradually, he built up a massive following, espe-
cially among peasants, and he popularized Shinshu

teachings though his ofumi(pastoral letters), which
were circulated and read aloud in congregational meet-
ings. The message he proclaimed was that faith in
Amida (AMITA
BHA) Buddha assures birth in the Pure
Land where Buddhist enlightenment is certain. Ren-
nyo also taught that the nenbutsu,the Pure Land prac-
tice of reciting Amida’s name, was a palpable
expression of coalescence with the Buddha and in-
debtedness to him. People in this religious state, he

claimed, live a life of peace and assurance, and are in-

spired to follow rules of upright conduct. This mes-

sage lay behind the popularization of the Shinshu


throughout Japan. In the early 1480s Rennyo fulfilled

his dream of rebuilding Honganji as a magnificent

temple complex on the outskirts of Kyoto. It became

the site of a huge annual memorial service on the an-

niversary of Shinran’s death, in which Shinshu
 pil-

grims came from around the country to participate.

See also:Nenbutsu (Chinese, Nianfo; Korean, Yo ̆ ̆mbul);

Pure Land Schools

Bibliography

Dobbins, James C. Jo
do Shinshu
: Shin Buddhism in Medieval

Japan,(1989). Reprint, Honolulu: University of Hawaii

Press, 2002.

The Rennyo Shonin Reader.Kyoto: Jo
do Shinshu
Hongwanji-

ha, 1998.

Rogers, Minor L., and Rogers, Ann T. Rennyo: The Second

Founder of Shin Buddhism.Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities

Press, 1991.

Weinstein, Stanley. “Rennyo and the Shinshu
Revival.” In Japan

in the Muromachi Age,ed. John Whitney Hall and Toyoda

Takeshi. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.

JAMESC. DOBBINS

RENWANG JING (HUMANE KINGS

SU
TRA)

The Renwang jing(Humane Kings Su
tra) is one of the

more influential of the East Asian “apocryphal” scrip-

tures—texts that purported to be translations of In-

dian works, but were actually composed in China and

Korea. Although its full title indicates that it is a tran-

scendent wisdom (prajña
pa
ramita
) text, it is better

characterized as a blend of transcendent wisdom, YO-

GA
CA
RA SCHOOL, and TATHA
GATAGARBHAteachings.

The Renwang jingis unusual in that its target audience

is the rulership, rather than lay practitioners or the

community of monks and nuns. Thus, whereas the in-

terlocutors in most scriptures are ARHATs or BOD-

HISATTVAs, the discussants in this text are the kings of

the sixteen ancient regions of India. The foregrounded

teachings, rather than meditation and wisdom, are hu-

maneness and forbearance, these being the most ap-

plicable religious values for the governance of a

Buddhist state.

RENNYO