Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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曹洞宗

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: Caodong Zong

Senses:

  • One of the five major schools of Chan Buddhism in Tang China. Along with the Linji school, this line of transmission became one of the most popular in East Asia, enjoying great success in Japan where its teachings were spread by Dōgen 道元, as the Sōtō Shū. It was named after the sixth ancestor Huineng 慧能, the 'Great Master of Caoxi' 曹溪大師, and Dongshan Liangjie 洞山良价 (807–869), his dharma heir in the seventh generation; this etymology follows Yanagida Seizan (Tōdai no zenshū [Tokyo: Daitō Shuppan, 2004], 7.) Most modern scholars have given a different etymology, holding that the Sōtō lineage was named after its founder Dongshan and his disciple Caoshan Benji 曹山本寂 (840–901). The members of this tradition in China are also referred to as 洞家, 洞上; and 洞下. The Sōjiji 總持寺 in Tsurumi and the Eiheiji 永平寺 in Fukui are the two headquarters of the Japanese Sōtō school. [Griffith Foulk]
  • In Japan, the Sōtō Shū is the largest of the twenty-two comprehensive religious corporations 包括宗教法人 registered with the Japanese government that are recognized as belonging to the Zen tradition 禪系. The Sōtō school is unique among the Zen denominations existing in Japan today in that it has two ancestral teachers that it venerates equally (Dōgen 道元 and Keizan 瑩山), two head monasteries (Eiheiji 永平寺 in Fukui and Sōjiji 總持寺 in Yokohama), and a separate Administrative Headquarters 宗務廳 located in Tokyo. Prior to the Meiji era (1868–1912), there were a number of competing branches of the Sōtō lineage, all of which derived from the lineage founder Dōgen, but no single institutional entity that went by the name of Sōtō school. The present school came into existence in 1874 as the result of Meiji government policies that forced the Eiheiji 永平寺 faction and the much larger Sōjiji 總持寺 faction of affiliated Sōtō lineage temples to join under unified bureaucratic control. The Sōtō school today comprises about 14,600 ordinary temples 一般寺院 and 28 training monasteries or 'special saṃgha halls' 專門僧堂. By far the largest of the latter are the head monasteries Eiheiji and Sōjiji, both of which typically have about 100 monks in training 雲水 at any given time, under the guidance of thirty or forty senior monastic officers and teachers. Four of the training monasteries are 'special female saṃgha halls' 專門尼僧堂, the largest of which has but a score of nuns (including senior teachers and junior trainees) in residence. The Sōtō school operates a number of educational institutions, including five universities, three research centers, two junior colleges, seven high schools, and three middle schools. Its Administrative Headquarters has within its offices a Publications Division 出版部 and an Education Division 教化部 that reach out in various ways to clergy and lay followers in Japan and abroad. It also organizes and supports such groups as a National Sōtō School Youth Association (Zenkoku Sōtōshū seinenkai 全國曹洞宗靑年會) and Sōtō School Womenʼs Association (Sōtōshū fujinkai 曹洞宗婦人會). [Griffith Foulk]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Chūgoku bukkyōshi jiten (Kamata) 215

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 660

    Bulgyo sajeon 793a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 745a

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 516

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 309a/343

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 737

    Fo Guang Dictionary 4617

    Ding Fubao

    Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono) ⑫497b*

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)3095c,1166c

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 596-1

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 1993-09-01

    Updated: 2017-11-30