Shandao
613 CE–681 CE · Chang'an (Xi'an)
613–681 CE
Shandao (613–681 CE) was the great systematizer of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism and, in the later tradition's reckoning, one of its founding patriarchs. Active in Tang-dynasty Chang'an, he centered the path on faith in the Buddha Amitābha and the recitation of his name (nianfo), reading the Contemplation Sūtra as opening rebirth in the Pure Land even to ordinary practitioners. His commentaries decisively shaped East Asian Pure Land thought and, carried to Japan, became the principal authority for Hōnen's Jōdo-shū and Shinran's Jōdo Shinshū. He is a securely historical figure, though the sources disagree on his birthplace (variously Anhui or Shandong).
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Chang'an (Xi'an)
What they did here
DOCUMENTED ROLE: taught in the Tang capital, where he propagated devotion to the Buddha Amitābha and the recitation of his name (nianfo) as a path to rebirth in the Pure Land, drawing a large lay following.
About Chang'an (Xi'an)
Chang'an, modern Xi'an in Shaanxi province, China, was the capital of the Sui and Tang dynasties and one of the great Buddhist translation and study centres of medieval East Asia. The translator Kumārajīva was brought there in 401 to head an imperial translation bureau; the pilgrim Xuanzang returned there from India to translate the texts he had gathered; and Kūkai studied esoteric Buddhism in the city before founding the Japanese Shingon school.
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Shandao’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Shandao’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Islamic world
Christian world
Graeco-Roman world
Rulers world
- Constans II· 630 CE–668 CE
- K'ak' Uti' Witz' K'awiil (Smoke Imix)· 604 CE–695 CE
- Yuknoom Ch'een II (Yuknoom the Great)· 600 CE–686 CE
- K'inich Janaab' Pakal I (Pakal the Great)· 603 CE–683 CE
- Munmu of Silla· 626 CE–681 CE
- Marwan I· 623 CE–685 CE
- Emperor Gaozong of Tang· 628 CE–683 CE
- Yazdegerd III· 624 CE–651 CE
- Bajlaj Chan K'awiil (Ruler 1)· 625 CE–692 CE
- Emperor Tenmu· 631 CE–686 CE
- Wu Zetian· 624 CE–705 CE
- Yazid I· 646 CE–683 CE
- Constantine IV· 652 CE–685 CE
- Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan· 644 CE–705 CE
Works
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