Envoys To The Tang Court
Japanese envoys to the Tang court were received as ambassadors: Three missions to the Tang court were dispatched during the reign of Emperor Kōtoku.
Emperor Kammu's planned mission to the Tang court in 804 (Enryaku 23) included three ambassadors and several Buddhist priests, including Saichō (最澄?) and Kūkai (空海?); but the enterprise was delayed until the end of the year. The ambassadors returned in the middle of 805 (Enryaku 24, 6th month). They were accompanied by the monk Saichō, also known by his posthumous name Dengyō Daishi (伝教大師?), whose teachings would develop into the Tendai school of Japanese Buddhism. In 806 (Daidō 1, 8th month), the return of the monk Kūkai, also known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師?), marks the beginning of what would develop into the Shingon school of Japanese Buddhism.
New ambassadors to China were appointed by Emperor Ninmyō in 834, but the mission was put off.
- 836-839: The mission was postponed by a typhoon; but the ambassadors did eventually travel to the Tang court, returning in 839 with a letter from Emperor Tang Wenzong.
In China, a steady and conservative Confucianist Song dynasty emerged after the end of the Tang dynasty and subsequent period of disunity during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. During this time, although travel to China was generally safe, Japanese rulers believed there was little to learn from the Song, and so there were no major embassy missions to China.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Missions To Imperial China
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