of the mudras and mantras and expounded only the doctrines. This is the work that the Tripitaka Master Kumarajiva introduced to China and that the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai employed. At the same time, however, the Thus Come One Mahavairochana, addressing Vajrasattva, preached the Lotus Sutra, which he called the Mahavairochana Sutra. This is the work now called the Mahavairochana Sutra, a work that I often saw when I was in India. Therefore, I want you to explain that the Mahavairochana Sutra and the Lotus Sutra are to be savored as works that are essentially the same in flavor, like water and milk. If you do so, then the Mahavairochana Sutra can stand superior to all the other sutras preached in the past, present, and future in the same way that the Lotus Sutra does.
“As to the mudras and mantras, if they are used to adorn the doctrine of the mind, which is expressed in the term a single moment of life comprising three thousand realms, this will constitute a secret teaching in which the three mysteries are provided. And with this doctrine containing the three mysteries, the True Word will prove superior to the T’ien-t’ai school, which speaks only of the mystery of the mind. The True Word school is like a general of the first rank who dons armor, slings his bow and arrows over his shoulder, and fastens a sword at his waist. But the T’ien-t’ai school, with nothing but the mystery of the mind, is like a general of the first rank who is stark naked.”
Acharya I-hsing wrote all this down just as Shan-wu-wei dictated it.
Throughout the 360 states of China, there was no one who knew about this ruse. At first there were some disputes over the relative merits of the T’ien-t’ai and True Word teachings. But Shan- wu-wei was the kind of person who was able to command a great deal of respect, whereas the men of the T’ien
t’ai school were regarded lightly. Moreover, at this time there were no men of wisdom such as the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai had been. Thus day by day the T’ien-t’ai school lost more ground to the True Word school, and finally all debate ceased.
As more and more years have gone by, these fraudulent beginnings of the True Word school have become completely obscured and forgotten. When the Great Teacher Dengyo of Japan went to China and returned with the teachings of the T’ien-t’ai school, he also brought back the True Word teachings. The T’ien-t’ai doctrine he recommended to the emperor of Japan, but the True Word teachings he turned over to the eminent priests of the six schools to study. Dengyo had already established the superiority of the T’ien-t’ai teachings over those of the six schools before he went to China. After he came back from China, he attempted to establish an ordination platform for conferring the precepts of perfect and immediate enlightenment, but this involved him in a great deal of controversy.108 He had many enemies and probably felt that establishing the ordination platform would be difficult enough to accomplish even if he devoted all his efforts to it. Or perhaps he felt that the refutation of the True Word teachings should be left until the Latter Day of the Law. In any event, he did not discuss the True Word teachings in the presence of the emperor, or make any clear pronouncement on the matter to his disciples. However, he did leave a one-volume secret work entitled A Clarification of the Schools Based on T’ien-t’ai’s Doctrine, in which he describes how various priests of the seven schools were won over to T’ien-t’ai’s teachings. In the preface to that work, he mentions the fraudulence of the True Word teachings.
The Great Teacher Kobo went to T’ang China during the Enryaku era, when the Great Teacher Dengyo
