In Japan, wa (和. he in Chinese) is still popular as an important tenet taught by Prince Shotoku in the Ancient Age. In this paper, the author tries to analyze the concept of he as it appears in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist texts (Especially Chinese Versions of the Buddhist Canons) and clarify its various meanings, some of which have been deeply influenced by Chinese thought. Since the time of Early Buddhism, Buddhists have fundamentally attached importance to unification and harmonious relations of the order. For example, the famous Dhammapada says, sukha sanghassa samaggi samagganam tapo sukho. Samaggi in this sentence was translated he (和) or hehe (和合) in China. This seems to be the most basic sense of he in Buddhism. Secondly, the idea of hejing (和敬), which relates with he mentioned above is also notable. This idea served as the base of the theory of six kinds of hejing (六和敬), which means harmonious behaviors in the six fields of body (身), speaking (口), mind (意), sila (戒), view (見), and benefit (利) in general. But it does not seem that this theory was formed before the occurrence of Mahayana Buddhism in the first century B.C. and widely prevailed all over the Buddhist world. Thirdly, there is the term of heyan-aiyu (和顔愛語. wagen-aigo in Japanese). This phrase is very popular in Japan. However, we can not find out any equivalent in the Sanskrit text of the Amitayus-sutra to heyan, that constitutes the most well-known idiom in one of the Chinese versions of it. Fourthly, we discuss the concept of heguang-tongchen (和光同塵) 50 Buddhism and the Concept of he (和, wa in Japanese) in East Asia (Kimura) originating in the Laozi. This was accepted in Chinese Buddhism in two ways, i.e., one positive, and the other negative. We can see one typical example of the positive usage of this idiom in the Great Concentration and Insight (Mohezhiguan.摩訶止観) by Zhiyi (538-597). The negative usage of it, in the expression butongqichen (不同其塵) appears in the Mahayana-nirvana-sutra translated by Dharmaksema. Lastly, the author investigates the relationship between these various meanings of he in East Asian Buddhism and the thought of he advocated by Prince Shotoku. Our conclusion is that Prince Shotoku tried to apply the Buddhist idea of samaggi to the secular society at large.
