This article focuses on Nyohokyo in Heian Japan, through investigating how Nyohokyo was formed and discussed, to illustrate the possible meaning of Chinese Buddhism in East Asian cultural interactions. Nyohokyo literally means manuscripts that handwritten as dharma defines and offering as dharma suggests, and gradually became strictly restricted with rituals. While Nyohokyo was only found in Japan, it is originally a localized representation of Chinese Buddhism. That is, Nyohokyo could be an example to investigate how Chinese Buddhism transmitted in East Asia. Tendai school in Japan kept emphasizing they were following the Dharma from Tiantai school in Tang, and this discourse has shaped the construction of Japanese Buddhism. The earliest Nyohokyo was traced back to Ennin (794-864) and extremely connected to Chinese Buddhism. This article will inspect detailed accounts of Nyohokyo in different texts and compare to the narrative of merits generated from copying Lotus Sutra in medieval China, to analyze the elements of religious representations and offer a comprehensive narration of Nyohokyo’s background and development.
