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Five Mountain System

System of organizing Chan/Zen Buddhist temples in China and Japan

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Through China, Japan and Kyoto

Lab · Class 6–12Archaeology & Discovery

In China, records by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) historian Song Lian state that the Five Mountains system was first established during the Jiading period (1208–1224) of the Southern Song by Emperor Ningzong at the request of the official Shi Miyuan (who was a follower of the eminent Chan master Dahui Zonggao), although alternative accounts of the creation of the system exists in other records. The main Five Temples, known as Wushan (五山), were selected around the then temporary Southern Song capital of Lin'an (located around modern-day Hangzhou in Zhejiang), and high-ranking monks were appointed as abbots by imperial order on a rotating basis. Immediately below the five Wushan temples are another ten called the Shicha (十刹). This list of categorizations was continued in succeeding dynasties, and separate rankings exist for both the Chan Buddhist tradition and the scriptural Buddhist tradition (which broadly includes traditions like Tiantai and Huayan).

In Japan, the ten existing "Five Mountain" temples (five in Kyoto and five in Kamakura, Kanagawa) were both protected and controlled by the shogunate. Japan’s adoption of Zen Buddhism from Song and Yuan China was most clearly reflected in the establishment of the Five Mountain (Gozan 五山) system of state-sponsored Zen temples, which closely imitated the Chinese model. In time, they became a sort of governmental bureaucracy that helped the Ashikaga shogunate stabilize the country during the turbulent Nanboku-chō period. Below the ten Gozan temples there were ten so-called Jissetsu (十刹) temples, followed by another network called Shozan (諸山, lit. many temples). The terms Gozan and Five Mountain System are used both for the ten temples at the top and for the Five Mountain System network in general, including the Jissetsu and the Shozan.

There used to be in Kamakura a parallel "Five Mountain System" of nunneries called Amagozan (尼五山), of which the famous Tōkei-ji is the only survivor.

China

Establishment

At the time of the Song dynasty, Chan (Japanese Zen) was the dominant form of monasticism in China and had considerable imperial support. This forced it to assume certain features and develop a network of monastic offices and rituals wanted by the state. Around the 12th century, this tendency to monastic wealth and imperial patronage became even more pronounced with the creation by direct imperial order in South China of the Five Mountains and Ten Temples System (五山十刹, wushan shicha) during the late Southern Song (1127–1279). Historical records by the historian Song Lian (1310–1381) state that the Five Mountains system was first established during the Jiading period (1208–1224) of the Southern Song by Emperor Ningzong at the request of the official Shi Miyuan (1164–1233). It was a system of state-sponsored temples and monasteries built to pray to the gods for the dynasty and the state, which was threatened by enemies from Northern China. Officials chose both the five temples of the top tier, and the chief monastic that ruled over them.

Rankings for Chan temples

The famous five mountains and ten temples with regards to Chan Buddhism are:

Rankings for scriptural Buddhist temples

Temples under the Song dynasty were broadly categorized into three classes based on their specializations: Chan (禪, lit: "dhyana"), Jiao (教, lit: "teachings") and Lü (律, lit: "Vinaya"), where the Jiao class encompassed various Buddhist traditions based heavily on scriptures such as Tiantai and Huayan. A similar Five Mountains system of ranking was also applied to temples under the Jiao class:

Monastic codes

The system was devised specifically to bureaucratize and control the power of the Chan temples, a power which had been growing with the years and worried the central government. The consequent submission of the Chan network to imperial power and its goals is evident in later codes, particularly in the Baizhang qinggui compiled in 1336. Because the conquering Mongols financially supported Chan, the code emphasizes prayers for the emperor and the monastic ancestors. The emperor is even described as a nirmanakaya, or incarnate Buddha. The complex monastic bureaucracy described by the code clearly reflects the imperial administration with its eastern and western ranks. The code has been in continuous use ever since, and not only within Chan Buddhism.

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