Five Mountain System

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. Rankings for scriptural Buddhist temples , who is traditionally regarded as an emanation of Mi Le Fo, at the shanmen of Faxi Temple in Hangzhou, which is the first temple in the Five Mountains system ranking for Jiao 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. == Japan ==

Introduced to Japan by the Hōjō regency, after an initial hostility from older and established Buddhist sects, it prospered thanks to the support of the country's military rulers in Kamakura first and Kyoto later. Function The system was adopted to promote Zen in Japan however, in Japan as it had already happened in China, it was controlled and used by the country's ruling class for its own administrative and political ends. It thus institutionalized a large and very important part of the Rinzai school, bringing to it the protection, but also the control of the state. Nothing else is known however about the character and structure of the system at the time. In 1341 the system included Jōmyō-ji, , Tōshō-ji and Manju-ji in Sagami province, Manju-ji, , and in Yamashiro Province, in Kōzuke Province, in Chikuzen Province and Manju-ji in Bungo. The term in China meant "first in rank" in a certain province, but in Japan this meaning was lost. More temples from all parts of the country were added later during the Kemmu restoration. Unlike the Gozan and the Jissetsu, the Shozan were not ordered hierarchically and there were no limits to their number, which consequently grew until more than 230 temples belonged to the system. A Zen chief priest (a ) in his career would usually rise from the Shozan to the Jissetsu and finally to the Gozan. ==Rinka==

Apart from the Gozan temples, there were also many others in the provinces called , among them Sōtō's Eihei-ji founded by Dōgen, and Rinzai's Daitoku-ji, Myōshin-ji and Kōgen-ji, which were not under the direct control of the state. During Japan's Middle Ages, the Rinka monasteries were Zen's other main branch. Unlike the Five Mountain temples, they placed little emphasis on Chinese culture, were run by less well-educated monks who preferred zazen and kōan to poetry. Rinka Zen prospered among the lower layers of the warrior, merchant and peasant castes, who saw religion as a means to achieve simple worldly goals such as profits and exorcisms. The very lack of political connection which had hampered them at the beginning of their history was however the reason why they prospered later. During the slow decline of Ashikaga authority, and particularly after the catastrophic Ōnin war, in the latter half of the Muromachi period, because the Rinka had a close relationship with local warlords, they became progressively more important and influential than the Gozan, which followed their Ashikaga masters in their decline. A measure of the success of the Rinka is given by the fact that today's Sōtō and Rinzai sects emerged from Rinka Zen. == References ==