Buddhism and commerce in ninth-century Chang’an: a study of Ennin’s Nittō Guhō Junrei Kōki 入唐求法巡禮行記

ABSTRACT Chang’an was a religious center of Buddhism in seventh- and eighth-century East Asia. More than 50,000 Buddhist monks, nuns and priests lived in the city. Buddhist monasteries spread all over in the city, centers of social, economic and cultural activity. Yet while a large number of research studies have explored Chang’an Buddhism in the mid-Tang, the relationship between the social economic history and the religious activities of Buddhist monasteries in this center remains little studied. This article aims to improve our understanding of this topic through a close reading of ninth-century Japanese Buddhist cleric Ennin’s (圓仁 794–864) Nittō Guhō Junrei Kōki 入唐求法巡禮行記 (The Record of a Pilgrimage to the Tang in Search of the Buddhist Law). After reviewing previous work in this field and putting Chang’an Buddhism in its historical context, this paper examines interconnections between commerce and Buddhism in the ninth-century capital as seen through the eyes of this well-known religious figure.