Children's activities - tong xing (English)

Japanese: 童行 - どうぎょう（英語表記）tóng xíng

In China, this refers to the members of a Buddhist temple. In Zen Buddhism, this is called Zun'an. It is equivalent to the Sanskrit words kumāra and yogin, and can also be translated as a young attendant or a monk. It referred to someone who accompanied a master monk and performed general tasks, but later came to refer specifically to someone between the ages of 8 (some say 4) and 20, who aspired to become a monk while still living as a layperson and learned to recite sutras and perform Buddhist tasks at a temple. In China and Japan, when state Buddhism was still strongly characterised, this was merely tolerated due to the relationship with the Tu-so system, and was not officially recognised. [Fujizen Masumi]

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

中国で仏教寺院の構成要員をいう。禅宗などでズンアンという。梵語のkumāraやyoginに相当し，童侍，僧童とも訳される。師僧に随伴して雑務に従事する者をいったが，のち8歳(一説に4歳)以上20歳未満の，かつ在俗のまま出家落髪を希求して寺院で誦経や作務を習う者を特別に指すようになった。国家仏教の性格の強かった時期の中国，日本では度僧制度とのかねあいから黙認したにすぎず，公認されたものではなかった。【藤善真澄】

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

<<: Tokyo Akebono Newspaper

>>: Dokyo