Byakurensha (English spelling) Bo-lian-she

Japanese: 白蓮社 - びゃくれんしゃ（英語表記）Bo-lian-she

A Chinese Buddhist association. It began in the first year of the Yuanxing era (402) when the Eastern Jin monk Huiyuan and 123 of his disciples practiced nembutsu at Donglin Temple in Lushan and vowed to be reborn in the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha. It is the founding of the Chinese Pure Land sect, and is said to have been named after the planting of white lotus flowers in the temple's pond. During the Tang dynasty, the anonymous book "Biographies of the Eighteen Great Sages of Lushan" was created, and during the Song dynasty, various associations were formed in reverence for Huiyuan's noble spirit. At the end of the Song dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan dynasty, a movement arose to revive White Lotus Shrine Nembutsu Buddhism, which gained many sympathizers, but was suppressed by the Yuan government as a heretical cult. Associations of this type were also formed in various places during the Ming, Qing, and Republican dynasties. The influence of Byakurensha also reached Korea and Japan, where Honen's grandson Soen traveled to Song China to visit Mount Lu, and Choen entered Yuan Dynasty China in 1317 and built Kyokurensha in Sakai after returning to Japan, carrying on the traditions of Byakurensha. It is also due to this influence that since the Middle Ages, monks of the Jodo sect in Japan have taken on the name of a certain Lotus Shrine.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

中国の仏教結社。元興1 (402) 年東晋の僧慧遠 (えおん) が廬山の東林寺で門下 123人とともに念仏修行し，阿弥陀仏浄土への往生を誓願したのに始る。中国浄土宗の創始で，その名は寺の池に白蓮を植えたことに由来するという。唐代に作者未詳の『廬山十八高賢伝』がつくられ，宋代には慧遠の高風を敬慕して，種々の結社がつくられた。宋末，元初には白蓮社念仏教を復興する運動が起り，多くの共鳴者を得たが，元朝政府から邪教として禁圧された。明・清・民国時代にも各地にこの種の結社がつくられた。また，白蓮社の影響は朝鮮，日本にも及び，法然の法孫宗円は入宋して廬山をたずねたり，澄円は文保1 (1317) 年入元し，帰国後堺に旭蓮社を建立して，その遺風を移した。中世以来，日本の浄土宗の僧が某蓮社と号するようになったのもその影響である。

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