We may divide the period of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in
Japan into four epochs:
I. The first, from 552 to 805 A.D., will cover the first six sects,
which had for their centre of propagation, Nara, the southern capital.
II. Then follows Riy[=o]bu Buddhism, from the ninth to the twelfth
centuries.
III. This was succeeded by another explosion of doctrine wholly and
peculiarly Japanese, and by a wide missionary propagation.
IV. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, there is little that
is doctrinally noticeable, until our own time, when the new Buddhism of
to-day claims at least a passing notice.
The Japanese writers of ecclesiastical history classify in three groups
the twelve great sects as the first six, the two mediaeval, and the four
modern sects.
In this lecture we shall merely summarize the characteristics of the
first five sects which existed before the opening of the ninth century
but which are not formally extant at the present time, and treat more
fully the purely Japanese developments. The first three sects may be
grouped under the head of the Hinayana, or Smaller Vehicle, as Southern
or primitive orthodox Buddhism is usually called.
Most of the early sects, as will be seen, were founded upon some
particular sutra, or upon selections or collections of sutras.
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