Nanshan school
No complete Vinaya texts have survived in Sanskrit, the language used by the early Mahayana groups, but Chinese translations of four of the early Buddhist schools have survived. These texts contain a variety of differences both with the Pali Vinaya and with each other. One of these texts, The Fourfold Rules of Discipline, emerged as the primary text for several Chinese groups, collectively known as the Precepts school, the most notable branch being the Nanshan school. The volume contains 348 precepts divided into seven categories, beginning with the eight major unpardonable rules whose violation would cause one to be expelled from the monastic order, to a variety of lesser offenses. The Nanshan school was founded in the seventh century by Dao Xuan (596–667) who resided on ]]Zhongnan Shan\\, the mountain that gave the school its name. Dao Xuan later wrote a commentary on the Fourfold Rules that served as the primary text for Nanshan practitioners.
A student of the Nanshan school, Jianzhoujian (Chien-chen, also known as Ganjin) migrated to Nara, Japan, in 753, and established a new school modeled on the Nanshan, which in Japan became known as the Ritsu Ritsu school. Amid the several schools headquartered at Nara, the Ritsu was the one that primarily focused on the rules for the monastic life. The Ritsu-shu survives as a small sect of Japanese Buddhism, still headquartered in Nara. In the 13th century, a group that combines Shingon doctrines with observation of the Vinaya as found in the Fourfold Rules of Discipline was founded by Eizon (1201–90). It is headquartered at Saidai-ji temple in Nara.
