Ekan
Ekan
慧灌 (n.d.) ( Jpn; Kor Hyekwan)
The founder of the Three Treatises (Sanron) school in Japan. He was a native of KoguryØ, a kingdom on the Korean Peninsula, in the seventh century. He went to China during the Sui dynasty (581-618) and studied the doctrines of the Three Treatises (Chin Sanlun) school under Chi-tsang. In 625 he went to Japan and lived at Gango-ji temple in Nara, where he lectured on The Treatise on the Middle Way, The Treatise on the Twelve Gates, and The One-Hun-dred-Verse Treatise, the three works that form the basis for the Three Treatises school. Although the Korean priests Eji (Hyecha) and Kanroku (Kwalljk) had introduced the Three Treatises teachings to Japan before Ekan, it was Ekan who gave systematic explanations of the doctrine and laid the foundation of the Three Treatises school in Japan. Ekan on one occasion conducted prayers for rain that were apparently successful and was appointed administrator of priests.
