Kukai's Poetics of Enlightenment

Kukai (774-835) is a pivotal figure in the history of Japanese culture, as the founder of Shingon Buddhism. He was also a brilliant writer of literary Sinitic (classical Chinese). His first extant composition, Ultimate Meaning of the Three Teachings, is a reevaluation of China's Three Teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism) written in dense parallel verse. In this precocious work, Kukai shows that Buddhism is compatible with the other two teachings because it incorporates their insights. His richly allusive use of Chinese verse forms also illustrates how poetry and aesthetics can contribute to the pursuit of Buddhist enlightenment.