For the past few years, the author has been conducting research in China at Xuedou si 雪竇寺, where Tiantong Rujing 天童如浄 （1163-1228） trained as a monk, and Tiantong si 天童寺, where he became the abbot. The aim has been to determine the historical facts surrounding Tiantong Rujing and to reestablish his historical image by taking a purely Chinese perspective and by eliminating the persistent biased views strongly centered on Dōgen set forth by doctrinal studies within the Sōtō School 曹洞宗. Philological researches in Japan on Tiantong Rujing have hitherto taken the statements in Dōgenʼs Hōkyōki 宝慶記 and the Shōbōgenzō 正法眼蔵 for granted, and have only used information included in Chinese sources such as the Rujing yulu 如浄語録 in so far as they did not contradict the Japanese sources. This has resulted in enormous incongruity today between the Japanese and Chinese perceptions of Tiantong Rujing. This paper illustrates this through several examples.
