8348 SHINGONSHUAs a scholar Shim’on was noted for the encyclopedic breadth of his learning, his faithful loyalty to received tradi-tion, and his dialectical acuity U.T., Git. 3.1, 44d; B.T., San. 24a). In his teaching he emphasized the importance of regu-lar study of Torah Q.T., Ber. 9.5, 14d) and was reputed to review each day’s lesson forty times in advance of presenting it before his teacher (B.T., Ta` an. 8a). Shim’on defended the honor and privileges of the learned elite against patriarchal pressures for a more monarchial structure in rabbinic leader-ship Q.T., San. 2.1, 19d-20a; Gn. Rab. 78.12). While he condemned the Romans as more cruel than all previous op-pressors combined (Lv. Rab. 13.5), he also praised them for enforcing justice in the land (Gn. Rab. 9.13; to be sure, he also spoke in defense of flattery, B.T., Sot. 41b). He was noted for his custom of avoiding anyone whose personal honesty was subject to question and, perhaps as a result of his earlier career, he was noted for his personal bravery. Some of Shim’on’s aggadic opinions are interesting for their counter-traditional stand. For example, he is said to have claimed that the Jews borrowed the names of the angels from the Babylonians during their enforced stay in that land and that the events described in the Book of never took place Q.T., Sot. 5.6, 20d). Shim’on is said to have died of grief after his dear friend Yohanan made mocking reference to his martial skill during a halakhic argument (B.T., B.M. 84a). Yohanan himself, it is said, thereupon wasted away of remorse.SEE ALSO Amoraim; Yohanan bar Nappaha’.BIBLIOGRAPHY Aaron Hyman’s Toledot tanna’im ve-amora’im (1910; reprint, Je-rusalem, 1964) is an uncritical compendium of traditional lore concerning Shim’on. It is almost useless as a tool for modern, critical biography, but it remains valuable as an en-cyclopedic gathering of information. Avraham Wasserman’s “Resh Laqish bein ha-listim,” Tarbiz 49 (1980): 197-198, deals with one aspect of Shim’on’s career. New Sources Brettler, Marc Zvi. “Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish at the Gladiator’s Banquet: Rabbinic Observations on the Roman Arena.” HTR 83 (1990): 93-98.ROBERT GOLDENBERG (1987) Revised BibliographySHINGONSHU. The Japanese esoteric Buddhist tradi-tion of Shingon takes its name from the Chinese term zheny-an, which literally means “true word” and is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit term mantra, meaning spoken phrases taken to have extraordinary powers. The practice of reciting mantras is taken as characteristic of this tradition and points to the continuity of the tradition’s practices from its Indic origins through to its modern Japanese instantiation. The centrality of mantra recitation is evidenced by two early names for the tradition, Mantranaya (path of mantras), andMantrayana (vehicle of mantras). Shingon is an esoteric tra-dition, meaning that its practices are only to be transmitted by a qualified teacher Upn., ajari; Skt., cicalya) to a student who has undergone the appropriate initiations. When speak-ing of the Shingon tradition, it refers primarily to a lineage of ritual practice. Other key terms that amplify the character of the Shin-gon tradition include tantra, which originates as a biblio-graphic category but which is now used as a synonym for the esoteric tradition within Buddhism, and Vajrayana, which means the thunderbolt vehicle, referring to the speed of at-taining full awakening. In some systems of classification, Mantranaya and Paramitanaya (path of perfections) are paired as two parts of Mahayana, while other systems consid-er Vajrayana to be a third vehicle superceding Hinayana and Mahayana. Mikkyo is also often used in association with Shingon and means esoteric teachings. While Shingon is pre-dominantly esoteric in character, an esoteric element is also found in the Tendai tradition. This latter is often referred to as Tendai mikkyo (usually abbreviated as Taimitsu), and is contrasted with Tuft’ mikkyo (usually abbreviated as Tornitsu), named for one of the earliest Shingon temples, Toji (Eastern Temple) in Kyoto. INDIAN ORIGINS. The Tantric tradition of Buddhism origi-nated in medieval India following the demise of the Gupta empire, around 550 CE. While there are a variety of theories about the origins of esoteric Buddhism and its relations to other Indian religious traditions, it seems clear that there was no one particular origin. Rather, a wide variety of reinter-preted practices and doctrinal developments went into the making of what only later took on an identity as a move-ment, school, or tradition.The two main texts for the Shingon tradition are the Mahavairocana Sutra Upn., Dainichikyo, T.D. no. 848) and the Sarvatathagata-Tattvasamgraha Sutra (T.D. no. 865, a portion of the Vajraiekhara Sutra, Jpn., Kongochogyo, by which name it is commonly known in contemporary Shin-gon), and are thought to have been composed in Northwest India early in the eighth century. Others have suggested, however, that the Sarvatathagata-Tattvasamgraha was com-posed in Southern India in the late seventh century, while the Mahavairocana was composed in Western India in the middle of the seventh century. CHINESE TRANSMISSION. While Tantric texts and practices were known in China from as early as the third century CE, the Shingon lineage itself traces its origins to the rise in the Tang dynasty (618-907) of an esoteric Buddhist school. This school is taken to have originated in the work of three figures: Subhakarasimha (637-735), Vajrabodhi (671-741) and Amoghavajra (705-774). Also important was Subhakarasimha’s disciple Yixing (683-727), who not only assisted 8ubhakarasirpha in the translation of the Mahavairocana Sutra, but also wrote an important commen-tary on it.ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION
