Healing, Bodhisattva Ethics, and Political Authority: Reconsidering Dōkyō in Nara Japan

This paper reconsiders the Nara-period Yogācāra monk Dōkyō (d. 772), who has long been portrayed as a corrupt monk who attempted to seize imperial power through Empress Shōtoku. Recent Japanese scholarship has begun to challenge this narrative. Building on this reassessment, the paper argues that Dōkyō may be better understood as an ethical agent operating within Yogācāra and bodhisattva frameworks. It examines his healing practices and use of esoteric Buddhist texts in attempts to cure the empress. Situating Dōkyō within a broader culture of Nara-period “bodhisattva monks,” the paper asks how Yogācāra ethics functioned as a lived moral system expressed through compassion, ritual efficacy, and skillful means. From this perspective, Dōkyō’s activities reveal how bodhisattva ethics could both support and destabilize the moral authority of the ritsuryō state.