Hōei Shin (Hōei Shin): Japanese Monk Who Sought Buddhism in China, Not Fled It

The premise of the question contains a fundamental historical inversion. Hōei Shin (法恵心, Japanese: Hōe Shin) was a Japanese Buddhist monk and scholar of the 7th century (Asuka/Nara period) who traveled from Japan to China—not from China to a "savage place."

Historical Context

• Time: Early 7th century (c. 600s CE).
• Direction: Japan → China (Tang Dynasty).
• Purpose: Study Buddhism, Chinese classics, governance, medicine, and technology at the source.
• China's Status: Tang China (618–907) was the cultural, technological, and political apex of East Asia—the "Great Civilization" Japan actively emulated.
• Japan's Status: Actively importing Chinese civilization (writing, Buddhism, law codes, bureaucracy, architecture, city planning) via missions like Hōei Shin's.

Why He Went

Japanese elites regarded China as the fountainhead of civilization. Monks like Hōei Shin undertook perilous sea voyages (many ships lost) to:

• Obtain authentic sutras and commentaries.
• Receive proper ordination lineages.
• Study at centers like Chang'an (Xi'an) and Luoyang.
• Return to Japan to transmit the Dharma and advise the court.

Outcome

Returnees became architects of Japan's Taika Reforms (645), the Ritsuryō state, and the flourishing of Nara Buddhism (Tōdai-ji, Kōfuku-ji). Hōei Shin is recorded in the Nihon Shoki as a key transmitter of the Sanron (Three Treatises) school.

Correction: He didn't leave a great civilization for a savage one. He left his homeland (Japan, then in early state formation) to drink from the wellspring of Chinese civilization and bring its waters back to irrigate Japanese culture.