Chih-i’s concept of a bodhisattva who performed Sudden practices presaged Saichō’s claim that the Perfect precepts were suitable for the bodhisattva who could take a direct path (jikidō) to enlightenment. However, a crucial difference remained between the views of Chih-i and Saichō. Chih-i never attempted to reject the Hinayāna precepts, nor did he argue that ordinations with bodhisattva precepts should precede full Hinayāna ordinations. In the Fa hua hsüan i, he stated that the Hinayāna precepts should be explained in a way which revealed their Mahāyāna contents. According to Chih-i, the bodhisattva who followed Sudden practices perfected and encompassed both the Hinayāna and Mahāyāna precepts. Consequently, the concept of sudden practices did not imply that the Hinayāna precepts were to be rejected.

Besides the concept of a bodhisattva who performed Sudden practices, Chih-i also introduced another concept utilized by Saichō, the Perfect precepts (enkai). The term ‘Perfect precepts’ referred to Chih-i’s classification of Buddhist doctrine into four categories and designated the precepts appropriate for followers of the Perfect teaching. Chih-i equated the Perfect precepts with the precepts of the Buddha. They were realized through meditation, practice, and the development of a mind which was free from passions and thus able to perceive things as they really are (jissōshin). The Perfect precepts were usually not identified in Chih-i’s writings with any particular set of rules such as the precepts of the Fan wang ching (Sūtra of Brahma’s Net), Hinayāna sets or even with the anrakugyō (Serene and Pleasant Activities) of the Lotus Sūtra. Elsewhere, however, Chih-i stated that adherence to the Lotus Sūtra (jikyō) was equivalent to holding the most profound precepts. Such precepts were called absolute (rikai) and were free of specific content. They were realized in two ways. A monk or nun might gradually practice precepts of increasing subtlety until the Perfect precepts were attained, or he or she might attain them in an instant through Sudden practices.

Early versions of the bodhisattva precepts were based on the ten virtuous actions, a list of ten practices conducive to wholesome behavior which first appeared in Hinayāna literature. Early Mahāyāna practitioners then interpreted the ten virtuous acts as precepts or injunctions, and thus produced one of the earliest sets of bodhisattva precepts. The ten virtuous precepts are:

1. 1. abstention from taking life
   2. abstention from taking what is not given
   3. abstention from wrong conduct as regards sensuous pleasures
   4. abstention from lying speech
   5. abstention from malicious speech
   6. abstention from harsh speech
   7. abstention from indistinct prattling
   8. abstention from covetousness
   9. abstention from ill will
   10. abstention from wrong views

This list of restrictions included many elements that were also found in the Fan wang precepts, the set of fifty-eight precepts that Saichō proposed to follow. Although the Fan wang precepts were compiled much later than the ten virtuous precepts, the two sets shared certain characteristics. Both sets were primarily concerned with moral issues. Little attention was paid to issues of dress, decorum and manners, subjects which had been treated at great length in the Hinayāna precepts. Although subjects such as appropriate clothing for monks were discussed in the Fan wang Ching, the work was more concerned with moral issues such as lying. In fact, Saichō had to point out to the monastic leaders of Nara that the Fan wang precepts would require Tendai monks to shave their heads and wear robes.

The Fan wang precepts could not be understood as Perfect precepts until they had been interpreted according to the teachings of the Lotus Sūtra and the Tendai School. Such a view is not surprising since Saichō was defending the Lotus Sūtra in works such as the Shugo kokkaishō at the same time he was composing the Kenkairon. Saichō emphasized the role of the Lotus Sūtra by naming Śākyamuni Buddha the preceptor in the ordination ceremony and by asserting that the Ryōzen lineage was valid for the precepts. Five years after his death, Saichō’s disciples constructed a precepts platform with Śākyamuni and a Tahōtō (stūpa for Prabhūtaratna Tathāgata) occupying the central places on it.

The Fan wang Ching played the key role in the practice and interpretation of the Perfect precepts. However, the interpretation of the precepts was not complete until the Perfect sense of the Lotus Sūtra had been applied to them. This did not mean, however, that the Fan wang Ching could be ignored. Rather the Fan wang Ching specified the contents of the precepts. Saichō did not elaborate on the relative value of the two sūtras because he believed that the two texts contained Perfect teachings preached by Buddhas who were essentially the same. Elements from the Lotus Sūtra and its capping sūtra, the Kuan p’u hsien Ching, could be harmoniously combined with precepts from the Fan wang Ching because the Perfect purport of all three works was the same.

Saichō clearly advocated strict adherence to the Fan wang precepts. Later attempts to substitute the Lotus Sūtra’s precepts for them were in violation of Saichō’s intention. His only reference in the Kenkairon to the precepts of the Lotus Sūtra concerned the anrakugyō proscription on consorting with Hinayāna practitioners. Saichō thus awarded the Fan wang Ching a higher status than had Chih-i, who relegated it to the status of Kegon teachings, a mixture of Unique and Perfect teachings.

The Lotus Sūtra includes a number of passages which could be read as advocating correct behavior and thus as a form of precepts. In order to understand Saichō’s use of the Lotus Sūtra and the ways in which later scholars interpreted his references to it, these passages must be considered. Medieval Tendai scholars maintained the position that these passages described four types of precepts. First were the eternal unconditioned precepts which provided the foundation for all other sets of precepts, called the Lotus One-vehicle precepts (Hokke ichijōkai) or the Unmanifested Diamond precepts (musa kongōhōkai). These precepts were formless, without definite content, and based mainly on the second chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. No direct reference to these precepts was found in Saichō’s works.

In contrast to these formless precepts, the other three types did have definite contents. The second type concerned the behavior of those who preached the Lotus Sūtra. It was referred to in Saichō’s Final Admonitions (Yuikai).

The third type consisted of four requirements for people who would devote themselves to upholding the Lotus Sūtra (jikyō) after the Buddha’s death. They were to:

1. 1. Be under the guardianship of the Buddhas.
   2. Plant the roots of a multitude of virtues.
   3. Enter the various correct concentrations.
   4. Aspire to save all living beings.

This list did not play an important role in Saichō’s thought and was referred to only in works by later scholars.

The fourth and most important type of precepts was found in the chapter on serene and pleasing activities (Anrakugyōbon) [Peaceful Practices] in the Lotus Sūtra. This chapter described the ways in which bodhisattvas were to practice during the period of the decline of the Buddha’s teaching. These practices consisted of general instructions for preaching and for adhering to the teachings of the Lotus Sūtra rather than actual rules. They were grouped into four categories: action, word, thought and vow. Saichō was concerned mainly with the actions which the sūtra recommended. These were divided into two sets. The first set was a description of the religious practices which a devout person should follow, such as quietly meditating on things as they are. The second set was a list of the many types of people whom a Mahāyāna Buddhist was to avoid. Commentators traditionally divided this set into ten types of people, the fifth of which consisted of those who sought Hinayāna goals.

These precepts, usually called the anrakugyō (serene and pleasing activities), have long played as important role in T’ien-t’ai thought.

During the last years of his life, Saichō focused his attention on the precepts, the most basic element of the threefold learning (precepts, meditation, wisdom). He believed that if he could purge all Hinayāna elements from the precepts, he would eliminate a major reason why Tendai monks backslid in their practice and defected from the Tendai School. Saichō intended his reforms of monastic discipline and administration to be the first and most basic step in his program to reformulate all the practices of his school so that they would reflect the doctrines of the Perfect teaching. In addition to reforming the precepts, Saichō probably intended to revise the traditional Tendai meditation and doctrinal systems, possibly by supplementing them with Esoteric practices and teachings. However, he died before he could complete his plans.