Mongols as a natural force sent to eradicate the incorrect beliefs and practices of the Honen monks and local religious practitioners in order to instate the True Dharma in their aftermath (Kodera 50). He believed, even after both invasions failed, that only a “complete and sudden conversion” would save the country from the destruction created by the monks of other sects and faiths (Kodera 51). Prince Moonlight Prince Moonlight, or Yueguang Tongzi, was originally a relatively small Bodhisattva in pre-Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, but due to the combination of Daoist eschatological beliefs, the concept of Mofa (the last period of Dharma), and the notion of a supernatural saviour, Yueguang Tongzi developed into an important figure in Buddhist apocalyptic lore. The original story of Yueguang is as such: Yueguang is born to a deplorable householder named Srigupta, who at the demand of “heretical masters” invites the Buddha to a meal while setting a trap aimed at taking his life. Yueguang, now 16, pleads with his father to forgo this wrongdoing, but Srigupta turns a blind eye to his son’s pleas. When the Buddha arrives, being all-seeing, he turns the trap, a fire-pit, into a lotus pond. Srigupta, from his shame, is converted immediately and enlightened (Zürcher (Prince Moonlight) 208). In a Sui dynasty text named the Shenri Jing, however, Yueguang takes on a higher importance. After enlightening Srigupta, the Buddha delivers a prophecy concerning Yueguang, stating that he will later be born as a saintly ruler and that he will revive the True Dharma during a time when it is about to fade away (Zürcher (Prince Moonlight) 208). Thus we see that Yueguang takes up the role not of a Buddha rediscovering the True Dharma, but rather of a saviour of the people sent to avoid the apocalyptic cataclysm of the end of Dharma and kelpa. Instead of reigniting Dharma teaching in a new cycle of time, Yueguang will now simply postpone the end of the current cycle until it once again fades away. In this sense he is a “great revivalist” and not a messiah figure. Indeed, in the Sutra of the Annihilation of the Doctrine, he states that “at the time of the disappearance of [his] Doctrine, it will be like an oil-lamp, that shines even more brightly when it is about to expire – and then it is extinguished” (the Sutra of the Annihilation of the Doctrine, qtd. In