Sanron (Japanese). One of the Six Schools of Nara Buddhism during the early history of Buddhism in Japan. The word is a Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese ‘San-lun’, and represented an effort to import the texts and teachings of the Chinese school into Japan. It is said to have been transmitted to Japan by the Korean monk Hyegwan (Japanese, Ekan) in 625. Perhaps as many as three other transmissions occurred over the next century, leading to various streams of Sanron thought based in different temples. However, the school, which limited itself to academic study and practice by a handful of clergy, never reached out to the masses of people, and so never became a major force outside the realm of theory and doctrine. The various streams died out one by one, and the last actual Sanron master passed away in 1149.

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)