Kukai, who tried to move beyond this status quo, wrote 'Shugei Shuchiin School Shiki narabinijo' ("Shoryoshu" (Collected Works of Prose and Poetry of Kukai) with ten volumes) in 828, proposing the establishment of an educational facility that would fully provide school lunches to all students and teachers; where all people could learn whatever their social status, rich and poor alike; and where both secular people and priests could comprehensively learn all manner of thought and liberal arts, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and so on.
空海は、こうした現状を打破しようと、天長5年付で「綜芸種智院式并序」（『性霊集』巻十）を著して、全学生・教員への給食制を完備した身分貧富に関わりなく学ぶことのできる教育施設、俗人も僧侶も儒教・仏教・道教などあらゆる思想・学芸を総合的に学ぶことのできる教育施設の設立を提唱した。