The target of his tactics expanded during the early part of his career. Between 1253 and 1259 he proselytized and converted individuals, mainly attracting mid- to lower-ranking samurai and local landholders and debated resident priests in Pure Land temples. In 1260, however, he attempted to directly reform society as a whole by submitting a treatise entitled ""Risshō Ankoku Ron"" (""Establishment of the Legitimate Teaching for the Protection of the Country"") to Hōjō Tokiyori, the "de facto" leader of the nation. In it he cites passages from the Ninnō, Yakushi, Daijuku, and Konkōmyō sutras. Drawing on Tendai thinking about the non duality of person and land, Nichiren argued that the truth and efficacy of the people's religious practice will be expressed in the outer conditions of their land and society. He thereby associated the natural disasters of his age with the nation's attachment to inferior teachings, predicted foreign invasion and internal rebellion, and called for the return to legitimate dharma to protect the country. Although the role of Buddhism in "nation-protection" ("chingo kokka") was well-established in Japan at this time, in this thesis Nichiren explicitly held the leadership of the country directly responsible for the safety of the land. During the middle stage of his career, in refuting other religious schools publicly and vociferously, Nichiren provoked the ire of the country's rulers and of the priests of the sects he criticized. As a result, he was subjected to persecution which included two assassination attempts, an attempted beheading and two exiles. His first exile, to Izu Peninsula (1261–1263), convinced Nichiren that he was "bodily reading the Lotus Sutra ("Jpn. Hokke shikidoku")," fulfilling the predictions on the 13th chapter ("Fortitude") that votaries would be persecuted by ignorant lay people, influential priests, and their friends in high places. Nichiren began to argue that through "bodily reading the Lotus Sutra," rather than just studying its text for literal meaning, a country and its people could be protected. According to Habito, Nichiren argued that bodily reading the Lotus Sutra entails four aspects:  His three-year exile to Sado Island proved to be another key turning point in Nichiren's thinking. Here he began inscribing the "Gohonzon" and wrote several major theses in which he claimed that he was functioning, at first, in the role of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging of the 20th chapter of the Lotus Sutra and, later, as Bodhisattva Superior Practices, the leader of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.