Shī Shěngzhī 施省之 (1865-1945)
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Shī Shěngzhī 施省之 (1865-1945) was a government official, first as a diplomat to the U.S. during the late Qing, then in the offices of the various state-run railroads of the late Qing and Republican periods. He was very active in lay Buddhism in Shànghǎi during the last two decades of his life.
Shī was from a family of longstanding importance in his hometown in Qiántáng County 錢塘縣, Zhèjiāng 浙江. In 1893 (Guāngxù 光緒 19), Shī began working for the diplomatic corps, and was stationed at the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. He worked in D.C. for three years before being transferred to the embassy in New York City. The following year (1897), he returned to China.
After his return, he held a number of government posts, including ones at iron mines in Hànyáng 漢陽, and at the offices of the Běijīng-Wǔhàn, Shànghǎi-Wǔhàn, and Shànghǎi-Hángzhōu railway lines. He continued working for various railways, running several major railways after 1911. He retired in 1922.
In middle age, Shī took refuge under Yìnguāng 印光. Shī practiced Pure Land Buddhism and was heavily involved with lay Buddhism in Shànghǎi 上海. In particular, he was friends with the brothers Jiǎn Zhàonán 簡照南 and Jiǎn Yùjiē 簡玉階 of Nanyang Brothers' Tobacco Company, who were prominent businessmen and lay Buddhists in the area during the Republican period. Shī helped the Jiǎn brothers establish the Bodhi Hermitage 菩提精舍 in Southern Garden 南園.
In 1923, with the death of his brother, Jiǎn Zhàonán decided to convert the entire Southern Garden into the Enlightenment Garden 覺園. There, Shī helped Jiǎn establish the Shànghǎi Buddhist Pure Karma Society 上海佛教淨業社 with Wáng Yītíng 王一亭, Huáng Hánzhī 黃涵之, and Guān Jiǒngzhī 關絅之.
Shī worked tirelessly with the Pure Karma Society. He financed the building of the Zhìzhào Hall 智照堂 at the Enlightenment Gardens to be used for Society functions. Also, under the urging of Yìnguāng, he helped finance the rebuilding of Fàntiān Temple 梵天寺 in Hángzhōu 杭州.
In 1925, Shī was made president of the Shànghǎi World Lay Buddhist Association 上海世界佛教居士林. After this, he worked promoting both that Association and the Pure Karma Society. In 1926, Shī and some of his colleagues formed the Shànghǎi Buddhist Preservation Association 上海佛教維持會.
In addition to working to promote Buddhism through various organizations, Shī's activities also included helping establish Běijīng Central Hospital 北京中央醫院 and an associated clinic for the poor, helping found the Chinese Animal Protection Association 中國動物保護會 (in 1934), and financing schools in his hometown.
He lived in Shànghǎi from the mid 1920s through the chaos of the Second Sino-Japanese War. He died there in 1945.