Yinguang 印光

Revision as of 11:53, 9 May 2011

Yìnguāng 印光 (1861-1940)

Style name 號: Cháng cánkuì sēng 常慚愧僧 (The Ever-Ashamed Monk) Dharma name 法名: Shèngliàng 聖量 Courtesy name 字: Zǐrèn 子任 (may have been used only in lay life) Lay name 俗名: Zhào Shàoyī 趙紹伊 Born 12/12, 1861 (Xiánfēng 咸豐 11) Héyáng county 郃陽縣 (now written 合陽) in Shǎnxī 陜西 Died 11/4, 1940 (Mínguó 民國 29) at Língyánshān Temple 靈巖山寺, Sūzhōu 蘇州

Notable Associates: Désēn 德森 Dīng Fúbǎo 丁福保 Dìxián 諦閑 Gāo Hénián 高鶴年 Liǎorán 了然 Miàozhēn 妙真 Shī Shěngzhī 施省之 Táng Dàyuán 唐大圓 Xú Wèirú 徐蔚如 Yóu Zhìbiǎo 尤智表 Zhēndá 真達

Article editor: Gregory Adam Scott

Yìnguāng 印光 (1861-1940) was a prolific and long-lived monastic who is credited with reviving the Pure Land school 淨土宗 in modern China.

Biography

Yìnguāng received a classical education as a child, where he read criticisms of Buddhism by Hányù 韓愈 and Oūyáng Xiū 歐陽修. After suffering several bouts of illness, however, he began to change his views, and in 1881 had his head shaved at the Lotus Cave Temple 蓮華洞寺 on Southern Wǔtái mountain 南五台, in the Zhōngnán mountain range 終南山. While traveling in Húběi 湖北, he read a copy of The Longshu Pure Land Text 龍舒淨土文^[1] and was convinced of the value of Pure Land practice. The next year he was fully ordained at Shuāngxī Temple 雙溪寺 in Shǎnxī 陝西 by Yìnhǎi 印海. In the sixth month of that year Yìnguāng suffered from an eye illness that threatened his sight, but through recitation of the Buddha's name (niànfó 念佛) and the copying of texts his sight was fully restored. In 1886 after hearing that at Zīfú Temple 資福寺 on Mount Hóngluó 紅螺山 near Běijīng 北京 they were following only Pure Land practices, he bid farewell to his master and went there, were he served in a number of monastic positions. Apart from recitation of Buddha's name, he also read scriptural texts, making great progress in both practices.

In 1893 Huàwén 化聞 from Fǎyǔ Temple 法雨寺 on Mount Pǔtuó 普陀山 came to the capital looking to acquire a set of the Buddhist canon and, impressed with Yìnguāng's abilities, asked him to accompany him back to Mount Pǔtuó with him. There, Yìnguāng worked in the Andān Scripture Hall 安單經藏樓. In 1897, after persistent requests from the community, he lectured on the 阿彌陀經要解便蒙鈔^[2] and then went into seclusion (bìguān 閉關) in the Jewel Hall 珠寶殿 of the temple. This would be the first of two three-year periods of seclusion, during which he continued to study the scriptures and to write. It was during this time that he and Gāo Hénián 高鶴年, a Buddhist layman from Jiāngsū 江蘇, began their life-long friendship and correspondence. In 1904 Dìxián 諦閑, who had met Yìnguāng on Mount Pǔtuó, asked for his help in getting a set of the canon for Tóutuó Temple 頭陀寺 in Wēnzhōu 溫州, so the two went to Běijīng.

In general Yìnguāng was not fond of meeting people, nor was he eager to have his name known. When his friend Gāo Hénián published a series of his writings in 1914 in the Buddhist Miscellany 佛學叢報, he gave "Ever-Ashamed" (Chángcán 常慚) as the author's name.^[3] The pieces attracted attention, however, and in 1917 the Buddhist layman and publisher Xú Wèirú 徐蔚如 published a series of three letters written by Yìnguāng and his friends as Letters of Master Yìnguāng 印光法師信稿. Five thousand copies were printed and given away for free. From this point on, Yìnguāng began to receive more and more letters, eventually more than one hundred per month. A year later the first volume of Yìnguāng's collected writings 印光大師文鈔 was published in Běijīng, followed by further volumes published by the Commercial Press 商務印書館 and Zhonghua Books 中華書局 in Shànghǎi.

In 1922 and 1923, Yìnguāng went to preach in Dìnghǎi county 定海縣 prisons at the request of the local magistrate. Afterward he, Wáng Yìting 王一亭, Shěn Xīngshū 沈惺叔 and other Shànghái laymen established the Jiāngsū Prisoner Reformation Society 江蘇監獄感化會 to send speakers to minister to prisoners and encourage them to practice Buddhism. During the political instability of the Northern Expedition (1926 - 1928), Buddhist temples were threatened by local officials who were following the old "Build Education with Temple Property" 廟產興學 slogan. Yìnguāng worked with Dìxián to dispatch representatives to the government and arrange protection for temple properties. During the 1935 National Conference on Education a plan was floated to convert all the temples in the country to schools, but thanks to Yìnguāng, Yuányīng 圓瑛 and others who criticized the plan in the media, it was eventually abandoned.

From about 1918 Yìnguāng often traveled to Shànghǎi, where he made contact with Buddhist laymen such as Fàn Gǔnóng 范古農, Shī Xǐngzhī 施省之, Wáng Yìtíng, Wén Lántíng 聞蘭亭, and Zhū Zǐqiáo 朱子橋. By 1928, however, he had grown weary of the demands on his time and the flood of letters, and so in 1930 he moved to Bàoguó Temple 報國寺 in Sūzhōu 蘇州 where he could be away from human society. After a few years the community at the temple had grown so much that the main hall had to be rebuilt to accommodate the increased numbers. By 1937, when Sūzhōu was about to be occupied by the advancing Japanese army, Yìnguāng was forced to move again, this time to nearby Língyán Temple 靈巖寺, which would thus become known as an important center for the Pure Land school in China.

It is said that Yìnguāng knew in the spring of 1940 that he would die later that year. By late October he was ill, and he gathered the assembly together to arrange the affairs of the temple. On November 4th he rose from bed at one in the morning, instructed his disciples, and then silently recited the Buddha's name. At about 5 o'clock, while the entire assembly recited the Buddha's name, he passed away. His body was cremated and his ashed interned in a stupa on the mountain.

Important Works

• 印光法師信稿 Letters of Master Yìnguāng
• 印光大師文鈔 Writings of Master Yìnguāng, includes:
  • 正編 First Series, Four Volumes
  • 續編 Second Series, Two Volumes
  • 三編 Third Series
  • Digitized version available here: [1]
  • Other digitized works of Yìnguāng available here: [2]

Notes

1. ↑ Originally written in 1160, it appears in the Taishō canon, Vol. 47 no. 1970 as the 龍舒增廣淨土文. See also the Foguang Dictionary 佛光大辭典 p.6389, entry for "龍舒淨土文".
2. ↑ Extended Canon 卍續藏經 Vol. X22, no. 430.
3. ↑ The 中興淨宗印光大師行業記 says these were published in 1912, the first year of the periodical, but the MFQ index gives 1914 as the date, with the pieces appearing in nos. 10 and 12.

References

• 中興淨宗印光大師行業記 written by Zhēndá 真達, Miàozhēn 妙真, Liǎorán 了然, Désēn 德森 and others, 1940
• 印光法師簡譜 written by one Xìnxī 信西居士
• Chóngēn 崇恩. "Yinguang dashi yu jindai jingtuzong de zhenxing 印光大師與近代淨土宗的振興." Fayin 法音, May 1998: 8-12.
• Shěn Qùjí 沈去疾. Yìnguāng fǎshī niánpǔ 印光法師年譜. Taibei: Fotuo jiaoyu jijinhui, 2007.
• Shì Dōngchū 釋東初. Zhōngguó Fójiào jìndài shǐ 中國佛教近代史 (A History of Early Contemporary Chinese Buddhism), in Dōngchū lǎorén quánjí 東初老人全集 (Complete Collection of Old Man Dongchu), vols. 1-2. Taipei: Dongchu, 1974 Pp. 2.761-765.
• Yú Língbō 于凌波, ed. Xiàndài Fójiào rénwù cídiǎn 現代佛教人物辭典 (A Dictionary of Modern Buddhist Persons), 2 vols. Taipei: Foguang, 2004. Pp. 1.284c-288b.
• Zhōu Jūn 周軍. "Yinguang fashi yanjiu 印光法師研究." Sichuan University: Ph.D. Diss., 2004.