Jing Changji 景昌極

Jǐng Chāngjí 景昌極 (1903-1982)

An educator and a student of Ōuyáng Jiàn.

• Born in 1903 (Mínguó 民國 4) in Tàizhōu County 泰州縣, Jiāngsū 江蘇
• Died on April 3, 1982 in Yángzhōu 揚州, Jiāngsū 江蘇

Biography

Jǐng went to Middle School (1915-1919) and Teachers’ College in Nanjing (1919-1923). In January of 1923 he tested into the Chinese Inner Studies Institute 支那內學院, where he studied under Ōuyáng Jìngwú 歐陽竟無. He graduated in August and began teaching at Northeastern University 東北大學 in September. There, he lectured on Consciousness-Only 唯識 as a replacement for Western epistemology. He was roundly skeptical, saying that he did not superstitiously believe in the statements of the Chinese ancients, Western philosophers, or talk about mysterious things. Eventually he became a professor. In September of 1928, he went back to his hometown. In his life he taught philosophy at a number of colleges over the curse of his life, in Sìchuān and the Jiāngnán 江南 Region.

He is best known in the Buddhist world for participating in debates in the mid-1920s over the authenticity of the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith 大乘起信論真偽辯, as well as his opposition to Táng Dàyuán 唐大圓.

Major Works:

• 評進化論
• 唯識今釋補義

References:

• 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. 2.617-620.
• Xú Yǒuchūn 徐友春. Mínguó rénwù dà cídiǎn 民國人物大辭典 (Dictionary of Republican Biography). Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin, 1991. Pp. 1142.