Ouyang Jian 歐陽漸

Ōuyáng Jiàn 歐陽漸 (1871-1943)

Ōuyáng was a lay Buddhist teacher and founder of the Chinese Inner Studies Institute 支那內學院.

• Born 1871 (Tóngzhì 同治 10) in Yíhuáng county 宜黃縣, Jiāngxī 江西
• Died 1943 (Mínguó 民國 32)
• Courtesy names 字: Jìnghú 鏡湖; Jìngwú 竟無 (after 1910)
• Sometimes referred to as the Great Master of Yihuang 宜黃大師

Biography

Ōuyáng studied under Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會 in Nánjīng 南京, and after Yáng's death Ōuyáng continued his teacher's education efforts by founding the Chinese Inner Studies Institute 支那內學院 in 1922. In 1931 he founded the periodicals Inner Studies Monthly 內學 and Inner Studies Magazine 內院雜刊. He was a vocal advocate of Dharmalakṣaṇa and Consciousness-Only philosophy 法相唯識學.

In the 1920s, he and several of his students were involved in debates, primarily with Tàixū 太虛 and his students, over the authenticity of the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith (See 大乘起信論真偽辯). His side felt it was a Chinese apocryphal text.

In 1937 he fled Nánjīng because of the war and continued his publishing activities in Jiāngjīn 江津, Sìchuān 四川. He died of illness in 1943.

Ōuyáng had two sons, Ōuyáng Gé 歐陽格 (1895-1940) and Ōuyáng Zhāng 歐陽璋 (dates unknown). Gé was commander-in-chief of the Navy of the National Revolutionary Army.

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Important Works

• 瑜伽師地論敘 (1917)
• "佛法非宗教非哲學而為今時所必需", speech delivered at 南京高師哲學研究會 in 1921
• 大乘密嚴經敘 (1936)

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Notable Students

• 熊十力
• 呂澂
• 王恩洋
• 黃懺華
• 滿智
• 景昌極

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References:

• Yú Língbō 于凌波. Zhōngguó jìnxiàndài fójiào rénwù zhì 中國近現代佛教人物志. Běijīng 北京: Zōngjiào wénhuà chūbǎnshè 宗教文化出版社, 1995. Pp. 362-386.
• 程恭讓. "歐陽竟無先生的生平、事業及其佛教思想的特質"
• 鄒自振. "近現代唯識宗代表——歐陽竟無"