Chen Yuanbai 陳元白

Chén Yuánbái 陳元白

A prominent lay Buddhist in Wǔchāng, who helped establish the Wǔchāng Buddhist Seminary 武昌佛學院.

Biography

Chén participated in the army that laid siege to Nánjīng 南京 during the Revolution of 1911. In 1913, he went to Japan, where he studied philosophy and meditation. Around 1918, he joined Jiǎng Zuòbīn 蔣作賓 and Huáng Bǎocāng 黃葆蒼 (who ordained as Dàcí 大慈 later that year) in going to Pǔtuóshān 普陀山 to hear Tàixū 太虛 lecture. Chén became a devoted student of Tàixū. Later that year, Chén and Lǐ Yǐnchén 李隱塵 invited Tàixū to come lecture in Hànkǒu 漢口, which marked the beginning of Tàixū's Buddhist activities in the Wǔchāng 武昌 area. In 1918, Chén and these individuals also helped establish The Awakening Society 覺社 in Shànghǎi 上海.

In 1920, Chén, Lǐ, Wáng Sēnfǔ 王森甫 and others invited Tàixū to Wǔchāng to lecture again. These lectures were attended by numerous businessmen and and community figures. This was the beginning of the Hànkǒu Buddhist Association 漢口佛教會, which later transformed into the Buddhist Right Faith Society 佛教正信會. The following year, they again invited Tàixū lecture, this time at Guīyuán Temple 歸元寺 in Hànyáng 漢陽. After these lectures on the Yuánjué jing 圓覺經 (Sūtra of Complete Enlightenment), Chén, Lǐ, Wáng, and others decided to establish the Wǔchāng Buddhist Seminary 武昌佛學院, which they invited Tàixū to head.

In 1924, Chén he was one of several thousand people to receive esoteric initiation, or abiṣeka, in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism 東密 from Chísōng 持松 at Bǎotōng Temple 寶通寺 on Hóngshān 洪山.

Notes

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. 2.517-518.