Qingliang xueyuan 清涼學院

Qīngliáng Seminary: Qīngliáng xuéyuàn 清涼學院

A Buddhist seminary 佛學院 established by Yīngcí 應慈 and Jìngbō 靜波.

• 1924 - February, 1931
• Locations: Qīngliáng Temple 清涼寺 and Yǒngqìng Temple 永慶寺, Chángzhōu 常州

In 1924, Jìngbō 靜波, the abbot of Qīngliáng Temple, asked Yīngcí 應慈 to come and help him start a seminary at his temple. Yīngcí, who had just come out of a two-year period of bìguān 閉關, agreed. Yīngcí had experience running seminaries, having helped Yuèxiá 月霞 set up Huáyán University 華嚴大學 in Shànghǎi 上海 in 1912, and establishing himself the Dharmadhatu Seminary 法界學院 in 1919.

The first class at the Qīngliáng Seminary graduated in 1927 and a new class of 20 students started in August of 1928. Due to disagreements between Yīngcí and Jìngbō, in 1929 Yīngcí was forced to relocate the school to Yǒngqìng Temple 永慶寺 nearby, where the second class graduated in February, 1931. This was the end of the school.

Erik Hammerstrom

Notes

References:

• 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. 2.1658a. (From the entry for Yīngcí 應慈)