Renshan 仁山

Rénshān 仁山 (1887-1951)

NOTE: This is the page for the monk Rénshān, for the noted lay Buddhist Yáng Rénshān 楊仁山, see 楊文會.

Short bio.

Biography

As a youth, Rénshān showed a great talent for learning, and at 14 suì 歲 he was invited to study in Ānhuī 安徽 by Féng Mènghuá 馮夢華. He returned to Jiāngsū four years later to take party in regional examinations. Hearing that the examination system would be changing in 1905, Rénshān, who had spent his youth preparing for the old-style examinations (with "eight-legged essays“ 八股) was sorely disappointed. Upon reflection, Rénshān decided that it would be better to pursue the ultimate truth, rather than the relative truth upon which the tests were based. He decided to ordain.

Rénshān was tonsured by Xīlái 西來 at the Guānyīn Gé 觀音閣 at Jīnshān Monastery 金山寺 in Zhènjiāng 鎮江 in 1904. He ordained the following year at Bǎohuá shān 寶華山 in Nánjīng 南京. In 1906, he began studying at the Universal Saṇgha Study Hall 普通僧學堂 at Tiānníng Temple 天寧寺 in Yángzhōu 揚州. From 1908 to 1909, he studied at the Jetavana Monastery 祇洹精舍 set up by Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會 in Nánjīng. From 1909 until the Revolution in late 1911, Rénshān studied at the Jiāngsū Saṇgha Normal Study Hall 江蘇僧師範學堂 in Nánjīng.

Important Works

Notable Students

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. 1.74b-78c.