Zhang Huasheng 張化聲

Zhāng Huàshēng 張化聲 (b.1880)

A lay teacher at the Wǔchāng Buddhist Seminary 武昌佛學院 and a colleague of Tàixū 太虛.

Biography

As a young man, Zhāng was very interested in qìgōng 氣功 and Daoist bodily practices. He received a classical education and in the closing years of the Qing Dynasty he studied in Japan. He began studying Buddhism at the start of the Republic, obtaining several hundred volumes of Buddhist texts from the Chángshā Scriptural Press 長沙刻經處. He was an early contributor (both financially and in terms of articles) to the Hǎicháo yīn 海潮音, along with Shǐ Yìrú 史一如 and Táng Dàyuán 唐大圓.

Zhāng was one of the first teachers at the Wǔchāng Buddhist Seminary, where he taught Madhyamaka thought. After the school was occupied by the army during the Northern Expedition in 1926, Zhāng focused on editing and writing for the Hǎicháo yīn. In the mid 1920s he published a collection of his writings, Huàshēng jí 化聲集, which had prefaces by Tàixū, Táng Dàyuán, and Dàxǐng 大醒. His activities after this period are unknown.

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. 2.687-689.
• 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. 1.966a.