Biography
From Wēnzhōu 溫州 in Zhejiang, his family was fairly poor and he could only attend a few years at traditional schooling. In 1914 he was tonsured in his town. Around 1917 he went to Guānzōng Temple 觀宗寺 in Ningbo where they were holding a precepts ceremony on the occasion of the 60th birthday of the abbot, Dìxián 諦閒. In 1918, some laypeople from Beijing gave Dìxián money to found the Guānzōng Study Society 觀宗學社, where Zhīfēng and several others were the student-monks.
In 1920, Zhīfēng returned to his hometown and served in several different roles at Xìngtuó Temple 興陀寺. In 1923 he matriculated at a study session at Hankou Buddhist Studies Institute 漢口佛學講習所, and that summer he participated in the first World Buddhist Congress 世界佛教會議 organized by Tàixū at Lúshān 廬山. In September he became a student at the second session of the Wuchang Buddhist Seminary 武昌佛學院, where he graduated in June 1924. In the fall of 1924 he went home to his first temple and while studying Tiāntái 天台 and Consciousness-Only 唯識 though, he taught people in his locality, becoming one of the first monks to try to raise the educational quality of people in his locality.
In 1925, he was asked by Tàixū to join Dàxǐng 大醒 in helping Mǎnzhì 滿智 at the Minnan Buddhist Seminary 閩南佛學院, which he did, teaching a variety of subjects, but with an emphasis on Consciousness-Only. There he also helped Dàxǐng set up the semi-monthly the magazine Xiàndài sēngqié 現代僧伽 (Modern Sangha), which became Xiàndài fójiào 現代佛教 (Modern Buddhism) in 1932.
When Yú Déyuán 虞德元 returned to Xiamen in 1930 to study at Xiamen University, he and Zhīfēng became acquainted and arranged to have professors invited from the University to come to the Seminary, and Zhīfēng was invited to give a lecture on the Chéng wéishì lùn 成唯識論 at the University.
Zhīfēng and Dàxǐng left Xiamen in 1932 when Tàixū retired from his position as abbot of Nán pǔtuó Temple 南普陀寺. The Rén hǎidēng 人海燈, a Buddhist weekly associated with a local newspaper that Zhīfēng edited, collapsed. Zhīfēng first he went to Suzhou, but Tàixū ordered him to go to Wuchang to help edit the Hǎicháo yīn 海潮音, which though edited in Wuchang, was being published by Shanghai Buddhist Books 上海佛學書局 during this period.
Volume 14, number 7 of the Hǎicháo yīn was a special edition dedicated to Esoteric Buddhism and was based in part on Wáng Hóngyuàn's 王弘願 1926 translation from Japanese of the Mìzōng gāngyào 密宗綱要. Tàixū did not like this book, and publication of this issue of the Hǎicháo yīn led to a falling out between Zhīfēng and Tàixū. After being forced to edit the magazine for two more issues, Zhīfēng quit working at the Hǎicháo yīn, handing editing duties over to Dàxǐng. Zhīfēng left Wuchang to go back to Ningbo where, with Huànfǎ 幻法, a classmate from Wuchang Buddhist Seminary, he started teaching monks.
Tàixū tried to mend the rift between them, but each time Zhīfēng rebuffed him. In April 1935, Tàixū asked Zhīfēng to come to Wuchang to lecture, in the hope that he would stay and help Fǎfǎng 法舫 run World Buddhist Studies Library 世界佛學苑圖書館, but Zhīfeng declined. Two years later, Tàixū again asked him again to participate in a Buddhist organization, but again Zhīfēng turned him down.
With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Zhīfēng moved to Jìng'ān Temple 靜安寺 in Shanghai. During the war, Zhīfēng he shuttled back and forth between Eastern Zhejiang and Jìng'ān Temple. In 1943 he accepted Dōngchū's 釋東初 offer to teach and translate from Japanese at the Jiaoshan Buddhist Seminary 焦山佛學院 in Zhènjiāng 鎮江.
In 1945, Tàixū started another organization and this time Zhīfēng accepted the invitation to join, but Tàixū died the following year.
After the founding of the PRC, Zhīfēng returned to lay life, marrying the daughter of Huáng Hán 黃涵. He taught at the Beijing Buddhist Seminary 北京佛學院.
References:
Shì Dōngchū 釋東初. Zhōngguó fójiào jìndàii 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. (Taibei: Dongchu, 1974), 2:906-910.
Yú Língbō 于凌波. Zhōnguó jìnxiàndài fójiào rénwù zhì 中國近現代佛教人物志 (Biographical Almanac of Early Contemporary and Modern Chinese Buddhism). (Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua, 1995), 249-255.
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), 1:704b-707c.