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Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會 (1837-1911)
Yáng has been called the progenitor of the modern Buddhist revival in China, and established a sutra publishing house and school for monastics in Nánjīng 南京.
- Born 1837 (11/16 Dàoguāng 道光 17) in Shídài 石埭 county (modern Shítái 石台 county), Anhuī 安徽
- Died October 8, 1911 (8/17 Xuāntǒng 宣統 3)
- Courtesy name: Rénshān 仁山
Yáng was born into an elite family. His father, Yáng Pǔ'ān 楊樸庵 attain the jìnshì 進士 degree in the same year as Zēng Guófān 曾國番. Displaced in Hángzhōu 杭州 by the Taiping Rebellion, Yáng chanced upon a copy of The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana 大乘起信論 and from that time on he had a deepening engagement with Buddhist texts.
Yáng founded the Jinling Scriptural Press 金陵刻經處 in Nánjīng 南京 in 1866 to reprint Buddhist sutras. In 1878 he left China to visit England and France with the mission of Zēng Jìzé 曾紀澤, bringing back several scientific instruments which he donated to researchers in China. During another trip to England in 1886 he met the Japanese Buddhist Nanjō Bunyū 南条文雄 and started a correspondence with him. With Nanjō's help, Yang was able to import over 300 sutra texts from Japan that had been lost within China. In 1894 he worked with the British missionary Timothy Richard 李提摩太 to translate The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana into English.
In 1908 he opened the Jetavana Monastery 祇洹精舍[1] to educate Buddhists, but the school closed after only two years because of a lack of funding. Both Tàixū 太虛 and Ōuyáng Jìngwú 歐陽竟無 attended classes there, Dìxián 諦閑 lectured on Tiāntái 天台, and the poet-monk Sū Mànshū 蘇曼殊 taught English. In 1910 Yáng founded the Buddhist Research Society 佛學研究會 and served as its head.
The grounds of the press would later house the Chinese Inner Studies College (Zhīnà nèixué yuàn 支那內學院) founded by Ōuyáng Jìngwú and Lǔ Chéng 呂澂 in 1922.
Notable Students
Important Works
- 大宗地玄文本論略註
- 佛教初學課本
- 十宗略說
- 觀無量壽佛經略論
Notes
- ↑ Perhaps named after the Jetavana Anāthapiṇḍada-ārāma monastery, the first permanent Buddhist institution in India. See Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, "祇園精舍". Location of the monastery [1].
References:
- 劉成有. 近現代居士佛學研究. 成都: 巴屬書社, 2002. pp. 51-107.
- 于凌波. 中國近現代佛教人物志. 北京: 宗教文化出版社, 1995. pp. 297-321.
- -----. 楊仁山居士評傳. 台北: 新文豐出版股份有限公司, 民國84 (1995).
- Goldfuss, Gabriele. Vers un bouddhisme du XXe siècle. Paris: Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 2001.
- Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會. Yáng Rénshān quánjí 楊仁山全集. Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 2000.