Jue yuan 覺園

Enlightenment Garden: Jué yuán 覺園

A center of lay Buddhist activity in Shànghǎi in the 1920s and 1930s.

• 1923 - 19??
• Location(s): Chángdé (formerly Hart) Road 常德路 in Shànghǎi 上海

The Garden was owned by the wealthy brothers Jiǎn Zhàonán 簡照南 and Jiǎn Yùjiē 簡玉階 of Nanyang Brothers Tobacco, who called it Southern Garden 南園. A Bodhi hermitage 菩提精舍 was located there, but when Jiǎn Yùjiē died in 1923, his brother decided to make good karma for him by converting the entire four-acre gardens into a Buddhist center. This became the headquarters of Shànghǎi Buddhist Pure Karma Association 上海佛教淨業社. The shrine hall here housed a number of monks, whose morning and evening devotions were open to the public.

'Groups that Used the Garden:

• Bodhi Study Society: Pútí xuéhuì 菩提學會 (1934 - 1937)
• Buddha's Voice Radio XMHB (1930s - 1940)
• Chinese Buddhist Association 中國佛教會 (1929 - 1937)
• Shànghǎi Buddhist Pure Karma Association 上海佛教淨業社 (1923 - 19??)
  • Their periodical Pure Karma Monthly 淨業月刊, was published here (1925 - 1928)

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. 1.758b-759c (entry for Shī Shěngzhī 施省之)
• Welch, Holmes. The Buddhist Revival in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. Pp. 77