Ding Fubao 丁福保

Dīng Fúbǎo 丁福保 (1874-1952)

Courtesy names 字: Zhòngyòu 仲祐; Shǒuyī zǐ 守一子[1] Style names 號: Chóuyǐn jūshì 疇隱居士; Jìyáng pònà 濟陽破衲 Born June 22, 1874 (Tóngzhì 同治 13) in Wúxí 無錫, Jiāngsū 江蘇 Died 1952 in Shànghǎi 上海 of natural causes

Notable Associates: Jiǎng Wéiqiáo 蔣維喬

Article editor: Gregory Adam Scott

Dīng Fúbǎo 丁福保 (1874-1952) was a writer and publisher, best known for his Great Dictionary of Buddhism 佛學大辭典 published in 1922, a translation of Bukkyō daijiten 仏教大辞典 by Oda Tokunō 織田徳能.

Biography

Dīng was born in Wúxí 無錫, Jiāngsū 江蘇. His paternal grandfather had been a county magistrate in Zhèjiāng 浙江. He began his classical education at a local home school 家塾, and in 1895 tested into the Nánqīng Academy 南菁書院 in Jiāngyīn 江陰, where one of his classmates was Jiǎng Wéiqiáo 蔣維喬. In 1896 he became a scholarship student in training for the civil service examinations (shēngyuán 生員) in Wúxí 無錫. He would go on to study at Dōngwú University 東吳大學 in Sūzhōu 蘇州. He also studied chemistry in Shànghǎi 上海, Japanese at the Fúzhōu Japanese School 東文學堂 in Fúzhōu 福州, and medicine from Zhào Yuányì 趙元益. He taught in the School of Translation Studies 譯學館^[2] at Imperial Capital University 京師大學堂^[3]. In 1899 he left his teaching position because of poverty, and began his study of medicine. In 1904 he happened to read a copy of Recorded Sayings of the Shakyas (Shishi yulu 釋氏語錄). This sparked an interest in Buddhism that would later flourish.

His medical practice brought an increased income, much of which he spent on rare books, the beginning of a life-long love of literature and publishing. He helped found Wenming Books 文明書局 in 1902, and in 1908 he established the Medical Press 醫學書局 in Shànghǎi. In 1910 he traveled to Japan to research medicine there, and later translated and published Japanese medical texts through his press. During his lifetime he wrote and published on many subjects, including philology, textual studies, numismatics, medicine, Buddhism, textual collation, and so on.

In 1914 his mother died and Dīng nearly died of illness, after which he kept a vegetarian diet and began to believe more strongly in Buddhist teachings. In 1920 he began publishing his Buddhist Studies Collectanea 佛學叢書 through his Medical Press. He is said to have spent over ten years translating his Great Dictionary of Buddhism 佛學大辭典, which was published in 1922. His Medical Press would be second only to Shanghai Buddhist Books in terms of the number of Buddhist titles published. Many of the publications were funded by donations, and he never derived any profit from his work publishing scriptural texts. He donated several tens of thousands of books and printed materials to Shanghai University 上海大學, Beijing University 北京大學, Wúxí University 無錫大學, and Aurora University 震旦大學. He also donated his house in Wúxí to the Wúxí Buddhist Association 無錫佛學會.

Dīng sat on the board of directors for Shanghai Buddhist Books 上海佛學書局, the most important Buddhist publishing house in China in the first half of the 20th century. He continued to practice medicine almost daily throughout his life, one reason perhaps why he had few contacts with the larger Shanghai Buddhist community.

Important Works

• Great Dictionary of Buddhism 佛學大辭典, 1922
• 一切經音義提要
• 佛經精華錄箋注
• 六祖壇經箋注
• 心經箋注
• 六道輪迴錄
• 佛學指南
• 佛學起信論

Notes

1. ↑ This name has a strong Daoist flavor. See Liu Xun, Daoist Modern: Innovation, Lay Practice, and the Community of Inner Alchemy in Republican Shanghai (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 37.
2. ↑ Formerly the School of Combined Learning 同文館, established in 1862
3. ↑ Established in Běijīng 北京 in 1898, later to become Beijing University

References

• Baidu article on Ding
• 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. 2.647-650.
• Yú Língbō 于凌波. Zhōngguó jìnxiàndài fójiào rénwù zhì 中國近現代佛教人物志. Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe, 1995. Pp. 423-431.