Zhènhuá 震華 (1908-1947)
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Zhènhuá 震華 (1908-1947) was a teacher-monk and supporter of Tàixū 太虛 who was active in Jiāngsū 江蘇 and Zhèjiāng 浙江 during the 1930s and 1940s.
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Zhènhuá was from a poor peasant family, and his parents died while he was young, so he was raised by an aunt. At age 11 eleven (1919), he was tonsured Huáilián 懷蓮 at Yuántōng Hermitage 圓通庵 in Xīnghuà 興化. His tonsure master first sent him to a traditional academy for education. In 1916, he was sent by his master's master, Shuāngtíng 霜亭 (then abbot of Jiāngtiān Temple 江天寺) to study at the Buddhist study society at Chāoàn Temple 超岸寺 on Mt. Yùfó 玉佛山 in Zhènjiāng 鎮江. There he studied under Shǒupéi 守培, who was impressed by his studiousness.
Zhènhuá received full ordination at Mt. Bǎohuá 寶華山 in the spring of 1929. After his ordination, he was asked by Ǎitíng 靄亭 to serve as the main teacher for the nascent Zhúlín Buddhist Seminary 竹林佛學院. Zhènhuá agreed and began teaching at the school. In 1932, he received dharma transmission from Ǎitíng. In 1937, Zhènhuá became abbot of Zhúlín Temple 竹林寺. The temple was burned to the ground by Japanese soldiers less than six months later. The Second Sino-Japanese War finally forced the Seminary to close in the fall of 1939. In 1940 he went on a fact-finding mission to see Buddhist sites in Japan.
In 1942, Zhènhuá became the 6th abbot of Yùfó 玉佛寺 in Shànghǎi 上海. He immediately orgaznied and opened the Shànghǎi Buddhist Seminary 上海佛學院 there. After 1944, he retired from the abbacy and began working in several of Tàixū's 太虛 newer organizations.
After the end of the war, Tàixū and one of his disciples Fúshàn 福善 (who ahd been a student of Zhènhuá's at the Zhúlín Buddhist Seminary in the early 1930s) came to Shànghǎi 上海. Both Fúshàn and Zhènhuá died at Yùfó Temple on March 12, 1947. it is generally believed that the early death of these two supporters of his works caused Tàixū to suffer greatly, likely leading to his own death shortly thereafter.