Biography
He took tonsure at age 19 under Ruīpǔ 瑞普 at Yùhuáng miào 玉皇廟 on Mt. Wutai 五台山. In 1920, he studided with Dàyǒng 大勇 and the following year he accompanied him back to Běijīng to be ordained at Fǎyuán Temple 法源寺 and to hear Tàixū lecture at Guǎngjì Temple 廣濟寺. He took ordination and then went to Bǎohuá shān 寶華山 to study the Vinaya. In the fall of 1922, he became part of the first class at the Wuchang Buddhist Seminary 武昌佛學院.
In the winter of 1923, Fǎzūn studied Japanese Esoteric Buddhism 東密 Dàyǒng returned from Japan. After he graduated in 1924, Fǎzūn went to Běijīng to study at the new Tibetan Language College 藏文學院 which had just been set up by Dàyǒng. There he studied with Fǎfǎng 法舫 Chāoyī 超一, Yándìng 嚴定, Guānkōng 觀空, and Dàgāng 大剛. They studied Tibetan in preparation of going to Tibet, where Fǎzūn successfully survived going in 1925. Many in his group of 30 people perished on the way to Lhasa, or while there.
In 9, he became principal of the Sino-Tibetan Institute 漢藏教理院.
In 1950, he began lecturing at the Bodhi College 菩提學會, in Běijīng 北京, where he published half a dozen works. His whereabouts and activities after this are mostly unknown, as is the exact date and location of his death.
Major Works:
References:
Welch, Holmes. The Buddhist Revival in China. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), 177.
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), 1:683c-683a-687a.