Yang Wenhui

Yang Wenhui

Yang Wenhui ( Chinese  楊文 會 , Pinyin Yáng Wénhùi , W.-G. Yang Wenhui ; 1837-1911) was a Chinese Buddhist reformer. He mainly appeared as a publisher and is known as the "father of the Modern Buddhist Renaissance" ( Chinese  近代 中国 佛教 复兴 之 父 , Pinyin Xiandai Zhongguo Fojiao Fuxing zhi Fu ). His honorary name was Rénshān (仁 山).

Life

Yang Wenhui came from Shídài (石埭, today: Shítái ) in Anhui . As a child, he lived in Beijing with his father . The Taiping uprising forced them to go to the Yangtze River Delta . First of all, the boy studied the Confucian classics. In 1862, however, he received a copy of the Dàchéng Qǐxìn lùn (大乘 起 信 論 - Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana ) which made him interested in Buddhism. In 1866 he moved to Nanjing , where he supervised construction projects for the government. There he met other lay Buddhist people who strengthened his beliefs. Soon after, he and friends were campaigning for money for the Jīnlíng kèjīng chù (金 凌 刻 經 處 - Publishing House for Sutren Jinling ; Jinling Sutra Publishing House). In 1878 he went on trips to England and France . From there he imported various scientific instruments that he gave away to researchers in China. During another trip to England, he met the Japanese Buddhist Nanjō Bun'yū (南 条文 雄), with whom he began an exchange of letters and with Nanjō's help, Yang was able to import more than 300 sutras from Japan that had been lost in China. In 1894 he worked with the British missionary Timothy Richard (李 提摩太) on a translation of the Dàchéng Qǐxìn lùn into English .

In 1908 he founded the Zhiheng Monastery ( 祗 洹 精舍 Zhīhéng jīngshè ) to teach Buddhism on the premises of the publisher. He himself wrote the textbooks do so. He invited the poet-monk Su Manshu a Sanskrit teaching and English. More than twenty monks attended classes to be trained in the field service ( Dharma ). However, the school had to close again after two years due to a lack of funds.

In 1910 Yang founded the Fóxúe yánjiù hùi (佛學 研究 研究 Society for Buddhist Studies, Buddhist Research Society). Ouyang Jian (歐陽 漸) was one of his students and it was he who founded the publishing house and the school under the name Zhīnà nèi Xúeyuàn (支那 內 學院, Shina College for Internal Studies; Chinese Inner Studies College) after Yang's death in 1911 . Yang Wenhui's numerous students included Zhang Taiyan , Tan Sitong and Taixu .

Works

• 楊文 會. Yang Renshan Quanji (楊仁山 全集 - Collected Works). 黃山 書社 (Huangshan Shushe) 2000.
• Padma-dkar-po. Nieh pʻan tao ta shou yin yü chia fa yao, (1978).
• Fo jiao chu xue ke ben zhu jie. - (1967).

Web links

• A Short Record of Yang Renshan (Simplified Chinese)
• Yang Wenhui's Concepts of Compiling a Tripitaka ( Traditional Chinese)
• Yang Renshan and the Jinling Sutra Publishing House (Simplified Chinese)
• Entry in the Database of Modern Chinese Buddhism (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Awakening of Faith of Ashvagosha index at www.sacred-texts.com
2. ↑ Tarocco, Franceska (2008). Lost in Translation? The Treatise on the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) and its modern readings, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 71 (2), 335

literature

• Liao Chengyou (劉 成 有): Buddhism studies in the early modern period - 近 現代 居士 佛學 研究 (Jin xiandai hushi foxue yanjiu). Chengdu : 巴 屬 書社, 2002. pp. 51-107.
• Yu Lingbo (于 凌波): People of Buddhism in China in early modern times (中國 近 現代 佛教 人物 志 zhongguo jinxiandai fojiao renwuzhi). Beijing: 宗教 文化 出版社, 1995. pp. 297-321.
• -----. 楊仁山 居士 評 傳. Taipei : 新 文 豐 出版 股份有限公司, 民國 84 (1995).
• Nakamura, Kaoru: Nitchū Jōdokyō ronsō : Ogurusu Kōchō "Nenbutsu entsū" to Yō Jinzan / 日中 浄土 教 論争: 小 栗 栖 香 頂 「念佛 圓通」 と 楊仁山. 2009.
• Gabriele Goldfuss: Vers un bouddhisme du XXe siècle , Yang Wenhui, 1837–1911, réformateur lai͏̈que et imprimeur, 2001.

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Yang is the family name here, Wenhui is the first name.