Yang Wenhui (; 1837-1911) was a Chinese

lay Lay or LAY may refer to: Places *Lay Range, a subrange of mountains in British Columbia, Canada * Lay, Loire, a French commune *Lay (river), France * Lay, Iran, a village * Lay, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community * Lay Dam, Alaba ...

Buddhist reformer who has been called "The Father of the Modern Buddhist Renaissance". His

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

was Rénshān () and he is also thus known as Yáng Rénshān. He was a native of Shídài () county (modern Shítái 石台 county) in

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

province. While he was young he accompanied his father to live in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, but the

Taiping rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...

forced them to flee to the lower

Yangtze delta The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD), once known as the Shanghai Economic Zone, is a megalopolis generally comprising the Wu Chinese, Wu-speaking areas of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, southern Anhui. The area lie ...

. Although he studied the

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...

classics as a child, in 1862 he became interested in

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

after reading a copy of the

Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana ''Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna'' (AF, , reconstructed Sanskrit title: ''*Mahāyāna-śraddhotpāda-śāstra'') is an influential Mahayana Buddhist treatise for East Asian Buddhism. Though traditionally attributed to the 2nd century CE ...

(大乘起信論 ''dàchéng qǐxìn lùn''). In 1866 he moved to

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

to manage architectural engineering projects for the government, where his Buddhist beliefs were strengthened through contact with other lay Buddhists. It was not long after that he and several friends raised money to establish the Jinling Sutra Publishing House (金凌刻經處 ''Jīnlíng kèjīng chù''),

Jinling Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

being an old name for Nanjing. In 1878 he left China to visit

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and

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, bringing back several scientific instruments which he donated to researchers in China. During another trip to England he met the

Japanese Buddhist Buddhism was first established in Japan in the 6th century CE. Most of the Japanese Buddhists belong to new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185－1333). During the Edo period (1603–1868), Buddhism was cont ...

Nanjo Bunyu ( 南条文雄) and started a correspondence with him. With Nanjō's help, Yang was able to import over 300 sutra texts from Japan that had been lost within China. In 1894 he worked with the British missionary

Timothy Richard Timothy Richard (Chinese: 李提摩太 ''Li Timotai'', 10 October 1845 – 17 April 1919) was a Welsh Baptist missionary to China, who influenced the modernisation of China and the rise of the Chinese Republic. Biography Richard was born on ...

( 李提摩太) to translate ''Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana'' into English.Tarocco, Francesca (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 Yang established the Jetavana Hermitage (祗洹精舍 ''zhīhuan jīngshè'') in 1908 for teaching Buddhism on the site of his publishing house and wrote the textbooks himself. He invited the poet-monk

Su Manshu Su Manshu (, 1884–1918) was a Chinese writer, poet, painter, revolutionist and translator; his original name was Su Xuanying (). Su had been named as a writer of poetry and romantic love stories in the history of early modern Chinese liter ...

to teach

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and English. Over twenty monks studied there, preparing to spread the

Dharma Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...

. Unfortunately, due to financial trouble the school closed after only two years. In 1910 he founded the Buddhist Research Society (佛學研究會 ''fóxúe yánjiù hùi'') and served as its head. The lay Buddhist

Ouyang Jian Ouyang () is a Chinese surname. It is the most common two-character Chinese compound surname, being the only two-character name of the 400 most common Chinese surnames, according to a 2013 study. Variations/transliterations * Chinese languages : ' ...

() studied under Yang at this time, and after Yang's death in 1911 Ouyang would reestablish Yang's old publishing house and school as the Chinese Inner Studies College (支那內學院 '' zhīnà nèi xúeyuàn''). Yang Wenhui had many students over his lifetime, including several well-known figures such as

Zhang Taiyan Zhang Binglin (January 12, 1869 – June 14, 1936), also known by his art name Zhang Taiyan, was a Chinese philologist, textual critic, philosopher, and revolutionary. His philological works include ''Wen Shi'' (文始 "The Origin of Writing"), ...

Tan Sitong Tan Sitong (, March 10, 1865 – September 28, 1898), courtesy name Fusheng (), pseudonym Zhuangfei (), was a well-known Chinese politician, thinker, and reformist in the late Qing dynasty (1644–1911). He was executed at the age of 33 when ...

, and

Taixu Taixu (Tai-hsu, ; January 8, 1890 – March 17, 1947) was a Buddhist modernist, activist and thinker who advocated for a reformation and revival of Chinese Buddhism by drawing upon eclectic domestic and foreign sources and ideologies. Biograph ...

External links

A Short Record of Yang Renshan
(

Simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one that is simpler (usually shorter), according to a well-founded ordering. Examples include: ...

)
Yang Wenhui's Concepts of Compiling a Tripitaka
(

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

)
Yang Renshan and the Jinling Sutra Publishing House
(Simplified Chinese)
Entry in Database of Modern Chinese Buddhism
(English)

References

* 劉成有. 近現代居士佛學研究. 成都: 巴屬書社, 2002. pp. 51–107. * 楊文會. 楊仁山全集. 合肥: 黃山書社, 2000. * 于凌波. 中國近現代佛教人物志. 北京: 宗教文化出版社, 1995. pp. 297–321. * -----. 楊仁山居士評傳. 台北: 新文豐出版股份有限公司, 民國84 (1995). {{DEFAULTSORT:Yang, Wenhui 1837 births 1911 deaths Qing dynasty Buddhists Chinese scholars of Buddhism People from Chizhou 19th-century Chinese people 20th-century Chinese people