Yang Wenhui (; 1837-1911) was a Chinese

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

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

was Rénshān (). He was a native of Shídài () county (modern Shítái 石台 county) in

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

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

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, but the

Taiping rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted fr ...

forced them to flee to the lower

Yangtze delta The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD, or simply ) is a triangle-shaped megalopolis generally comprising the Wu Chinese-speaking areas of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. The area lies in the heart of the Jiangnan reg ...

. Although he studied the

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

classics as a child, in 1862 he became interested in

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

after reading a copy of the

Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana ''Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna'' (reconstructed Sanskrit title: ''Mahāyāna śraddhotpādaśāstra''; ) is a text of Mahayana Buddhism. Though attributed to the Indian master Aśvaghoṣa, no Sanskrit version of it exists and it is now w ...

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

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

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 (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

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 has been practiced in Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while exten ...

Nanjo Bunyu Nanjō Bun'yū (南条文雄) (1 July 1849 – 9 November 1927) was a Buddhist priest and one of the most important modern Japanese scholars of Buddhism. Nanjō was born to the abbot of Seiunji Temple (誓運寺), part of the Shinshu Ōtani-ha ...

( 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 lit ...

to teach

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

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

Dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

. 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, and is one of the few two-character surnames that h ...

() 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"), t ...

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. Biogra ...

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), for example * Simplification of algebraic expressions, ...

)
Yang Wenhui's Concepts of Compiling a Tripitaka
(

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

)
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