Yicheng (; 2 February 1927 – 21 December 2017) was a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

Buddhist monk,

Chan master Zen master is a somewhat vague English term that arose in the first half of the 20th century, sometimes used to refer to an individual who teaches Zen Buddhist meditation and practices, usually implying longtime study and subsequent authoriza ...

and

religious leader Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

. Yicheng was best known as Venerable Master of the

Buddhist Association of China The Buddhist Association of China (BCA; ) is the official government supervisory organ of Buddhism in the People's Republic of China. The association has been overseen by the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since ...

Early life

Yicheng was born Zhou Yunsheng () into a family of farming background in Wangcheng County,

Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a popul ...

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

, during the Republic of China. He studied rockwork and architecture under his father when he was ten years old.

Religious life

At age 15, he paid a religious homage to Wushan Temple () and wrote a

Gatha ''Gāthā'' is a Sanskrit term for 'song' or 'verse', especially referring to any poetic metre which is used in legends, and is not part of the Vedas but peculiar to either Epic Sanskrit or to Prakrit. The word is originally derived from the S ...

when he stood in front of the statue of

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

. In June 1949, Yicheng took refuge in the

Three Jewels In Buddhism, refuge or taking refuge refers to a religious practice, which often includes a prayer or recitation performed at the beginning of the day or of a practice session. Since the period of Early Buddhism until present time, all Theravada ...

under master Mingxin () in Xixin Chan Temple, and received complete ordination under

Xuyun Xuyun or Hsu Yun (; 5 September 1840? – 13 October 1959) was a renowned Chinese Chan Buddhist master and an influential Buddhist teacher of the 19th and 20th centuries. Early life Xuyun was purportedly born on 5 September 1840 in Fujian, Q ...

in the winter of 1956, as the 10th generation of the

Guiyang school The Guiyang school (, also read Weiyang School) is one of the sects of Chan Buddhism. History The Guiyang school was the first established house of the Five Houses of Chán. Guiyang is named after master Guishan Lingyou (771–854) and his disci ...

and the 45th generation of the

Linji school The Línjì school () is a school of Chan Buddhism named after Linji Yixuan (d. 866). It took prominence in Song China (960–1279), spread to Japan as the Rinzai school and influenced the nine mountain schools of Korean Seon. History Song d ...

, in

Nanhua Temple Nanhua Temple () is a Buddhist monastery of the Chan Buddhism, one of Five Great Schools of Buddhism where Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, once lived and taught. It is located in the town of Maba (), Qujiang District, southeast ...

Shaoguan Shaoguan (; Hakka: Seukoan) is a prefecture-level city in northern Guangdong Province ( Yuebei), South China, bordering Hunan to the northwest and Jiangxi to the northeast. It is home to the mummified remains of the sixth Zen Buddhist patriarch ...

, south China's

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

province. In 1956, he entered the Research Institute of Buddhist Studies, which was founded by Hsu Yun and where Haideng () taught. In 1966, the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

was launched by

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

, he was transferred to a reclamation farm in Yunjushan as a farmer, until the end of 1978. According to the national policy of free religious belief, he regained his identity as a monk. In the Spring of 1979, he resided in Zhenru Chan Temple, where he served as its abbot since 1985. In 1986, Yicheng became the president of the Buddhist Association of Yongxiu County and the president of the Buddhist Association of Jiangxi. In September 2002, he was elected Venerable Master of the

, a position he held for almost eight years. In September 2003, he served as abbot of

Fayuan Temple The Fayuan Temple (), situated in the southwest quarter of central Beijing, is one of the city's oldest and most renowned Buddhist temples. History The Fayuan Temple, originally named the Minzhong Temple, was first built in 645 during the T ...

. Yicheng won the

Confucius Peace Prize The Confucius Peace Prize () was a Chinese alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize established in 2010 by the Association of Chinese Indigenous Arts in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The prize was created in response to a proposal by business ...

in 2013. Yicheng died in Zhenru Chan Temple,

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

, on December 21, 2017.

Works

Chinese character Fu, written by Yicheng, picture2

* * * *

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yicheng 1927 births 2017 deaths Republic of China Buddhists Rinzai Buddhists Writers from Changsha People's Republic of China Buddhist monks People's Republic of China writers Chinese spiritual writers Religious leaders in China