Grand Master Yinguang
Grand Master Yinguang, Dharma name Shengliang and sobriquet Changcan, lived from the late Qing into the Republican era. He was born into the Zhao family in Shaanxi.
In childhood he studied Confucianism. As he grew older, he took up the responsibility of defending Confucian teaching, and following Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu, he criticized Buddhism. Later, after suffering illness for several years, he reflected on his own errors and repented his former views.
In the seventh year of the Guangxu reign of Qing, at age twenty-one, his good roots matured and he left home under Venerable Daochun at Lianhua Cave Monastery on Zhongnan Mountain. Not long afterward, he received full ordination at Shuangxi Monastery in Xing’an County under Vinaya Master Yinhai Ding.
He had suffered an eye disorder since he was six months old. Although the illness later improved, his eyesight remained weak. Whenever his eyes became slightly red, he could only see things dimly.
When receiving full ordination, because he was careful and had excellent handwriting, he was appointed as scribe. Due to excessive writing, both eyes again became blood-red. Earlier, while drying sutras, he had read the Longshu Pure Land Text and already knew the inconceivable merit of Buddha-recitation. So during this ordination period, after everyone rested at night, he continued sitting and reciting the Buddha’s name. During the day, even while writing, his mind did not leave the Buddha.
Because of this, though his eyes were red and painful, he could still continue writing. When the ordination platform ended, the eye illness was also healed. From this he knew even more deeply that the merit of Buddha-recitation is inconceivable. This became the initial turning point that led him to Pure Land faith and to encouraging others to recite the Buddha’s name.
From then on, the Great Master continued his path of cultivation and learning through many famous monasteries: Sifu Monastery, Longquan Monastery, Yuanguang Monastery, and finally Fawu Monastery on Mount Putuo.
During this time, sometimes he sought instruction, sometimes he studied the Tripitaka, sometimes he entered retreat. Thus he deeply penetrated the Mahayana and reached non-obstruction in both principle and phenomena.
Because of his elevated understanding and meticulous conduct, he was twice invited by Huawen Venerable and Dharma Master Dixian to accompany them to the capital to request Tripitaka collections for Fawu Monastery on Mount Putuo and Touda Monastery in Wenzhou.
Admiring his virtue, Huawen Venerable invited him to reside in the Sutra Repository at Fawu Monastery to cultivate in quiet concentration. Up to the end of the Qing dynasty, throughout more than thirty years of monastic life, the Great Master consistently remained hidden and did not like social interactions, so he could practice peacefully morning and evening, seeking attainment of Buddha-recitation samadhi.
Yet though drums are struck inside, their sound carries outside. Even when a great monk wishes to remain hidden, devas and nagas still create conditions for broad transformation.
In the first year of the Republic, layman Gao Henian, while on pilgrimage to Fawu Monastery, took several of the Master’s essays back and published them in Buddhist periodicals in Shanghai under the name Changcan. Though readers did not know who the author was, the Prajna writing itself awakened wholesome roots in many people, and they began searching for his whereabouts. At that time, the Great Master was exactly fifty-two years old.
A few years later, his identity was gradually discovered. Some crossed seas and climbed mountains seeking his instruction; others sent letters asking for guidance. Layman Xu Yuru compiled the Master’s letters and essays into the Collection of Dharma Master Yinguang’s Writings, which was repeatedly reprinted and expanded, circulating both in China and abroad.
At first, when layman Xu brought his mother to the mountain to request refuge, the Great Master still insisted on hidden practice and would not accept, instead telling them to take refuge with Dharma Master Dixian at Guanzong Monastery in Ningbo.
By the eighth year of the Republic, layman Zhou Mengyou brought his family to the mountain. After three or four earnest prostrations and requests to become lay disciples, the Great Master observed the karmic conditions, found refusal difficult, and reluctantly accepted.
By that year, he was fifty-nine years old and accepted disciples for the first time. From then on, many faithful people wrote letters asking to become his disciples, and others came to the mountain to take refuge. All were instructed to practice according to the teaching: vegetarian conduct and Buddha-recitation.
During his lifetime of teaching, his lay disciples ranged from nobles and wealthy people to famous scholars and ordinary villagers, totaling nearly three hundred thousand. Many among them recited the Buddha and attained rebirth in Ultimate Bliss.
The Great Master held precepts with strict purity and lived very frugally. Fine clothing and rich food offered to him, if impossible to decline, were transferred to other monastics. Ordinary offerings were all turned over to the monastery storehouse for communal use. Money donated specifically to him was entirely used for printing scriptures, disaster relief, and charitable institutions. For himself, he kept only coarse food and plain clothing throughout life.
He disliked personal publicity. Some devotees, admiring his life from childhood through monastic and teaching years, wrote a biography and sent it to him for correction before printing. He refused each time, returned the manuscript, and urged them to cancel it.
Two high officials, Tao Zaidong and Huang Hanzhi, wrote to the President of the Republic reporting the Great Master’s virtue. President Xu then bestowed a plaque reading “Awakening Fully Penetrates Perfect Brightness,” and sent a delegation to Mount Putuo with incense, flowers, and offerings.
Monastics and laypeople praised this greatly, but the Great Master remained completely calm as though unaware.
He had three special features unlike most monastics of his time:
1. He did not accept the abbacy of major monasteries, saying his virtue was insufficient and fearing obstacles to pure practice.
2. He did not accept monastic disciples, because he believed that in deep Dharma-ending times very few could truly fulfill monastic responsibilities, and he did not want to create extensive entanglements.
3. He did not fundraise or solicit donations, ashamed to see many pursuing fame and profit at the cost of monastic purity.
Regarding his teaching strategy, the Great Master observed that in degenerate times morality was declining and most people’s capacities were weak. Most could only keep Three Refuges and Five Precepts, recite the Buddha’s name, and keep vegetarian practice. Even that already indicated good roots; truly exceptional practitioners were extremely rare.
Therefore, in general he advised people to uphold ethical duties, deeply believe in cause and effect, avoid evil and do good, make faith and vows in Buddha-recitation, and seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land.
Those who needed strong correction – even senior Chan teachers, renowned Confucians, high officials, and famous scholars – he would criticize directly. Those who needed compassionate inclusion – even beginners, peasants, workers, and servants – he would teach with kindness.
His method of guiding others used practical, ordinary truths. Although he deeply understood doctrinal and Chan schools, he did not favor lofty speculative talk. He often supported Buddha-recitation and life-release societies and encouraged orphanages and elder-care institutions.
He also founded the Honghua Society, entrusting others with management while he directed it, to print and distribute scriptures and Buddhist images. Over twenty-plus years, it distributed more than one million Buddha and Bodhisattva images and over five million scripture volumes suitable for contemporary needs.
In Dharma protection, during World War I, authorities proposed relocating German civilians into monasteries. The Great Master worked strenuously with influential people to stop this.
From Republic Year 2 to Year 25, the government repeatedly, under influence of materialist-minded officials, published proposals to confiscate temple assets into the public treasury and convert monasteries into schools. The Great Master joined monastics and lay protectors to respond and rescue the situation each time, averting these dangers.
In many other smaller matters, he would simply use a few spoken words or one letter to dissolve difficulties.
As for miraculous responses: when the Great Master was seventy, the Sangha invited him to Baoguo Monastery. Near the end of summer, many bedbugs appeared. They were everywhere – bedding, windows, sutra desks. Disciples, worried that his old age could not bear the disturbance, asked permission to remove them. The Great Master declined and simply recited the Buddha’s name and prayed for them to leave. Before long, the bedbugs disappeared completely.
Outside Buddha-recitation periods, he often recited the Great Compassion Mantra over incense ash, rice, or water to aid severe illnesses that doctors could no longer treat. Each time there were remarkable results.
On one occasion, countless white termites appeared in the scripture tower at Baoguo Monastery. The Master learned of it, recited the Great Compassion Mantra over water, and had it sprinkled on them. The termites all moved away.
Layman Gao Henian once wrote: “The reason I recognized Master Yinguang as a great monk is that he spoke very ordinary words, but the more one reflects on them, the more they match present conditions and later prove true.”
On Gao’s first pilgrimage to Mount Putuo, while the Qing still existed, he stayed long at the monastery and asked the Master about the future. The Master immediately answered with a poem:
The cycles of kalpas are profoundly tragic;
There is no better escape than the Pure Land realm.
Strive to recite Amitabha and return to your true homeland;
Do not cling to dusty bonds and lose yourself in foreign wandering.
Past karmic worlds are red-dust dream illusion;
Future red flames and floods bring calamity.
I urge you early to leave lands of many disasters;
Together let us walk toward the Lotus region.
In this poem he hinted at future war and fire calamities, and advised people to recite the Buddha’s name.
In Republic Year 17, the Great Master established a Pure Land practice hall at Lingyan Monastery, set its rules and program, and entrusted Venerable Zhen Da to guide the community as abbot. Then he moved to a quiet hermitage in Suzhou.
After recitation sessions, he joined layman Xu Zhijing in revising four volumes of Records of Sacred Mountains, concerning the spiritual traces of Mount Putuo, Qingliang, Emei, and Jiuhua.
At age seventy-seven, due to war pressure, he moved from Suzhou to Lingyan and remained there three years in settled Buddha-recitation.
In Republic Year 29, on the 24th day of the 10th month, the Great Master knew in advance that his rebirth time had arrived and summoned monks and laypeople to Lingyan Monastery.
In that final meeting, he nominated Venerable Miaozhen as successor abbot, gave instructions for future matters, and said:
“The Dharma gate of Buddha-recitation has nothing strange or special. One only needs urgent sincerity; then no one fails to be received by the Buddha.”
On the 4th day of the 11th month, he developed a mild illness, yet continued reciting diligently. After recitation he asked for water to wash his hands, stood up, and said:
“Amitabha Buddha has come to receive me. I am going now. Great assembly, you must make faith and vows, recite the Buddha’s name, and seek the Western Land!”
Then he walked to a chair, sat in full lotus, joined palms, recited the Name with the assembly’s support chanting, and peacefully entered nirvana.
At that time, his monastic age was sixty years, and his worldly age was eighty.
On the full moon of the second month the next year – the Buddha’s Nirvana commemoration and exactly one hundred days after the Master’s rebirth – more than two thousand monastics and laypeople gathered at Lingyan for cremation rites.
At that moment, the sky suddenly became bright and clear. When Venerable Zhen Da raised the torch, white smoke rose like snow, showing five-colored light. The next day, Venerable Miaozhen and the assembly inspected the remains and found many relics in various shapes and colors, including five-colored forms. All were hard like mineral crystal and produced a clear ringing sound when struck.
The assembly sorted them into six categories:
1. Tooth relics: thirty-two teeth.
2. Five-colored pearl relics: many round luminous beads.
3. Five-colored small flower relics: shaped like tiny blossoms.
4. Five-colored large flower relics: shaped like larger blossoms.
5. Five-colored blood relics: transformed from blood and flesh.
6. Five-colored mass relics: clusters of varied shapes and colors.
All were placed in glass cases and preserved at the monastery.
Then monks, nuns, and disciples prostrated and prayed for relics. Whoever sought with sincere heart while sifting ashes obtained relics. For example, Dharma Master Guangxie in Singapore, Venerable Fadu at Wutai, layman Wu Guoying in the Philippines, and layman Yue Huiwu in Shanghai each obtained relics of blue, yellow, blood-red, or five-colored types.
During his lifetime, the Great Master was plain and truthful in speech and conduct, showing no outwardly strange signs, so one could not easily know his exact level of realization.
Yet monastics and laypeople, judging by his virtue, his wide teaching activity, his westward passing, and relics after nirvana, all concluded that he was a returning sage who appeared according to conditions to save beings and protect true Dharma.
Therefore, on the first anniversary of his nirvana, monastic and lay Lotus practitioners jointly honored him as the Thirteenth Patriarch of the Pure Land lineage.
Supplementary Note:
Pure Land does not have transmission in the same formal way as Chan patriarchal robe-and-bowl succession. Pure Land patriarchs are selected later by monastic and lay Buddha-reciters, who honor especially outstanding masters.
This outstanding status is evaluated by three points:
1. In understanding: one must deeply comprehend both doctrinal and meditative traditions and penetrate the Mahayana.
2. In conduct: one must keep precepts strictly and practice diligently, with signs of rebirth at death.
3. In teaching contribution: one must have major merit in promoting Pure Land, protecting true Dharma, and encouraging countless people to recite the Buddha’s name.
In Records of Pure Land Saints and Worthies, only eleven Pure Land patriarchs were originally listed. Later, at Lingyan, Master Yinguang gathered monastic and lay practitioners and honored Master Xingce as the Tenth Patriarch, moved Master Shixian to Eleventh, and Master Jixing to Twelfth.
After Master Yinguang’s rebirth, practitioners judged that his Pure Land contribution was great and jointly honored him as the Thirteenth Patriarch.
Chan did once have robe-and-bowl transmission, but mainly to establish confidence among the public. After the Sixth Patriarch, only Dharma was transmitted and not robe-and-bowl, because Chan was already flourishing.
In Pure Land, great masters also acted solely from compassion and wisdom for benefiting beings and never called themselves patriarchs. Only after their passing did later generations honor them. In reality, considering all aspects, they were sage manifestations and worthy of patriarchal honor – something ordinary eminent monks cannot accomplish.
Among the thirteen Pure Land patriarchs, seven were originally fully transmitted Chan masters: Chengyuan, Yongming, Lianchi, Ouyi, Xingce, Xing’an, and Chewu.
Why did masters awakened in Chan promote Pure Land instead of Chan? There are three main reasons:
Regarding Dharma gate: Direct Pointing Chan mainly benefits those of very highest capacity; middle and lower capacities struggle to enter (“If not highest capacity, do not lightly permit” – patriarchal saying). Pure Land, however, benefits all three capacities.
Those of highest capacity practicing Pure Land can realize original mind in this life, attain Buddha-recitation samadhi, and be reborn in high grade. Even those of very low capacity, if they specialize in Buddha-recitation, can be reborn with karma carried and enter non-retrogression. Once reborn, close to Amitabha and the holy assembly, with immeasurable lifespan, what fear is there of failing to awaken true mind and realize sage fruit? Because this benefit is broad and certain, the masters advised Pure Land.
Regarding historical time: In the era of True Dharma, many practitioners attained fruit, or at least entered deep samadhi as foundation for later lives. In the Semblance Dharma era, even awakening became rare, let alone realization. In the Dharma-ending era, as the Mahasamnipata Sutra says: “Among hundreds of millions who practice, it is hard to find one who attains awakening.”
Even if one awakens, it is not yet full realization; afflictions and karmic habits remain. In rebirth, blessings can delude, and nine of ten retreat. Therefore from late Semblance era into Dharma-ending era, great teachers gradually shifted to Pure Land instruction.
Because Chan influence was still strong, they skillfully manifested by first awakening through Chan and later promoting Pure Land, so contemporaries would trust and follow.
Regarding capacities and conditions: From early Dharma-ending times onward, most people are middle or lower capacity. To truly fulfill the goal of benefiting beings in such an age, bodhisattvas must teach Pure Land according to conditions.
Other schools are still important to revitalize, but secondary in this period because their benefits are less universally accessible. Thus many eminent teachers in other schools, while preserving their own traditions, still turned toward Pure Land.
For example, Chan Master Zhenxie Liaozhao said: “The entire Caodong lineage secretly cultivates Pure Land, because seeing Buddha through Pure Land is easier than in Chan.” (Dongxia yizong jie ju mi xiu, yi Jingtu jianfo you jianyi yu Zongmen.)
In modern times, Dharma Master Dixian spread Tiantai teaching while still reciting the Buddha’s name. Near nirvana he recited a verse urging the assembly:
Through Buddha-recitation I rely,
The Pure Land appears before me.
Its true benefit I now receive;
All of you strive with focused diligence.
In a letter to Venerable Ti’an, Master Yinguang wrote:
“Over decades traveling north and south for ten thousand miles, I have observed that those who are clever and broadly versed in Chan and doctrine yet belittle Pure Land are often confused at death and sometimes cry out in distress. But those who truly recite the Buddha’s name, even if their faith and vows are not yet fully intense and even if there are no special signs at death, still pass away peacefully.”
Therefore, from life to death, the Buddha-recitation path is truly the suffering-saving vessel for humanity in this age.