Fan Cheng

Fan Cheng

Fan Cheng (1884-1958), a monk in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, was born in the southern suburb of Rugao, Jiangsu Province. In 1904, he joined the normal school of Tairen and Guangxu. Together with ye gongchuo, Jiang Weiqiao and others, he initiated the photocopying of the song version of "Qisha Tibetan scriptures" and "Song Tibetan treasures", which made great contributions to the preservation of Buddhist materials. He was sincere, compassionate and responsible. During the Anti Japanese war against Japan, he ran around to fight for funds to relieve the refugees.

Life of the characters

At the age of 7, he studied at Chongshan nunnery in Rugao under the guidance of master Xi Rong. Under the guidance of master Xi Rong, he read and read, worshipped Buddha and chanted sutras. For more than ten years, he has made great progress in his studies.

Qing Guangxu 31 years (1905), by Zujie in Zhenjiang Jiaoshan Dinghui temple. Later, he lived in xixiexi temple in zuegang (since the beginning of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty, Chongshan temple in Rugao and Xiexi temple in zuegang were the same abbots).

In the second year of Xuantong (1910), Jiangsu monk education association set up "Jiangsu Sangha normal school", with master Yuexia as its supervisor. Master Xirong ordered Fan Cheng to go to Nanjing for education. During his study in Nanjing, master Fan Cheng worked with Renshan, Zhiguang, Kaiwu, Huimin and other students, all of whom were Buddhist generals of Honghua.

Around the Mid Autumn Festival in the third year of Xuantong (1911), the revolution of 1911 broke out in Wuchang. The revolutionary army recovered Nanjing, and the Sangha normal school was suspended due to the war. Fan Cheng left the school and returned to dig the Western temple in Hong Kong. The following year (1912) the revolution was successful and the Republic of China was founded. Fan Cheng was appointed as the tenth generation abbot of the Western temple.

In 1922, he reclaimed wasteland to provide food and clothing for the permanent residents in the temple, built "white bone pagoda" to bury the remains of the mass graves; he proposed the construction of "dig Rainbow Road" more than ten miles, and built a "Tongli bridge". In addition, he has been collecting Buddhist cultural relics for a long time, such as scriptures, Buddha statues, steles, magic tools, calligraphy and painting, etc., and plans to establish a Buddhist cultural relics museum. In 1929, Gaodong private Sangha library was established. There are more than 160000 volumes of Buddhist classics, rare books, local chronicles, universal library and other books, as well as various magazines and newspapers.

In 1931, Fan Cheng went to Shanghai. Zhu ziqiao, a famous Buddhist scholar, and others launched the "Photocopying Songqi sand scriptures Association" in Shanghai, and Fan Cheng was promoted as the executive director. In 1932, Fan Cheng set up an office in Xi'an to organize his staff to copy and compile catalogues. In order to search for the shortage of scriptures and verify the authenticity of the versions, he traveled to Shanghai, Henan, Hebei, Shanxi and Shaanxi. On the way, he suffered a lot. He got the kaibaozhanzijing and puningcangben at Qinglian temple in Xiangcheng, Shanxi Province, and some scriptures written by Beiye in ancient Sanskrit and the people of Sui and Tang Dynasties,

In August of 1932, it went up along Fenshui River to Qianfo temple in Hongdong County, and got 10 volumes of scriptures. It was found that the first edition of the Scriptures had the words "Guangsheng temple in Zhaocheng" and then it went back to Guangsheng temple in Hongdong county. Finally, he got the national treasure "Dazangjing" which was engraved in Jin Dynasty and stored in Zhaocheng. This Sutra has more than 7000 volumes. When he collated it, he only kept 5017 volumes, which is called "Zhaocheng Jincang". Later, it was photocopied by "yinjinghui" and named as "Song Zang Yizhen", with a total of 120 volumes.

During his stay in Shanghai, Fan Cheng also set up porridge factory, pesticide factory, relief home and nursing home. In Suzhou, he served as chairman of Suzhou cultural relics management committee, Preparatory Committee of Suzhou Buddhist Association, and special representative of the second people's Congress of Suzhou. In 1949, he was the abbot of Suzhou jiecao nunnery and also the abbot of Baoen temple. In 1953, he attended the first Congress of the Chinese Buddhist Association and was elected a member of the Buddhist Association. In April of the same year, he launched the world peace Law Association in Suzhou, inviting master Xu Yun, 120 years old, to preside over the association. The six Sutras of Sangha in Langshan Guangjiao temple was also brought back by master Fan Cheng. In 1957, Fan Cheng continued to be elected director of the second National Buddhist Association.

On October 27, 1958, master Fan Cheng died at the age of 74.

Personal achievement

In 1929, monk Fan Cheng founded a "Gaodong private Sangha library", which contains Buddhist magic treasures, classics, Confucian classics, history, books, local chronicles, more than 100000 books, magazines and newspapers. It is managed by special personnel and opened to the public. In addition, he has long collected Buddhist relics such as scriptures, Buddhist statues, steles, and Buddhist implements, and plans to establish a Buddhist heritage museum.

Chinese PinYin : Fan Cheng