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Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2: B. Personalities

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2

Language
English

Contents

B. Personalities

Xu Chonghao

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Xu Chonghao (June 3, 1882 - 1959 CE) Born in Fanyu (now Guangzhou), Guangdong, Xu is a Chinese military general and politician, who styled himself as Qingjiang and Gongwu.

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He graduated from Jiangnan Army School, joined Tung Meng Hui in 1910 and took the post as the temporary guarding commander of Nanjing and the commander of the No. 1 mixed brigade in 1911, when he was a member of Hubei Science Tutoring Society during the Revolution of 1911. In 1913, he was appointed as the Chief of Staff of the Army of Anti-Yuan Shikai and escaped to Shanghai when the army was defeated. And then he finally arrived in Guangzhou to accompany Sun Yat-sen after overcoming many difficulties. He was appointed successively as the secretary and secretary-general of the examination authority of Nanjing and Chongqing national governments during 1928-1946. In May, 1938, he attended the China Buddhism Conference held in Chongqing as the director of Chongqing. He was appointed as the committee and consultant of Nanjing and Chongqing national governments during 1943-1946. He resigned from the political circle to work on literature in 1946. He was hired as the member of Shanghai Research Institute of Culture and History, the counselor of the municipal office

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[Figure: Xu Chonghao's, 'Yisilanjiao zhilue' (A Brief Outline of Islam)]

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of the counselors, member of the municipal CPPCC and member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang since 1949. He has written *Reference for Tactics Applications* (1929), *Records of Islam* (1944) and *Summary of Chinese Political Systems* (1946) and compiled several books such as *Training Demonstration of Young People* (1929) and *Records of Xinjiang* (1945). He also involved the study of India and wrote the book of *Brief History of Sino-Indian Relation* (1942), describing the history of India-China relations from the Dynasty of Zhou and Qin to the period of the Anti-Japanese War, attached with several newspapers, magazines and articles covering India-China relation.

Feng Chengjun

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Feng Chengjun (June 1887-February 4, 1946) was a Chinese, was an expert in translation, scholar in Chinese and foreign traffic history. He was styled Zi Heng and born in Xiakou County (now Hankou, Wuhan City), Hubei Province.

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He received old-style education in China. In 1903, he went to study in a secondary school in Belgium. Between 1905 and 1906, he studied in Université de Liège, Belgium. Between 1906 and 1910, he went to France and studied the science of law in Université

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[Figure: Feng Cheng Jun’s, *‘Xiyu Diming’* (Place names of the Western Regions)]

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de Paris. In 1910, he obtained the Bachelor Degree in Law and then started his research works in Collège de France. After the outbreak of the Revolution of 1911, he returned to China and successively served as Hubei Governor’s Secretary, First Secretary of the House of Representatives, Secretary of the Education Ministry and head of the third division of the Special Education Department. In 1920s, he successively served as a professor of the History Department of Peking University, professor of the History Department of Beijing Normal University, and also engaged in translating European works on Orientalism. He stopped working after he had a stroke in 1929 and committed himself to translation till he died of illness in Peiping (present-day Beijing) on February 4, 1946.

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His translation works include *Chinese Travelers* (by Chavannes, 1926), *Les seize Arhat’s protecteurs de la loi* (by Sylvain Lévi, 1930), *Buddhist Studies* (by Jean Przyluski, 1930), *Le catalogue geographique des yaksa dans la Mahamayuri* (by Sylvain Lévi, 1931), *Investigations on two sea routes starting from Cochin and Canton* (by Paul Pelliot, 1933) and *Asvaghosa, le Sutralamkara et ses sources* (by Sylvain Lévi, 1934). On top of that, he also compiled and published *Collected Translations of Textual Researches on the History and Geography of Western Regions and South China Sea*, ninth volumes, many of which were translated and introduced from European works, mainly the research results of France in Orientalism. His monograph *China Nanyang Traffic History* (1937) gives a detailed account of the historical interaction process between China and countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty. He also compiled *Place Names of the Western Regions* (1930.3+) and *Collection of Papers on the Historical Geography of the Western Regions* (1931). His studies were not limited to chronological historical data in Chinese. He integrated the experiences of the academic community of the west and adopted information source like Buddhist documents, which have laid a foundation for studying Chinese and foreign traffic history and broadened the vision of studies.

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(*Zhang Minyu*)

Taixu

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Taixu (January 8, 1890 - March 17, 1947) was a Chinese Buddhist monk and philosopher. He was named Gan Sen as an infant and commonly named Lv Peilin. He was born in Haining, Zhejiang Province, and his family origin was Chongde (present-day Tongxiang), Zhejiang Province.

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In May 1904, Taixu was tonsured and he became a monk of Xiaojiuhua Temple in Pingwang, Wujiang City. He was given the religious name ‘Wei Xin’ and Master Zang Nian gave him the Chinese style name ‘Taixu’. He was initiated into monkhood with Master Zang Nian in Ningbo Tiantong Temple in December 1904, during which he showed his extraordinary memory by remembering all kinds of vinaya fluently within a short time. In 1907, he went to Xifang Temple in Cixi City to read Tripitaka and was inspired somewhat after reading the Mahaprajna Paramita Sutra. He went to Nanjing in 1909 and studied in the Jetavana, founded by Yang Renshan Lay Buddhist. In 1911, he went to Guangzhou to promote Buddhist doctrines and was elected to be the Abbot of Baiyun Mountain Shuangxi Temple. In 1912, Tai Xu together with Yang Renshan Lay Buddhist founded the Association for the Advancement of Buddhism that was later integrated with the General Buddhist Association of China headed by Ji Chan. He was chosen to be the Chief Editor of The Buddhist Monthly, and he put forward the Buddhist Revolution with the slogan of "Doctrine Revolution, System Revolution, Property Revolution" that was opposed by ‘the conservatives’. In 1914, he went to Xiling Zen Temple on Mount Putuo, Zhejiang Province for practising in a closed room of meditation. In 1917, he walked out of the room and went to Taiwan and Japan for giving lectures and researching on local Buddhism. In 1980, he returned to China and founded the Jue Society together with Chen Yuanbai and Zhang Taiyan et al. Jue Society Series, later named Sound of the Tides, was published and never suspended in 30 years. In 1922, he founded Wuchang Buddhist Institute. In 1924, he made preparations for the establishment of the World Buddhist Federation and appointed himself as the President. In 1925, he led a Buddhist delegation to attend the East Asian Buddhist Conference held in Tokyo, Japan and studied Japanese Buddhism once again. In February 1927, he founded the Buddha Dharma Sangha Garden - Jue Yuan and became the abbot of Nanputuo Temple, and the concurrent President of Minnan Buddhist College. In 1928, he founded the Chinese Buddhist Association. In the same year, he went abroad for researches and gave lectures on Buddhism respectively in Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States of America. He also prepared to set up the World Buddhist Center as suggested by French scholars. In 1931, he went to Sichuan and established the Han-Tibetan Buddhist Teaching College in Xuyun Temple, Beian, Chongqing City for the communication of Han and Tibetan cultures and harmonising national sentiments. He was also involved in initiating the establishment of Sino-Indian Cultural Society in Nanjing in May 1935. In 1939, he organised a Chinese Buddhist visiting mission, and they set out from Yunnan to Myanmar, Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), India, Thailand and the South Sea Islands. In 1945, he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Buddhist Organization Committee of China. On New Year’s Day of 1946, he was awarded with the Religious Leader Victory Order. On March 17, 1947, he died in Yufo Temple, Shanghai.

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Taixu

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He made great contributions to patriotic apologetics, and spared no effort to cultivate Buddhist talents and consolidate the Buddhist system. The Buddhist education schools founded

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Complete works of the Master Taixu

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by him include Wuchang Buddhist Institute, Minnan Buddhist College, World Buddhist Center, Chongqing Han-Tibetan Buddhist Teaching College, Xi’an Pali Tripitika Institute and Beijing Buddhist Research Institute. He also founded a number of Buddhist journals, including the monthly magazine - Sound of the Tides and Awakening the Multitude Weekly News. His works include The Reorganization of the Sangha System (1929), Interpretation of New Monks, New Cittamatra, Fa Xiang Wei Shi Xue and True Reality Theory (1940).

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In 1940, he arrived in Calcutta, India and was welcomed by Maha Bodhi Society and the Visva-Bharati University. During his visit, he met Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru and Tan Yunshan, etc. He also visited Buddha-gaya, Varanasi, among other Buddhist holy lands. He used to send Fa Hang to Ceylon and India to spread Mahayana and study Pali and Sanskrit, as he sought further cultural cooperation between India and China. In order to establish life Buddhism and spur the universalisation of Buddhism, he also dispatched monk students to China’s Tibet, India, Ceylon and other places to study, and thus to engage in researches on Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan. He knew *Vinaya*, *Sutras* and *Abhidhamma Tripitaka*, religious doctrines and theories of different schools. He also delved into studies in ancient philosophers and even science and philosophy. His disciple, Yin Shun sorted out his works and compiled them into Complete Works of Master Tai Xu, that was published by Religious Culture Press. The book has altogether seven million words, and is divided into four parts and 20 sections, and 60 volumes.

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*(Zhang Ran)*

Huang Chanhua

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Huang Chanhua (1890-August 28, 1977) was a modern Chinese Buddhist scholar. His style name was Can Hua and his assumed name was Feng Xi. He was born in Shunde, Guangdong Province (now Foshan City, Guangdong Province).

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He studied in Japan in his early years. After returning to China, he studied Vijbana-vada under Chinese lay Buddhist Ouyang Jian (Jingwu). He also learned Tibetan language, Sanskrit and cursorily read Indian philosophy, Tibetan Buddhism and Western Philosophy. In 1926, he met Master Taixu and later followed the master and helped him establish Chinese Buddhist Association, and he served as the director. During the Anti-Japanese War, he taught at Fudan University and Xiamen University, engaged in Buddhist studies and created a large number of books of Buddhist theory. In 1961, he was appointed as a librarian of Zhejiang Research Institute of Culture and History, and took part in the compilation of *China Buddhist Encyclopedia* and part of *Ocean of Words* related to Buddhism.

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His major works include *History of Western Philosophy* (1923), *General Outline of Buddhist Schools* (1934), *Introduction to Buddhism* (1935), *Outline of the History of Indian Philosophy* (1936), *History of Chinese Buddhism* (1940) and *An Outline of Consciousness-only*. *History of Chinese Buddhism* is the first book about the general history of Buddhism in China (Han) written by the Chinese. It includes the introduction of Chinese Buddhist thoughts at different stages and has been selected by many Buddhist colleges as teaching material. The *Outline of the History of Indian Philosophy* mainly introduces the philosophy of ancient Brahman, philosophy of different schools and Buddhist philosophy. It has detailed and accurate information and rich contents.

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*(Li Baolong)*

Tao Xingzhi

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Tao Xingzhi (October 18, 1891 - July 25, 1946) was a Chinese educator. Originally, his name was Tao Wenrui and later he changed it as Tao Zhixing and eventually to Tao Xingzhi. He was a native of Shexian, Anhui. He visited India during the Anti-Japanese War and there he met Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi.

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Lifetime Tao Xingzhi was a descendant of Tao Yuanming, the great poet of the Jin Dynasty. His father was a Christian, and his mother once was a maidservant at Chongyi School under the church. So, poor as his family was that he could study at this church school free of charge. During this time, he cultivated a spirit of sacrifice and service as advocated by Christianity and an aspiration to liberty, equality and fraternity and also acquired a solid knowledge of English. He became a Christian in 1913, and graduated from University of Nanking in 1914, with a proficiency in English. Since University of Nanking was the only ‘Class A’ university founded in China by American Christian Church, its graduates were entitled to direct admission into a graduate school in the United States of America. So, Tao Xingzhi went to the United States to study municipal administration. In 1915, he received a Master’s degree in Politics from University of Illinois, and in the autumn of the same year, he went to University of Columbia to study educational administration, and obtained a certificate of Urban Education Director from Normal School in 1917. He returned to China in August 1917, and served as an Education Professor at Nanking Teachers’ College and the Dean of Department of Education of Southeast University. In 1922, he worked with Huang Yanpei and others to establish China Mass Education Promotion Society. In 1927, he founded Xiaozhuang Normal College in Nanjing, which was opened to the public. He followed and developed ideas of the American educator John Dewey and proposed life education theory such as ‘life is education’, ‘society is a school’, and ‘teach, learn and act unite’ and explored new alternatives for Chinese education in that time. From 1931, he turned to mass education movements. From 1936 to 1938, he visited 28 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa to investigate their education and culture, to publicise Anti-Japanese efforts and to call for the overseas Chinese and students to support Anti-Japanese War. He dedicated his life to the people and mass education. He died of cerebral hemorrhage in Shanghai at the age of 56. The 10-volume *Complete Works of Tao Xingzhi* was published in 1992.

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Huang Chanhua's, 'Fojiao mingzong dayi'

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Tao Xingzhi

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Acquaintance with Indian Friends and Gandhi

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His contact with India began in Europe. In July 1936, Tao Xingzhi arrived in Britain by sea to attend the 7th assembly of the World New Education Federation, and delivered a report on *National Salvation Movement, Little Teacher Model and Mass Education Movement in China*. Mohan Lari, a representative from India, was interested in the Little Teacher Model as a solution of the shortfall of teaching staff and invited Tao Xingzhi to visit India and offer guidance to the mass education work. Tao Xingzhi agreed and fulfilled his promise two years later.

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While in the United States of America, Tao Xingzhi paid several visits to his mentor Dewey in early December of 1937. He requested him to contact and persuade some of the world’s leading figures, such as Romain Rolland, Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell, to co-sign a declaration to denounce Japan, and call people across the world to boycott Japanese goods and impose an embargo upon Japan and to stop all cooperation with the nation so as to provide an utmost support to China. On December 6, he drafted and sent a telegraph and a declaration to Wardha in Central Province of India (roughly equivalent to present Madhya Pradesh), requesting Gandhi to give a reply within five days. Anxious though, Tao Xingzhi knew that this request was a bit too far. Gandhi was busy and unsettled, and this telegraph might not have been timely delivered. Naturally, Gandhi gave his passionate support to Chinese, and wired back his consent on December 22. But, the declaration, titled ‘Our Attitude toward Japan’s Invasion of China’ was published on December 13, just signed by Dewey, Rolland, Einstein and Russell. The day before, the Japanese army seized Nanjing and started a massacre. The meaning of this declaration is self-evident.

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His efforts to obtain the support of Gandhi indicates that he then was fully aware of Gandhi’s fame and influence in the world, and he was good at diplomacy and organisation. A man ignorant of English could not do this. This declaration alone is a great credit to the Anti-Japanese War.

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Visit to Tagore and Gandhi

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Tao Xingzhi returned to China after staying in Europe and the United States for more than two years. He arrived in Cairo in late July of 1938 and visited Egyptian Museum of Ancient History and Pyramids. He arrived in Colombo, stayed at Victoria Hotel and travelled to India the next day. On the third morning, he came to Madras (present-day Chennai) and stayed at Clarence Hotel, with a spacious room and full board at Rupees 5 per day. He reached Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) two days later and planned to visit Tagore the following day. Mohan Lari had arranged everything for him. On July 27, while he was still in Egypt, as suggested by Mohan Lari, he separately wrote to Gandhi, Tagore and Bose to inform them of his schedule and added that with Gandhi’s ‘guidance and self-sacrifice always encourage Chinese’, Tagore’s ‘glorious speeches in China are lasting treasure and memory for Chinese people’, and he felt excited about the upcoming visit to India and meeting these two great men.

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On August 11, 1938, Tao Xingzhi arrived at Bolpur by train and instantly went to Visva-Bharati University to pay a visit to Tagore. He had earlier met Tagore once when the poet was in Beijing in 1924. Over a cup of tea, they listened to Bengali music and talked for an hour. Though his ideas about education differed much from those of Tagore, they still had many common points. Both wanted to rejuvenate the nation through education, establish an unconventional school, put forth their own ideas about education, carry out educational experiments, deign to raise education funds, devote their life to the cause of education and education was their life. But for Tagore’s old age and poor health, they should have had much more to talk about. Besides, Tao Xingzhi had a tight schedule. Tagore had a high opinion of Tao Xingzhi, saying that he was not only a creative educator, but was also a brave and excellent anti-fascism fighter.

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The next day, Tao Xingzhi travelled by train for a distance of 700 km to Wardha in Central Province of India, and from there went to Shegaon to visit Gandhi. In the afternoon of August 14, Gandhi received him in his three-room cottage. At that time, India was the third largest importer of Japanese products, and Tao Xingzhi put great hope on its resistance of Japanese goods. He believed, “If India can act like the United States, Japan will be hard to sustain its economy.” During the meet, he asked Gandhi to organise a special committee to lead the boycott. Days ago, he had made the same request to Tagore. Gandhi asked about education in China, Tao Xingzhi thus talked about the mass education movement in China, and Gandhi was attracted, and asked Tao Xingzhi to write an article in English to introduce this movement. Tao Xingzhi agreed, and he also inquired about education in India. Gandhi impressed him deeply as thin, somber, dignified and frugal.

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On August 15, Tao Xingzhi returned to Madras and visited Madras Museum the following day. He was back in Colombo on August 18. He boarded a French cruise on August 20 and wrote *An Outline of Overseas Journeys*. He arrived in Saigon on August 27. On September 26, he mailed ‘The People’s Education Movement’ to Gandhi, which was divided into three parts and was successively published on October 29, November 5 and November 19 in *Harijan*, an influential English magazine, which played an important role in India’s struggle for independence and enhancement of pariahs’ position. Gandhi was the chief editor.

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In his commentary, Gandhi said, “This pamphlet is very useful for us.” This article, about 12,000 Chinese characters, systematically introduces the author’s ideas about education, and is a valuable historical document witnessing India-China exchange on education thoughts. Gandhi is a great writer in English, and his publishing this article at least indicates that he appreciated Tao’s ideas about mass education and approved of his writing in English. Nearly 37 years after the death of Tao Xingzhi and nearly half a century after its publication in India, this English article was recovered and translated into Chinese. Its Chinese translation was published in Beijing in *Education Study* (Issue 4, 1983).

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(Liu Jian)

Hu Shi

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Popularly known as the Father of Chinese Literary Revolution, Hu Shi was a leading philosopher, writer, educationist, and diplomat of modern China. He was a key leader of the New Culture Movement (1916-1919) contributing to the establishment of vernacular Chinese (*Baihua*) as an accepted writing style, and to the beginning of an impassioned intellectual debate on modernity and liberalism.

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He was born on December 17, 1891 in Shanghai. His father was a minor official of the Qing dynasty who died when he was only four years old. He was raised by his mother at his ancestral home in Jixi in Anhui province. A devout Buddhist, she exposed him to prevalent ideas of popular Buddhism as well as arranged for his formal training in Confucian Four Books and Five Classics to become a scholar-bureaucrat at the village school. At the age of 13, Hu Shi was sent to Shanghai to study in modern schools. After completing his high school, he could not study further due to financial constraints. He spent two years, from 1908 to 1910, working as Chinese and English tutor to support his family. In 1910, he successfully cleared the examination for the Boxer Indemnity Fund Scholarship to study in the USA. Starting his undergraduate studies in agriculture at Cornell University in 1910, he later shifted to Columbia to pursue higher studies in

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Hu Shi

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literature and philosophy. He completed his PhD there under the supervision of Professor John Dewey in 1917. His doctoral dissertation was on the topic - ‘The Development of the Logical Method in Ancient China’.

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Under the influence of pragmatism and Dewey’s ideas, Hu Shi had become a strong proponent of radical ideological change and modernity. He found traditional ways of thinking and the classical Chinese-based writing as strong impediments to China’s march towards modernisation. This brought him at the forefront of contemporary intellectual debates raging in probably the most influential journal of the time, *New Youth*, founded by another radical Chinese thinker, Chen Duxiu. His article ‘Tentative Proposals for the Improvement of Chinese Literature’, which was published in this journal in January 1917, became a rallying point for the New Culture Movement.

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Hu returned to China in 1917 and was appointed as professor at Peking University. Already famous for his radical views, he passionately pursued his modernist agenda and played a leadership role in the May Fourth Movement of 1919. For his promotion and establishment of vernacular Chinese as the written script, he was widely recognised as the Father of Literary Revolution. A liberal democrat, he emphasised on the reorganisation of Chinese society and polity on the twin plank of what he called - “Mr Science” and “Mr Democracy.” His strong faith in individualism in the form of freedom of will, and the regenerative spirit of Chinese culture on one hand and abhorrence for the abstract discussion of ‘isms’ on the other, separated him from the Communists. His critical article on ‘The Indianisation of Chinese culture’ was written in the same spirit and in the search of anti-modernist strains that inhibited modernisation of China.

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In 1938, after the outbreak of Sino-Japanese War, Hu Shi left Beijing to accept the position of Ambassador of China to the USA. Even after leaving this position in 1942, he remained in USA teaching and lecturing in various universities. In 1946, he returned to China as the Chancellor of Peking University, but left for USA again in 1948 due to outbreak of civil war in China. In 1957, the Guomindang Government in Taiwan invited him to Taipei to accept the position of Director of Academica Sinica. He died here on February 24, 1962. Initially criticised for his conservatism, his scholarship and contribution received due recognition in the People’s Republic of China after 1986. Internationally, he received more than 35 honorary degrees and awards from various universities and institutions, including one from Banaras Hindu University, India on recommendation of its philosopher Vice-Chancellor and later President of India, Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.

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(*Kamal Sheel*)

Tang Yongtong

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Tang Yongtong (August 2, 1893 - May 1, 1964) was a Chinese modern philosophical historian and Buddhist historian. His style name was Xi Yu. His family origin was Huang Mei, Hubei Province, and he was born in Weiyuan County, Gansu Province.

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Tang Yongtong was keenly interested in history since he was a child. He was admitted to Beijing Shuntian School before the Revolution of 1911 and moved on to Tsinghua University in 1912. In 1917, he graduated from the university and passed an entrance examination for being a state-financed student to study in the United States of America. But, he failed to go to because he fell ill and stayed at Tsinghua University to teach Chinese. At the same time, he also served as the Editor-in-Chief of Tsinghua Weekly. In 1918, he went to Hamline University for further studies. In 1920, he studied philosophy, Sanskrit and Pali at Harvard University. In 1922, he obtained the Masters of Philosophy Degree from Harvard University and returned to China. He successively worked as a Professor at the National Southeast University (Nanjing University today), Nankai University, Peking University and Southwest Associated University. The curriculums he taught include history of Chinese Buddhism, Wei Jin metaphysics, history of Indian philosophy and general philosophy. During his tenure as the President of the School of Literature, Peking University, he actively facilitated the establishment of the Department of Oriental Languages and Literature. In 1947, he went to the University of California to give lectures. After returning home, he was selected as Academician and Councilor of Academia Sinica and Concurrent Director of the former Institute of History and Language of Academia Sinica Peiping Office. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, he successively served as the Chairman of the School Administration Committee of Peking University and Vice Principle of the university. He also held a concurrent post of academic member for Historical Archaeology, committee member of the Philosophy and Sociology Division of Chinese Academy of Sciences and editorial board member of Philosophical Researches and A Study of History.

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He knew many foreign languages, including

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Tang Yongtong

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Sanskrit and Pali, and was familiar with Chinese philosophy, Indian philosophy and western philosophy. He mainly devoted himself to researches on history of Chinese Buddhism, Wei Jin metaphysics and ancient Indian philosophical history. His works include *Buddhism History in Ancient Chinese Dynasties of Han, Wei, Eastern and Western Jin, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties* (1938), *A Brief History of Indian Philosophy* (1945), *History Manuscript of Buddhism in Sui and Tang Dynasties* (1982) and *Collected Academic Papers of* Tang Yongtong (1983). A Brief History of Indian Philosophy draws the outline of Indian philosophy and introduces the development and theories of the schools of philosophy. Buddhism History in Ancient Chinese Dynasties of Han, Wei, Eastern and Western Jin, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties and History Manuscript of Buddhism in Sui and Tang Dynasties give a systematic elaboration of the historical developing process and characteristics of Buddhism from India to China of the Tang Dynasty, the mutual relations

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A Collection of Tang Yongtong's academic papers

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between Buddhist thought and Chinese traditional thought, and make a detailed observation of rising and falling process, and all the details of all schools and sects of Chinese Buddhism. They also have verifications and explanations of the time Buddhism from India was introduced to the regions inhabited by Han nationality, major Buddhism historical events, interpretation of sutras, important works, lifetime of famous monks, relations between sects and schools, relations between Buddhism and politics in historical records of Chinese Buddhism

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(Qiao Anquan)

Liang Shuming

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Often hailed as the ‘last Confucian’ among the early 20th century Chinese intellectuals or as the ‘Chinese Tagore’ in the compendium of contemporary Asian intellectuals, Liang Shuming was a philosopher, teacher, and political activist. He was committed to Confucianism and advocated native cultural-spiritual rejuvenation for modernity of Chinese society.

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Born on October 18, 1893, Liang Shuming was based in Beijing and belonged to the family of a Qing patriot and metropolitan scholar-official, Liang Ji. Unlike many of his illustrious contemporaries, he had his early education starting not with Confucian classics, but with children’s primer for world history and geography. Trained in Beijing’s newly emerging foreign style schools, he graduated from Xuntian Middle School in 1911, with a deeper involvement in underground political organisation like Tongmeng Hui (Revolutionary Alliance). Yet, several emotional breakdowns in 1912-13 paradoxically shifted him to the study of Yogacara Buddhism and spiritualism. His 1916 article in Eastern Miscellany (Dongfang Zazhi) on comparative studies of Buddhism with western philosophies of Henri Bergeson and Arthur Schopenhauer, greatly impressed Cai Yuanpei, the Chancellor of Peking University. He appointed him in 1917 as the first Professor of Buddhism/Indian philosophy without any consideration for his lack of formal university degree and education in philosophy. After his father Liang Ji’s suicide in despair over the cultural and political downfall of

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Liang Shuming

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China in 1918, Liang Shuming’s commitment to Confucian civilisational discourses on modernity strengthened.

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His most influential work, *The Cultures of East and West and their Philosophies* (*Dongxiwenhua ji qu zhexue*) was published in 1921. He divided the world into three distinguished sections - culture, Western, Chinese and Indian - with each section being governed by its separate philosophical roots and logic. The western culture characterised materialism that sought to conquer environment, nature and other people in order to fulfill material needs. The Chinese culture strove not to conquer, but to harmonise itself with the environment and nature to draw mental satisfaction. The Indian culture stressed that the tension between humans and their environment is ultimately illusory and the road to human happiness lies in spiritual enlightenment, through which this tension is overcome by being completely ignorant. In so far, as each of these three cultures directed itself to satisfy human needs, they served legitimate purpose in different epochs. In the May Fourth era of iconoclasm and the intense debate over nationalism and modernity, Liang Shuming thus sought to establish relevance of the Chinese Confucian culture.

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Convinced that the epoch of western materialism is over, Liang Shuming between 1931 and 1937 actively strove to revive the Confucian culture through the reconstruction of the Chinese countryside – the repository of Confucian values. His Rural Reconstruction Research Institute in Zouping County of Shandong province functioned well and proved to be a role model for the Guomindang Government until the outbreak of Sino Japanese War in 1937. During this period, he devoted his energy to make the Communists and Nationalists forge an alliance for a common cause. He also united small liberal parties to form the Democratic League as the third political force in China. The failure to bring about unity or alliance between the Communists and Nationalists however dejected him to abandon politics in 1946. After the Communist’s victory in 1949, he remained in China. Both a friend and critique of Mao Zedong, he was persecuted for his political views by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. In 1979, he was restored to the mainstream by Deng Xiaoping. In 1980, he was appointed to the national committees for revision of the Chinese Constitution as well to Presidium of the Chinese’s Political Consultative Conference. He however, devoted most of his time in writing and published two books before his death in 1993 at the age of 96. The essence of his ideology, as captured by Guy Alitto, remained till last ‘an eclectic blend of Neo-Confucian idealism and Yogacara Buddhism with elements of European vitalism’.

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(*Kamal Sheel*)

Lü Cheng

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Lü Cheng (February 22, 1896 - July 8, 1989) was a Chinese Buddhist scholar and Lay Buddhist. His former name was Lv Wei, and his style name was Qiu Yi (fourth tone) and Qiu Yi (first tone). He was born in Danyang County, Jiangsu Province. He was one of the founders of the Chinese Inner Studies Institute (later called China Inner Studies Institute).

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He was educated in a family school since childhood and became interested in Buddhism and theory of fine arts under the influence of his eldest brother Lv Fengzi. In 1909, he studied in Zhenjiang County Middle School and was admitted to Changzhou Higher Industrial School to study agricultural science after graduation. Later, he was admitted to the Department of Economy of Nanjing University, the Republic of China but dropped out in 1913 when the university closed. In 1914, he joined the research division of Jinling Scriptural Press. In 1915, he studied aesthetics abroad in Japan, but returned to China because of his fight against Japanese invasion into

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*Lü Cheng*

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China. He was invited to serve as the academic dean of Shanghai Fine Arts School in 1916 after he came back to China. In 1918, he went to Nanjing Jinling Scriptural Press to assist the establishment of Chinese Inner Studies Institute at the invitation of Ouyang Jingwu. In 1922, the Chinese Inner Studies Institute was founded, and Lü Cheng took the post of Academic Director. In 1925, he assisted Ouyang Jingwu to establish the ‘Faxiang undergraduate programme’ in the institute and taught courses including history of Indian Buddhism. In 1937, due to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, he escorted mass data to Sichuan and established the Chinese Inner Studies Institute Sichuan Branch in Jiangjin (under the jurisdiction of Chongqing today). He took the post of President after Ouyang Jingwu died in 1943 till the institute closed in 1952. According to Ouyang Jingwu’s Institute Annotation•Buddhism, the programmes of the institute were composed of five subjects namely Abhidharma, Prajna, Yoga, Nirvana and commandments that are known as ‘the five Buddhist subjects’. As such, the programmes established by the institute had included all contents of Indian Buddhism which represents an innovation in the teaching history of Chinese modern Buddhism. In 1953, the Buddhist Association of China was founded in Beijing and he was elected as an executive member. In 1956, he became a member of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences and also a concurrent researcher of the Institute of Philosophy Studies. In 1961, he opened a 5-year Buddhist class in Nanjing as entrusted by the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences to teach Chinese Buddhism and Indian Buddhism courses there.

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Lü Cheng left numerous works. Apart from aesthetic monographs like *History of Western Fine Arts* (1922), *Introduction to Aesthetics* (1923), *Ideological Trend of Modern Aesthetics* (1931) and *Chromatology Outline* (1933), he also had many writings on Buddhism, including *Summary of Declaration* (1923), *Outline of Hetuvidya* (1926), *Original Theory of Tibetan Buddhism* (1933), *Summary of the Origin and Development of Chinese Buddhism* (1979), *Summary of the Origin and Development of Indian Buddhism* (1979) and *Explanation of Nyayapravewa* (1983). He also took part in revising *A New Catalogue of the Chinese Language Tripitaka* and the revised edition was published in 1980. In 1991, Qi Lu Press published the *Selected Works on Buddhism by Lü Cheng* (five volumes altogether). These works have introduced and discussed Indian Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism and the exchanges and relations between the two. Taking *Summary of the Origin and Development of Indian Buddhism* as an example, it only has more than 200 pages, but it draws the outline of the emergence, development and fall of Indian Buddhism.

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He knew many languages including English, Japanese, Sanskrit, Pali and Tibetan. He pursued his studies in Indian Buddhism, Southern Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism, and also in the collation of Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhist *sutras* and the philology-like edition and catalogue. In terms of the argumentation of Buddhism, one of his greatest findings was that he fully demonstrated the fundamental differences between Indian Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism from the perspective of nature of mind, the core issue of Buddhism. He believed that the former stands for the quiet nature of mind that is the inner nirvana of our self nature, while the latter stands for awareness of nature of mind that is Buddhi of self nature. He argued that by only using ‘quiet nature’ to explain the quiet nature of mind is Indian Buddhism. This finding has provided a basis for determining the authenticity of some sutras. On the basis of textual research, he created the ‘criticism method based on evidences’ for studying Buddhist thoughts and authenticity and applied it to studying the origin of The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana Doctrine, which achieved important results. In terms of the collation of Buddhism sutras, he devoted himself to the edition of Zang Yao between 1928 and 1937, and the book includes over 400 volumes. During his editing, he found that the 85-98 volumes of *Yogacara-Bhumi Sastra* was the order of arrangement and interpretation of *Samyuktagama Sutra* and so he wrote *Modification for Samyuktagama Sutra* that provided a strong evidence for studying the origin of Yogacara and the relations of the three vehicles of Buddhism, namely Sravakayana, Prateka-Buddhayana and Bodhisattvayana.

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(Zhang Ran)

Chen Hansheng

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Chen Hansheng (February 5, 1897 - March 13, 2004) was a Chinese economist, historian, socialist and social activist. His old name was Chen Shu, and he was from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.

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He studied in the United States of America in 1915 and obtained a Masters Degree from University of Chicago in 1922. He began his studies in Harvard University in 1922, and then he went to Germany and studied in the Institute for Historical and Geographical Research on East Europe, University of Berlin and obtained his Doctoral Degree in 1924. In the same year, he returned to China to teach in Peking University and became the youngest professor there. In 1929, he took up the post of Deputy Director of the Institute of Social Science Research of the Central Research Academy at the invitation of Cai Yuanpei, and established the Rural Economic Survey Group in spring of the same year. He initiated the establishment of ‘Chinese Rural Economy Research Association’ in 1933. In 1936, he went to New York via Europe to serve as an editor of the quarterly magazine, Pacific Affairs at the invitation of Owen Lattimore. In 1939, he went back to Hong Kong and assisted Soong Ching-ling to launch the industrial cooperation movement. In February 1942 after Hong Kong was occupied, he fled in disguise to Guilin, province and took the post of Director of the Western Language Department of Guangxi Guilin Normal College. In 1944, he managed to avoid getting arrest by Chongqing National Government and fled to India via Kunming with the help of his British friend. He then became a senior Reader of Delhi University and held a concurrent post of translator of the Far Eastern Liaison Office of Britain. After the Second World War in 1945, he left the Far Eastern Liaison Office and started to work in Indian History Congress during which he went to different areas of India for investigation and data collection. In April 1946, Chen Hansheng went to the United States of America and became a specially-appointed Professor of Washington State University and taught Indian history. Later, he was invited to teach and carry out researches by Johns Hopkins University and University of Pennsylvania. He returned to China at the invitation of Zhou Enlai in 1950 and to Beijing in January 1951, and was appointed as a consultant of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vice President of Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs. Between September and December 1951, he along with the Chinese cultural delegation visited India and Myanmar. In 1953, he was elected as a member of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and also served as the Deputy Director of China-India Friendship Association. He attended the meeting of Asian countries in India in April 1955, and was elected as a member of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences in June. He accompanied Soong Ching-ling to visit India, Pakistan and Myanmar from December 1955 to February 1956. In 1958, he took the post of Deputy Director of the Institute for International Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and founded the Institute of World History Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and became the Director of the institute. Started from 1973, he served as a consultant of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute for International Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1978, he was appointed as a part-time Professor of the Department of International Politics of Peking University and also served at the same time as an academic committee member of four research institutes of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, namely the Institute of Rural Economy Studies, Institute of Social Science Information Studies, Institute of South Asian Studies and Institute of World History Studies. In 1979, he became the first Honorary Chairman of Chinese Association for South Asia Studies. He passed away in Beijing on March 13, 2004.

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Lü Cheng’s, *‘Zhong guo foxue yuanliu lüe jiang’*

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Chen Hansheng

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Chen Hansheng focussed on South Asia research work in colleges and universities and research institutes in China, India and the United States of America. He published his *Development of China-India Friendly Relations* (*World Affairs*, Edition 19, 1952), *Indian National Economic Development Plan* (*World Affairs*, Edition 5, 1956), *Discovery of India of Nehru* (*Readers’ Monthly*, Edition 9, 1956), *Land Policy of Indian National Congress* (*Journal of International Studies*, Edition S2, 1959), *Indian Rural Class* (*Economic Studies*, Edition 11, 1961), *Development Process and Prospect of Indian Consortiums* (written in collaboration with Sun Peijun, South Asian Studies, Edition 04, 1983), among other articles. He also wrote the book *Indian Mogul Empire* (1964). Between 1948 and 1950, he completed the English manuscript of *Ecological and Agrarian Regions of South Asia: Circa 1930* in the United States of America based on his field visits in India during his studies and works in Indian Historical Society in 1940s and the 14-volume *Evidences Taken by the Royal Commission on Agriculture in India* published in Britain between 1927 and 1928. The book divides South Asia region into 21 economic zones based on topography, water conservancy, cultivation practice, land system and local general economic development situation and has important academic value. Its Chinese version on Indian and Pakistan Economic Regions (translated by Huang Jifang, Cao Wanru) was published by the Commercial Press in 1959, and its English version was published by Oxford University Press, Karachi in 1996.

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(*Zhang Shujian*)

Su Xuelin

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Su Xuelin was a Chinese writer and scholar. She was originally known as Su Xiaomei, but in 1919 changed her name to Su Mei with a style name of Xuelin and became known with this name. Her ancestral home was in Taiping, Anhui (now Huangshan District, Huangshan City). She was born in Rui’an, Zhejiang and was known for her bold academic ideas, and believed that India-China communications began in the Warring States Period, and ‘*Chuci*’ and the ancient philosophers at that time were all under the influence of India.

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**Life** Su Xuelin was a descendent of Su Zhe, a renowned writer of the Northern Song Dynasty. When she was a little girl, she attended a private school and was never seen without a book in hand. In 1915, she went to Anqing to study at the Provincial Primary Normal School for Women. She was good at poetry and painting, and read all kinds of books, both ancient and modern, both Chinese and foreign. In 1919, she left Anqing for Beijing to study at Department of Chinese of the Beijing Advance Normal College for Women and under the supervision of great masters such as Hu Shi. Lu Yin, Feng Yuanjun and Shi Pingmei were her classmates. She published articles on ‘Xuedeng’ (a supplement of *Shishi Xinbao*), Xuehui (a supplement of *Guofeng Ribao*) and Fujuan (a supplement of *Chenbao*) which debated on social

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Chu Sao Xin Gu

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issues. She went to France in 1921 to study at Lyon Sino-French College, then at Lyon National Art College, and became a Catholic during her stay in France. She returned to China in 1925, taught Chinese literature at Soochow University, University of Shanghai and Wuhan University, as well as wrote books. She moved to Hong Kong in 1949 for work, and became a professor at National Taiwan Normal University in 1952, and a professor at National Cheng Kung University in 1957. Her more than a dozen writings can be divided into two groups, literary and academic. She was famous for the collection of essays *Green Skies* and the autobiographical novel *Thorny Heart*. *Kunala’s Eyes* is a three-act drama inspired by Indian stories. It was published on the monthly *Wenxue* (Issue 5, volume V) on November 1, 1935, and praised the great power of love by describing various conflicts between the young prince Kunala and his parents who are bound by traditions. Her *Wentan Huajiu* (1969) is a commentary on Chinese writers prior to and after the May Fourth Movement using wickedly sharp and obviously clear language. On the academic front she wrote *Literature during Liao, Jin and Yuan* (1933), *An Introduction of Tang Poetry* (1933), *A History of Chinese Literature* (1980), etc. From 1943 onwards, she whole heartedly turned to study Qu Yuan and from 1971 to 1980, successively published four treatises with a total of 1.6 million words, including *Qu Yuan and Nine Songs*, *Tianwen Zhengjian*, *Chusao Xingu* and *Qufu Luncong*. She was buried in Huangshan beside the tomb of her mother after passed away. In the past decade, she has become famous again in China. Anhui Literature and Arts Publishing House has published *Collected Works of Su Xuelin* (four volumes) in 1996, Wuhan University Press has published a number of her treatises, and the essay *Xishui* (*Stream Water*) was included into Chinese textbooks for middle school.

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**Main Opinions** In 1944, Su Xuelin published *Three Myths in Tian Wen* on the monthly *Shuowen*, suggesting that it contains stories of Samudra manthan. Of course, in her opinion, concepts, such as colossal turtle carrying a mountain, a viper devouring an elephant, and immortal herbs (called as Amrita in India and as Ganlu in China), were all derived from India. From myths in *Tian Wen* and gods in *Jiu Ge* (*Nine Songs*), she concluded that Qu Yuan’s works all had been under the influence of the culture in the Western Regions and so all appeared exotic. His works were grand, imaginative and with form and contents all different from those before and after him. So without foreign culture, there would be no such works. Why? She explained, Qu Yuan had gone to the kingdom of Qi on diplomatic mission a number of times, and had the chance to meet foreigners and got to know about foreign culture. He thus acquired a good knowledge of foreign astronomy, geography and mythology, and poetically incorporated many novelties from them into ‘*Tian Wen*’.

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Besides, Su Xuelin thought ‘*Liezi*’ was not an untrue book, and ideas in it had been influenced by India as well. The huge hawk mentioned in *Zhuang Zi* was derived from India’s *garuda* (Sanskrit), the redpoll in Buddhist *sutras*. In the Warring States, animal fables were very popular. Some animal tales in *Zhan Guo Ce* were adapted from Indian ones. She also suggested, though there are no records of India-China communications in the Warring States Period, this did not mean there was no such traffic, since Chinese historians seldom cared and wrote about civil activities, and merchants were afraid that the government might impose heavy taxes if their smuggling activities were exposed. Prior to Zhang Qian’s visit to the Western Regions, goods produced in Sichuan had been brought to Bactriane via India, but Chinese authorities knew nothing about these activities. This serves as a typical proof in this respect. She alleged, in the course of such traffic, merchants were also transmitted the culture between India and China. As a result, she assumed, in the Warring States, China already had cultural exchange with India and was under the influence of Indian literature.

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Through approaches of comparative mythology and literature, Su Xuelin conducted a macro and cross-cultural study, with a conclusion that connection existed between foreign culture (including Indian culture) and Chinese culture in the Warring states and that West-Asian culture was twice introduced into China prior to the Qin Dynasty. She was of the opinion that, cultural prosperity in the Warring States Period was mainly due to the fact that foreign scholars, in order to stay away from wars and conflicts, came to China and brought with them different ideas. After been stimulated, China thus had the most vigorous, lively and unprecedented golden era for culture. She thought, ancient Chinese civilisation was connected to that of the Western Regions, and agreed that the world’s culture had the same origin.

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