Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t9.4

v2.c15.s2.t9.4

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.