Haishi on March 9, 2022
Taizhou Eminent Monk
President of Taiwan World Buddhist Sangha Association
Honorary Chairman of Taiwan Chinese Buddhist Association
Senior Elder
passed away peacefully at Shandao Temple in Taipei.
After learning the news of the death of the Central Elder, Vice President of the Jiangsu Buddhist Association and Abbott of Nanshan Temple, Monk Da Chu wrote an elegiac couplet:
I was free in an instant. Bao Shan Dao Monastery's compassionate teachings have never forgotten his hometown. Zhong Zhongzheng Bua has been in charge of the World Sangha Association for decades, cultivating talents and teachings.
He has been a friend of Zhongzun for more than 30 years, Director of the China Religious Society, and a scholar. Fan Guanlan wrote an elegy to mourn Zhongzun Master through the ages:
Chu Jinci For more than 30 years, Yan was deeply inspired by his teacher in Hongqiao, Shanghai, and his teachings appeared like a sea. Shandao, Taipei, suddenly lost his kindness. At the age of 9, he became a monk at Fahua Temple in Mazhuang (today's Fahua Temple in Taizhou) located in Xiahe, Beimen, Taizhou. He studied in Mazhuang until he was 11 years old. Later, he went to Jingyin Temple in Taizhou with his master Zuixin. At the age of 15, he studied at the Buddhist College of Guangxiao Temple in Taizhou until he graduated.
In 1947, he received full ordination at Gulin Temple in Nanjing and studied in Qixia Buddhist College in Nanjing and Jing'an Buddhist College in Shanghai. In 1949, he went to Taiwan and taught at Fazang Temple in Yangmingshan.
In the late 1940s, he traveled to Fuso and studied abroad for eight years at Rissho University in Tokyo, Japan, where he received a master's degree in literature and completed a doctoral program.
He has served as the academic director of Taixu Buddhist College in Taiwan, abbot of Huayan Lotus Society in Taipei, and in 1967 he was appointed as the president of Fazang Buddhist College. Since 1977, he has served as secretary of Taiwan Chinese Buddhist Association. In 1987, he was appointed as the abbot of Shandao Temple, the first temple in Taipei City; in 1988, he founded Xuanzang University, and served as its chairman; in 2000, at the seventh conference of the Buddhist Sangha Association held in Taipei, he was elected as the president in response to popular expectations, and was known as the "Honored Monk of the World."
