Ouyang Jian 歐陽漸

Ōuyáng Jiàn 歐陽漸 (1871-1943)

Courtesy names 字: Jìnghú 鏡湖; Jìngwú 竟無 (after 1910) Sometimes referred to as the Great Master of Yihuáng 宜黃大師 Born 1871 (Tóngzhì 同治 10) in Yíhuáng county 宜黃縣, Jiāngxī 江西 Died 1943 (Mínguó 民國 32)

Notable Associates: Guì Bóhuá 桂伯華 Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會 Tàixū 太虛

Article editor: Gregory Adam Scott

Ōuyáng Jiàn 歐陽漸 (1871-1943) was a lay Buddhist teacher and founder of the Chinese Inner Studies Institute 支那內學院.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Important Works 3 Notable Students 4 References

Biography

Ōuyáng was first convinced to study Buddhism by Guì Bóhuá 桂伯華, who was from the same area as Ōuyáng. Guì also introduced him to Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會. Ōuyáng studied under Yáng in Nánjīng 南京 at the end of the first decade of the 20th century, and after Yáng's death Ōuyáng continued his teacher's education efforts by founding the Chinese Inner Studies Institute 支那內學院 in 1922. In 1931 he founded the periodical Inner Studies Monthly 內學. He was a vocal advocate of Dharmalakṣaṇa and Consciousness-Only philosophy 法相唯識學.

In the 1920s, he and several of his students were involved in debates, primarily with Tàixū 太虛 and his students, over the authenticity of the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith (See 大乘起信論真偽辯). His side felt it was a Chinese apocryphal text.

In 1937 he fled Nánjīng because of the war and continued his publishing activities in Jiāngjīn 江津, Sìchuān 四川. He died of illness in 1943.

Ōuyáng had two sons, Ōuyáng Gé 歐陽格 (1895-1940) and Ōuyáng Zhāng 歐陽璋 (dates unknown). Gé was commander-in-chief of the Navy of the National Revolutionary Army.

Important Works

• 瑜伽師地論敘 (1917)
• "佛法非宗教非哲學而為今時所必需", speech delivered at 南京高師哲學研究會 in 1921
• 大乘密嚴經敘 (1936)

Notable Students

• Xióng Shílì 熊十力
• Lǚ Chéng 呂澂
• Wáng Ēnyáng 王恩洋
• Huáng Chànhuá 黃懺華
• Mǎnzhì 滿智 (also a student of Tàixū 太虛)
• Jǐng Chāngjí 景昌極

References

• Aviv, Eyal. "Differentiating the Pearl From the Fish Eye: Ouyang Jingwu (1871-1943) and the Revival of Scholastic Buddhism." Ph.D. Dissert. Harvard University, 2008.
• Shì Dōngchū 釋東初. Zhōngguó Fójiào jìndài shǐ 中國佛教近代史 (A History of Early Contemporary Chinese Buddhism), in Dōngchū lǎorén quánjí 東初老人全集 (Complete Collection of Old Man Dongchu), vols. 1-2. Taipei: Dongchu, 1974 Pp. 2.660-667.
• Yú Língbō 于凌波. Zhōngguó jìnxiàndài fójiào rénwù zhì 中國近現代佛教人物志. Běijīng 北京: Zōngjiào wénhuà chūbǎnshè 宗教文化出版社, 1995. Pp. 362-386.
• Yú Língbō 于凌波, ed. Xiàndài Fójiào rénwù cídiǎn 現代佛教人物辭典 (A Dictionary of Modern Buddhist Persons), 2 vols. Taipei: Foguang, 2004. Pp. 2.1560b-1563c.
• 程恭讓. "歐陽竟無先生的生平、事業及其佛教思想的特質"
• 鄒自振. "近現代唯識宗代表——歐陽竟無"