Hsing Yun - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Hsing Yun was born on the 22nd day of the seventh lunar month (August 30 in Western standards), 1927 in Jiangsu province in China under the name Li Guoshen (李國深). He was the third of four children, with an older brother, an older sister, and a younger brother. His father left home to do business and was never heard from again. When his mother, who was a faithful Buddhist herself, was desperately searching for her husband, he went to Nanjing. By chance, he came across a monk at Qixia Monastery. The host monastic asked young Li if he wanted to become a monastic, to which Li immediately answered "yes". At that time during Li's childhood, a civil war was ensuing and living conditions were harsh, which may have been a cursor for Li's tonsure at a young age. The host monastic requested that Li could be tonsured under Zhi Kai, the abbot of the monastery, therefore, Zhi Kai would be his master. At the age of twelve, young Li was tonsured. He was ordained under two dharma names, one to be used publicly and another for lineage purposes; Jinjue (今覺, to be enlightened today), and Wuche (悟徹, thorough realization of enlightenment).

In 1941, Jinjue was fully ordained and went on to formal monastic training at Qixia Vinaya School and transferred to Chiao-Shan Buddhist College in 1945. One day, when Jinjue was still a student at Jiao-Shan Buddhist College, he happened to stumble onto the word "Nebula" in the dictionary, read as Xīngyún in Chinese. Jinjue admired the infiniteness and boundlessness of these nebulas and wished that he could shed light on darkness and be as free and unbound as clouds and stars. Out of necessity and for safety issues, when Jinjue needed a new identification card after China's victory over Japan, he gave himself the dharma name of Hsing Yun (spelled in Wade Giles pinyin).

He left the college at the age of twenty to become a principal at an elementary school in Yixing, a small town not far from Nanjing, where he learned about administration and interpersonal coordination skills. As mainland China was enmeshed in civil war, he left his home in 1949 to head for Taiwan. He began to propagate Buddhism around the age of 31 to 40 at Ilan, thus beginning his writing and missionary career. In 1949, Hsing Yun wrote his first book, "Singing in Silence". In later years, he founded several Buddhist publications, was promoted as editor-in-chief for many Buddhist periodicals and newsletters for various temples, wrote articles for major Taiwanese newsletters, and composed scripts for radio broadcast stations. In 1955, he published one of the first hardback biographies of the Buddha.

Sometime later during the Cultural Revolution, his master Zhi Kai was killed and the monastery and college he attended was nearly destroyed by the Red Guards. After his success in founding Fo Guang Shan, Hsing Yun would return to the Mainland in the 1980s to help fund for the college and monastery.

When Hsing Yun was a writer for local Taiwanese newsletters, magazines, and radio stations, he chose the pseudonym of Mo Jia (摩迦), the Chinese name for Mahakasyapa, a senior disciple of the Buddha. He called himself this because he made a strenuous effort in promoting the Dharma and writing. Some time later, he called himself Jiao Fu (腳夫), meaning porter. He called himself this because he served people, carried loads and labored. Jiao Fu was also the pen name for a romantic novel Hsing Yun wrote called "National Master Yulin" (玉琳國師), which was later turned into a television soap opera, Continued Fate of Love.

In the 1950s, Hsing Yun taught numerous classes, built many schools for children, recorded the first Buddhist hymns, and was promoted as an executive in many Buddhist associations. In 1957, Hsing Yun established a Buddhist cultural center in which a variety of Buddhist books are published with training tools such as audio and visual aids. In 1959, Hsing Yun also supported the Tibetan movement against communist suppression, and organized the first float parade in celebration of the Buddha's birthday in Taiwan. Hsing Yun was instrumental in building the Buddha Memorial Center in Kaohsiung, housing a tooth relic of the Buddha that was presented to him by Kunga Dorje Rinpoche in 2001. The facilities were opened in 2011.

Hsing Yun was one of eight venerables who proposed the semiannual World Buddhist Forum in China in 2004, a suggestion that won support from Buddhist circles in countries like Japan and the Republic of Korea.