Master Tan-xu And His Thoughts Of Buddhism

Master Tan-xu (1875A.D.—1963A.D.) is one of Chinese modern eminent Buddhists and the forty-forth generation of Tiantai Sect of Buddhism. He is a famous practitioner, reformer, educator and an important person in the history of Chinese Tiantai Sect of Buddhism. He is organized and has a large stock of information and good oratorical skills. He teaches us by personal example as well as verbal instruction and lets us see a heaven to be free and gave us a way to get out of hell. Master Tan-xu has a legendary life. He peregrinated around the country, from the South to the North, from the East to the West. He preached for forty-three years and gave more than two hundred Buddhist speeches to people from different sectors of the society. This made great contributions to the spread of Buddhism and promoted the establishment of administrative system of monks and nuns, especially poured active and profound effects on the development of Tiantai Sect of Buddhism and other sects in North China. Master Tan-xu is not only a Buddhist but also a social activist who has social bear spirit and sense of responsibility. He promoted and innovated Buddhist thoughts and put them into practice. Therefore, Master Tan-xu is recognized as admirable monk at home and abroad, even as the "father of modern monk's education". This paper tries to analyze his Buddhist thoughts, educational philosophy, medical thoughts, inheritance system and so on, to understand how did he cultivate himself and others for connotation of his humanistic thoughts. The paper includes following four parts:In the first part, the paper introduces the origin of Master Tan-xu's thoughts. Master Tan-xu believes in cultivating himself and others. He tends to seeing through, laying burdens down, feeling free, preaching, building temples and educating monks. This is the main content and characteristic of his preaching, which is inseparable with three stories about his unusual experiences.In the second part, the paper analyzes and evaluates Master Tan-xu's thoughts. Firstly, the paper introduces Master Tan-xu's Buddhist thoughts, educational philosophy, medical thoughts and inheritance system. Secondly, it analyzes and evaluates Master Tan-xu's thoughts with Buddhist theory of Tiantai Sect.In the third part, the paper analyzes Master Tan-xu's supramundane thoughts and his achievement with the example of Zhanshan Monastery and its institute of Buddhist studies.In the fourth part, the paper concludes Master Tan-xu's practice and his thinking, analyzes his contribution and points out the revelation and reference value he left us.