A Brief Introduction to Master Mingzhe

Elder Mingzhe, courtesy name Rijing, secular name Zhang Yuxiang, monastic name Yunxiang, was born in March 1925 in Jining, Shandong Province. He began studying at a private school at the age of seven, practicing vegetarianism and learning the Dharma alongside his mother, and became thoroughly versed in the Four Books and Five Classics. Because the family was poor, he left school at fifteen. Wanting to become a monk but unable to at the time, he went to apprentice at the Wanshengxiang Glass Shop. Master Mingzhe has served as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, standing council member of the Buddhist Association of China, honorary president of the Shandong Buddhist Association, president of Shandong Zhanshan Buddhist Academy, president of the Qingdao Buddhist Association, and abbot of Qingdao Zhanshan Temple. In recent years, under Abbot Mingzhe's leadership, Zhanshan Temple has steadily expanded its building and greening projects. The Dharma Hall, Scripture Library, and the walls, archways, and gates of the Medicine Master Garden have all been renovated and enlarged, earning the temple considerable renown in the region. Abbot Mingzhe has devoted his entire life's energy to the Buddhist cause in China, and has made tremendous contributions to the development of Zhanshan Temple.

The Life of Master Mingzhe

Childhood

In March 1925, Master Mingzhe was born into a farming-scholar household in Baliying, Jining, Shandong Province. His maternal grandmother and parents were devout Buddhists. His father was a sincere, good-hearted man who spent his life tilling the soil, growing vegetables and melons, and building houses, and was held in deep respect by his neighbors. At the age of forty, he was overjoyed to have a son. He gave the child the school name Zhang Yuxiang (Master Mingzhe's secular name) and the style name Yunhao. To ensure the boy's lifelong health and safety, his grandmother and mother took him to a temple and asked the old abbot to give him a milk name. The abbot, patting his head, said: "This child has a karmic bond with Buddhism. Let him be called 'Great Monk.'"

When he was two, Yuxiang would wail whenever he was dressed in close-fitting clothes. When his grandmother and mother asked what he wished to wear, he gestured with his little hands that he wanted loose, flowing robes. His mother made him a small monk's robe, and Yuxiang put it on with such delight that he refused to take it off. His mother could not help remarking: "Could it be that this child will grow up to become a monk?" As parents who had a son late in life, they doted on Yuxiang without spoiling him. His mother in particular was strict with his upbringing, often telling him stories of "Kong Rong yielding the pear at four" and "Yue Fei's unwavering loyalty to the nation," instilling in his young heart the ideals of filial piety, love of country, and devotion to serving the nation.

Yuxiang was clever from an early age, with a remarkable memory. By four or five he could recite the Three Character Classic, the Hundred Surnames, and the Thousand Character Classic with fluid ease. At seven he entered the village private school, where his quickness and intelligence made him a particular favorite of the teacher, who assigned him work that was longer and harder than the other students'. Yuxiang always finished first and best. Known as the "eight-year-old prodigy," Zhang Yuxiang became famous throughout the Baliying area.

At nine, his mother fell gravely ill and was confined to bed. His father's savings from farming were nearly all spent on her treatment, yet her condition showed no sign of improvement. Meanwhile, the school required one dou of wheat and one dou of sorghum as tuition. His mother, a woman of learning and refinement, would rather go hungry and forgo treatment herself than let her son stop studying. So she dragged her frail body to her natal home and borrowed one dou of wheat to pay his fees. To this day, when Master Mingzhe speaks of this, he still expresses boundless reverence and gratitude for his mother. The family's tight finances and the difficulty of schooling only made Yuxiang study harder. Each day before dawn he would rise and walk two li to school, and his grades remained at the very top, making him the pride of his parents and relatives.

When he was ten, Yuxiang went to a temple to seek medicine for his gravely ill mother. To his surprise, the abbot handed him a bamboo tube of divination sticks and asked him to draw one in all sincerity. The stick read: "No medicine can cure." Puzzled, Yuxiang turned the stick over and found this explanation on the back: "The son is a Great Monk; untreated, she will heal on her own." More confused than ever, he accepted the words. From then on, his mother stopped taking medicine, and mother and son together recited the Great Compassion Mantra and drank consecrated water. Three months later, after two years bedridden, his mother recovered without a single remedy and was able to return to work in the fields. Yuxiang's faith in the Buddha only deepened. In gratitude for this grace, he made a vow before the Buddha that he would "eat only vegetarian food for the rest of his life and never touch meat."

When he was thirteen, he went with his clansman Grandpa Zhang Baochang, a devout Buddhist lay practitioner, and Zhang Yuzhen (Baochang's grandson and Yuxiang's schoolmate) to Puji Temple to attend a Dharma assembly. They were warmly received by Abbot Yingu, who took out a copy of Encouragement to the Practice of the Pure Land Dharma Door and showed it to Yuxiang. When he opened the first page, a serene and kindly Dharma portrait of a master met his eyes. He immediately felt a deep kinship with the figure, filled with reverence and admiration, and firmly fixed the name in his memory: Master Yuanying, then the most erudite and revered Buddhist master in China. Some forty minutes later, Yuxiang returned the book to the abbot and said he could recite it in its entirety. When Abbot Yingu tested him, not a single word was out of place. Greatly astonished, the abbot declared that if Yuxiang entered the Buddhist gate he would surely become a great vessel, a rare talent of the Sangha. Yuxiang then confided to Abbot Yingu the wish he had carried in his heart for so long: to leave home and take Master Yuanying as his teacher. The abbot gladly agreed to record the names of Yuxiang and Yuzhen and send them to Master Yuanying for collective refuge-taking.

On the way home, Yuxiang and Zhang Yuzhen made plans to go together and seek ordination under Master Yuanying. They agreed to set out at dawn the next morning and tell no one. That night, however, Yuzhen's family discovered the plan and beat him so badly he could not walk. They sent his sister to tell Yuxiang that Yuzhen could not go and urged him not to go either. Headstrong by nature, Yuxiang paid no heed. Early the next morning, he took some dry rations and the small savings he had set aside and set out. He went to the local monastery, Yulu Temple, and asked Master Zhengxian where Master Yuanying could be found. The master said he was in Beijing giving a Dharma talk. Yuxiang asked how to get to Beijing. "Just keep heading north," the master replied. In the course of their conversation, Master Zhengxian learned that Yuxiang had slipped away secretly, so he kept him for the night while sending word to his family. The next morning his father arrived in time, slapped him twice in his anxiety, and took him home. Yuxiang was sullen for a while, but did not give up the thought of leaving home. Seeing her son's state, his mother counseled him: "First study hard and get an education. Without learning, Master Yuanying won't accept you as a disciple." Yuxiang took the words to heart and returned to his studies for the time being. Not long after, Master Yuanying wrote and bestowed on Yuxiang the Dharma name Huìrán, and on Zhang Yuzhen the name Huìhǎi.

Youth

At fourteen, his family could no longer afford the four dou of wheat and two dou of sorghum required for his school fees. Yuxiang went to work at his uncle's general store in the city, helping with deliveries while continuing to study on his own. He toiled long hours each day, carrying goods and crates for customers. In the bitter cold of winter he wore only a single thin winter garment, often went hungry, and the cracks in his hands bled freely. After a year, when it came time to return home for the New Year, his uncle's wife gave him only a pair of socks and one yuan. Yuxiang harbored not a trace of complaint. What filled him with quiet pride was that, despite such hardships, he passed the high school graduation examination in Jining.

Determined to make his own way, Yuxiang left home to do hard labor at Baima Mountain in Jinan, hauling sacks and dragging wine crates out of cellars. Soon after, he was accepted into the "Chengji Western Pharmacy" in Jining to study Western medicine. Diligent and quick to learn, his medical skill and business ability advanced rapidly, earning the praise of his colleagues. The director at the time was a Catholic who once punished him by making him kneel because he would not eat meat. Yuxiang knelt willingly rather than break the vow he had made to the Buddha.

By this time, Yuxiang had known countless hardships and trials. He felt himself a small boat tossed upon stormy seas, his life in constant danger of capsizing. The impermanence of worldly things stirred within him a longing to seek the Buddha, to leave the dust of the world, and to cultivate through monastic life. After much difficulty, he finally arrived at Yuanming Jiangtang in Shanghai and met the elder Master Yuanying, whom he had revered since childhood. The senior brother Mingyang told him: "The master is now advanced in years and no longer accepts disciples." Hearing this, Yuxiang anxiously explained that he had wished to leave home since he was young, had taken refuge under Master Yuan at thirteen and received the bestowed Dharma name Zhèng, and that only now, through the working of conditions, had he been able to meet the master in person. Moved by Yuxiang's sincerity and evident gifts, Master Yuanying accepted him as his final disciple.

Notable Deeds and Events

On February 8, 1948, he formally became a monk under the elder Master Yuanying at Yuanming Jiangtang in Shanghai. He was then sent to Yongquan Temple on Gu Mountain in Fuzhou as a sramanera, and Master Yuanying gave him the Dharma name Mingzhe and the courtesy title Rijing.

In 1950, he received the full three-platform ordination under the elder Master Cizhou at Sheli Yuan in Fuzhou, studying the Vinaya and the doctrinal teachings of the Huayan (Avatamsaka) school.

In 1952, he accompanied Elder Ci to Nanputuo Temple in Xiamen, where he served as Sangha supervisor.

In the spring of 1953, he studied the Tiantai and Huayan teachings under the great master Jingquan in Shanghai. In the autumn of 1954, he traveled to Qingliang Jixiang Temple on Wutai Mountain to study the Vinaya and the esoteric teachings under the master Nenghai.

In 1955, at the invitation of Abbot Jingru of Guangji Maofeng, he participated in the Huayan Dharma Assembly as a deputy lecturer.

In 1956, he passed the entrance examination to the Chinese Buddhist Academy with outstanding results, graduated in 1959, and was assigned back to his home province.

In 1979, Mingzhe received letters from Zhao Puchu, president of the Buddhist Association of China, and Vice-President Zhenguo, instructing him to "take up residence at the Buddhist Association of China and resume work at Fayuan Temple." By that time he had devoted himself quietly to the study of the Dharma for more than thirty years—"ten years to sharpen a single sword."

In 1980, when the preserved body of the Tang-dynasty monk Jianzhen, who had crossed to Japan centuries before, was returned to China for a ceremonial visit, Mingzhe accompanied the elderly Morimoto Kyojun, director of a Kyoto temple, in making offerings, reciting sutras, and paying respects, ensuring the event's success and deepening the bonds of Buddhist exchange and friendship between the peoples of China and Japan.

In the autumn of 1980, with the resumption of the Chinese Buddhist Academy, he was appointed deputy dean of academic affairs and lecturer, while also serving as council member and standing council member of the Buddhist Association of China.

In 1984, he was transferred to Guangji Temple, the seat of the Buddhist Association of China, as first-seat monk, and established training classes for monastics. Under the leadership of President Zhao Puchu, he regularly engaged in diplomatic affairs and visited Japan, France, and other countries.

On June 6, 1988, Mingzhe was installed as abbot of Zhanshan Temple in Qingdao.

In 1994, at the age of seventy, Master Mingzhe made his second journey to the Serthar Buddhist Academy on the Sichuan-Tibet plateau to study the esoteric teachings.

At about 6:50 a.m. on September 16, 2012, Master Mingzhe, in his eighty-eighth year, entered final nirvana at Zhanshan Temple.

Verses of Master Mingzhe

Setting down the myriad conditions, the body grows light; When a single thought is not born, all realms merge. Luminous stillness shines through past and present— Birth, death, and nirvana are all but empty names.

Body upright, mind at peace, breath fine and even; Conditions met, no abiding, unstained by dust. Viewing all things as empty, at ease within— Luminous stillness shines through past and present.

Chan is the mind, the mind is Chan; Chan and mind, not two, are the true Chan. True Chan, from the start, has nowhere to be sought; Awakened, there is nowhere that is not Chan.