Venerable Master Yicheng: A Brief Biography

Venerable Master Yicheng (1926 – December 21, 2017), lay surname Zhou, given name Yunsheng, was a native of Wangcheng, Hunan. He lived to the age of 91, and following his cremation, more than 600 sacred relics (śarīra) were recovered. Master Yicheng served successively as President of the Jiangxi Provincial Buddhist Association, Vice President of the Chinese Buddhist Association, President of the Buddhist Academy of China, and President of the Chinese Buddhist Association, among many other leadership roles. A lifelong patriot and devoted practitioner of the Dharma, he made spreading the Dharma and serving all beings his life’s work, embodying the ascetic dhūta spirit. He was held in high esteem across the globe, revered by monastics and laypeople alike.

Key Life Events

In June 1949, Master Yicheng took monastic vows.

In the winter of 1956, the revered Chan master Xuyun personally served as Master Yicheng’s preceptor for his full ordination, which took place at Nanhua Temple. He then returned to Mount Yunju, where he committed himself to disciplined personal practice. The following year, with karmic conditions ripe, Master Xuyun personally led a transmission ceremony, entrusting his own Dharma heir—then abbot of Zhenru Chan Temple, Master Xingfu—with conferring the Dharma Eye transmission on Master Yicheng, granting him the Dharma name Yanxin and naming him the 10th generation successor of the Guiyang School of Chan. That same year, Master Xuyun also personally served as master of the ordination platform, acting on behalf of his own Dharma heir, Master Kuangben of Hong Kong, to transmit the Linji Chan lineage, and gave Master Yicheng the Dharma name Changmiao.

From 1956 to 1959, Master Yicheng studied at the Buddhist Research Academy run by Master Xuyun and taught by Master Haideng, and his practice deepened steadily.

Between 1966 and 1976, Master Yicheng was driven out of the temple and forcibly reassigned to work as a farm laborer at the Mount Yunju Reclamation Farm.

At the end of 1978, Master Yicheng was the first to return to the former site of Zhishu Hall Chan Temple on Mount Yunju to resume monastic life. The following spring, he took up residence at Zhenru Chan Temple. Soon after, he was elected to the temple’s administrative committee and appointed guest master (zhike).

In the autumn of 1985, he was enthroned as abbot of Zhenru Chan Temple, and began the work of restoring this ancestral Chan temple.

In 1986, Master Yicheng also served as President of both the Yongxiu County Buddhist Association and the Jiangxi Provincial Buddhist Association.

In 1987, he also took on the role of Vice President of the Jiujiang City Buddhist Association. (He also previously served as Vice President of the Chinese Buddhist Association, President of the Jiangxi Provincial Buddhist Association, a member of the Jiangxi Provincial Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and a standing committee member of the Jiujiang City CPPCC.)

In September 2002, Venerable Master Yicheng was elected to a new term as President of the Chinese Buddhist Association, while also serving as President of the Buddhist Academy of China. He made spreading the Dharma and serving all beings his core mission, embodying the ascetic dhūta spirit, and was held in high esteem by monastics and laypeople alike across the world.

In 2010, Venerable Master Yicheng stepped down as President to serve as Honorary President of the Chinese Buddhist Association.

Venerable Master Yicheng passed away peacefully at 1:36 a.m. on December 21, 2017, at Zhenru Chan Temple on Mount Yunju in Jiujiang, Jiangxi. He was 91 years old, had been ordained for 68 years, and had upheld the full precepts for 61 years.

Life Journey and Contributions

1. Ordination and Austere Practice

Venerable Master Yicheng was born in 1926 to a peasant family in Hunan, and was vegetarian from early childhood. As his family was poor, he learned stonemasonry and basic construction skills from his father before the age of ten. In his mid-teens, he frequently joined friends and family on trips to the nearby Wushan Temple to burn incense and pay homage to the Buddha. Not long after, he took refuge in the Three Jewels with a local teacher, and under his guidance began practicing Pure Land Buddhism.

One day in 1948, while bowing to the Buddha in the main hall of Wushan Temple, Master Yicheng saw the hall filled with magnificent Buddha statues, bright candles burning before each one, wax dripping down their sides like tears. His heart filled with joy, he could not help but recite spontaneously:

“I come today with no other thought, to bow before the ancient Buddha… Wushan Temple lies misty and far away, its light spans the great thousand world.”

Those present were amazed, agreeing he had long carried a deep vow to pursue the Dharma, and that his wholesome roots were fully ripe. One of his senior Dharma uncles observed, “This person has the karmic roots and innate wisdom for Chan practice; if he studies Chan, he has great potential to become an accomplished practitioner.” Sure enough, his refuge teacher soon advised him to shift his practice to Chan. That June, Master Yicheng bid farewell to his parents and traveled to the Xixin Nunnery in Huangjin Garden Township, Changsha County, Hunan (now Wangcheng County), where he took the tonsure under Master Mingxin, formally entering the monastic life. He inherited the Linji Chan lineage, received the Dharma name Yicheng and the courtesy name Wuyuan. In the years that followed, he studied the Dharma and monastic rites under Master Mingxin, and found his practice deepened considerably through his focused study of the Diamond Sutra.

In the summer of 1956, Master Yicheng learned that the foremost modern Chan master Xuyun was residing at Mount Yunju in Yongxiu County, Jiangxi, and set out immediately to study under him. That winter, Master Xuyun personally served as his preceptor for his full ordination, which took place at Nanhua Temple in Guangdong. He returned to Mount Yunju, where he committed himself to disciplined personal practice, faithfully observing Master Baizhang’s famous dictum: “A day without work is a day without food.” His diligence earned Master Xuyun’s high praise. From then on, he practiced with unwavering dedication, engaging in genuine, practical Chan investigation. At the same time, during the restoration and reconstruction of Zhenru Chan Temple, Master Yicheng oversaw architectural planning, design, and construction oversight, earning the deep respect of both Master Xuyun and Master Xingfu.

Between 1956 and 1959, in addition to his own dedicated practice, Master Yicheng sought out Master Xuyun’s guidance as often as possible, receiving direct, personal instruction and rigorous training from him. He studied the Buddhist canon in depth, and enrolled in the Buddhist Research Academy run by Master Xuyun and taught by Master Haideng, which further deepened his practice. During this time, he also worked hard to improve his secular education, and was entrusted with organizing Master Xuyun’s letters, poetry, and manuscripts. By May 1959, he had compiled five large volumes of Master Xuyun’s writings.

2. Continuing the Dharma Lineage and Nurturing Talent

During the ten-year period from 1966 to 1976, Master Yicheng was driven out of his temple and forcibly reassigned to work as a farm laborer on the Mount Yunju Reclamation Farm. He first split bamboo in the deep mountains, then was assigned to herd cattle, and spent most of his time working on Mount Yunju’s road construction projects. Even so, he never wavered from his original aspirations, strictly upheld his monastic precepts, and secretly maintained his vegetarian diet and daily chanting practice when alone. At the end of 1978, Master Yicheng and fellow practitioners such as Master Tiguang were the first to return to the former site of Zhishu Hall Chan Temple on Mount Yunju. They cleared tall grass and split bamboo to build thatched huts, resumed their monastic way of life, and restarted Buddhist rituals. The following spring, they joined the rest of the monastic community at Zhenru Chan Temple. Soon after, Master Yicheng was elected to the temple’s administrative committee and appointed guest master (zhike). He advocated for restoring Master Xuyun’s stūpa first to raise the temple’s public profile, and traveled to Beijing to seek formal approval, which was granted by Zhao Puchu, then President of the Chinese Buddhist Association.

In the autumn of 1985, Master Yicheng was enthroned as abbot of Zhenru Chan Temple. From that point on, he made revitalizing this ancestral temple his core mission, living by the principle that “to carry on the Buddha’s work is to keep the lamp of the mind alight; spreading the Dharma is the foremost duty of the sangha.” In his management of temple affairs, he honored both the legacy of past Chan patriarchs and the needs of the present day, upholding both Buddhist teachings and secular law. He focused on stabilizing the sangha’s physical and mental well-being, eliminating laziness and laxity, and enforcing strict adherence to the precepts. To this end, he established a series of regulations, including the Zhenru Temple Resident Monastic Code and the Guest Hall Code, and led by example in following them closely. Under Master Yicheng’s guidance, the Zhenru Temple sangha carefully restored and expanded the rigorous practice tradition established during Master Xuyun’s tenure as abbot. They gathered for daily morning and evening chanting services, observed the monthly uposatha (precept recitation) ceremony on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month, and emphasized seated meditation and samādhi practice.

In 1990, a new meditation hall spanning more than 1,000 square meters was completed. The number of monastics participating in extended seated meditation sessions was increased, and the daily schedule was extended from four to fourteen meditation sessions per day to support deeper practice. Every year, the temple held summer Dharma talks and winter seven-day Chan meditation retreats; not only did the temple’s own monastics participate, but lay and monastic practitioners from across the country traveled specially to attend. Master Yicheng also led the monastic community in farm work to put Master Baizhang’s famous teaching of “a day without work is a day without food” into practice.

Starting in 1985, Master Yicheng personally oversaw the design and construction of the Master Xuyun Memorial Hall, the West Meditation Hall, the abbot’s quarters, and the stūpas and tombs of Masters Xingfu, Haideng, and Langyao. He also led the restoration of the stūpas and tombs of past patriarchs including Guanheng and Jiexian. All the temple’s halls and pavilions were fully restored, hundreds of Buddha statues were newly cast, then gilded and painted in bright colors to create a sacred, magnificent atmosphere.

Master Yicheng placed great importance on the education and practice of young monastics. He guided them to follow the core principle: “In the Prajñā Hall we study non-doing; realizing the true nature of mind is our true aim,” and encouraged them to deepen their study of core scriptures including the Diamond Sutra. He taught them to hold fast to the Diamond Sutra’s teaching “abide nowhere, give rise to mind,” to remain vigilant at all times, and to avoid being defiled by worldly attachments. He emphasized the principle that “every speck of dust interweaves with the true nature; every moment reaches the cloud of wisdom.” He required that students of Chan first learn to be decent, ethical people, and taught them that Chan practice is found in everyday work and activity: Chan is not about chasing empty formalities, and tasks like digging soil, carrying water, and farming are all valid forms of practice.

In 1987, Master Yicheng organized a training program for the temple’s monastics. Two years later, he specially invited Master Benzhi, the first seat of Guangzhou’s Guangxiao Temple, to the temple to lead a sutra study class. In 1992, Master Yicheng proactively supported the Jiangxi Provincial Buddhist Association in holding a monastic administrator training program at the temple, and personally gave lectures on “temple monastic codes.” During the program, he arranged for all young monastics at Zhenru Temple to audit the classes to broaden their knowledge.

To perpetuate the Buddhist lineage and keep the flame of the Dharma burning for future generations, Master Yicheng presided over the full three-platform ordination ceremony three times, in 1985, 1988, and 1991, during which more than ten thousand ordained practitioners received the full precepts. In the autumn of 1989, at the invitation of Master Xuanhua, he traveled to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in the United States as part of the “Chinese Buddhist Mission to Spread the Dharma in America” to attend a major ordination ceremony, serving as a verifying master.

3. Revitalizing Buddhism and Spreading the Dharma

In addition to devoting himself to leading Zhenru Chan Temple, Master Yicheng also made significant contributions to the revitalization of Buddhism across Jiangxi. In 1986, he took on the roles of President of both the Yongxiu County Buddhist Association and the Jiangxi Provincial Buddhist Association; in 1987, he added the position of Vice President of the Jiujiang City Buddhist Association.

To support the restoration of temples in Pingxiang, Fuzhou, Shangrao, Nanchang, and other regions, Master Yicheng traveled extensively in his sixties to advocate for these projects. He was invited to serve as honorary abbot of several key Caodong Chan ancestral temples, including Dongshan Puli Temple in Yifeng County, Boshan Nengchan Temple in Guangfeng County, and Kongtong Mountain Ciji Temple in Qianshan County, all in Jiangxi. He offered strategic guidance and hands-on support for their restoration, even drafting architectural plans and overseeing construction work.

Master Yicheng placed great importance on the development of Buddhist cultural initiatives. He personally led the editorial work for the New Gazetteer of Mount Yunju, spending three years of dedicated effort to complete the 700,000-plus-word volume. He also took a keen interest in advancing Xuyun Chan studies, contributing writings and supporting the publication of Essence of Master Xuyun’s Chan Thought (volumes 1 and 2), compiled by Professor Zhang Zhezhe of East China Normal University in Shanghai.

Honors and Awards

In 2013, Master Yicheng was awarded the Confucius Peace Prize.

On the afternoon of December 9, 2013, the 4th Confucius Peace Prize award ceremony was held in Beijing. The official citation for Master Yicheng’s award reads as follows:

“In recognition of Venerable Master Yicheng’s extraordinary contributions to the reform and development of Chinese Buddhism during his tenure as President of the Chinese Buddhist Association, which breathed new life and energy into the organization; especially since his election as Honorary President of the Chinese Buddhist Association in December 2008, he has spread the Dharma and served all beings across the globe, uniting compassion and wisdom to offer invaluable guidance to the cause of world peace, and in doing so has erected a lasting monument in the history of 21st-century human peace. The 4th Confucius Peace Prize is hereby awarded to him in 2013.”