Topic: The Establishment and Justification of the thirteen Patriarchs of the Lotus School

Abstract: 

The patriarchal masters (祖師) of China’s Lotus school were recognized posthumously. It was only by 1940, that the current list of thirteen was established. The notion of thirteen patriarchs has permeated the Chinese Buddhist world since 1940.

Since then, a booklet called Brief Biographies of the Thirteen Patriarchs of the Lotus School (蓮宗十三祖傳略) has been in circulation in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The booklet, which is a collection of the thirteen patriarch’s brief biographies, has been highly influential in the Chinese Buddhist world.

Before this famous list of thirteen patriarchs was established, several other versions have already been in circulation from the Song dynasty onwards. This lecture addresses the issue by assessing the process in which successive lists of patriarchs were set up.

Bio information:

Prof. Chen Chien-Huang is the incumbent Director of the Centre for the Study of Humanistic Buddhism, CUHK. He earned his PhD degree from the Department of Chinese in the University of Hong Kong.

Prof. Chen areas of expertise include Amitābha Pure Land teaching, Humanistic Buddhism Humanistic Pure Land. Prof. Chen expands his research area from the classical study of Pure Land thoughts to modern eminent monks such as Venerable Hsing-Yun, Venerable Sheng-Yen, and Venerable Yin-Shun. Prof. Chen has published extensively on the topic.