Yang Wenhui
Yang Wenhui (; 1837-1911) was a Chinese lay Buddhist reformer who has been called "The Father of the Modern Buddhist Renaissance". His courtesy name was Rénshān (). He was a native of Shídài () county (modern Shítái 石台 county) in Anhui province.

While he was young he accompanied his father to live in Beijing, but the Taiping rebellion forced them to flee to the lower Yangtze delta. Although he studied the Confucian classics as a child, in 1862 he became interested in Buddhism after reading a copy of the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (大乘起信論 "dàchéng qǐxìn lùn"). In 1866 he moved to Nanjing to manage architectural engineering projects for the government, where his Buddhist beliefs were strengthened through contact with other lay Buddhists.

It was not long after that he and several friends raised money to establish the Jinling Sutra Publishing House (金凌刻經處 "Jīnlíng kèjīng chù"), Jinling being an old name for Nanjing. In 1878 he left China to visit England and France, bringing back several scientific instruments which he donated to researchers in China. During another trip to England he met the Japanese Buddhist Nanjo Bunyu (南条文雄) and started a correspondence with him. With Nanjō's help, Yang was able to import over 300 sutra texts from Japan that had been lost within China. In 1894 he worked with the British missionary Timothy Richard (李提摩太) to translate "Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana" into English.

Yang established the Zhiheng Monastery (祗洹精舍 "zhīhéng jīngshè") in 1908 for teaching Buddhism on the site of his publishing house and wrote the textbooks himself. He invited the poet-monk Su Manshu to teach Sanskrit and English. Over twenty monks studied there, preparing to spread the Dharma. Unfortunately, due to financial trouble the school closed after only two years.

In 1910 he founded the Buddhist Research Society (佛學研究會 "fóxúe yánjiù hùi") and served as its head. The lay Buddhist Ouyang Jian () studied under Yang at this time, and after Yang's death in 1911 Ouyang would reestablish Yang's old publishing house and school as the Chinese Inner Studies College (支那內學院 "zhīnà nèi xúeyuàn"). Yang Wenhui had many students over his lifetime, including several well-known figures such as Zhang Taiyan, Tan Sitong, and Taixu.
Q148
Chinese
LOC
Q15407657
lay
Concept
Q2075910
courtesy name
Concept
Q40956
Anhui
LOC
Q956
Beijing
LOC
Q192408
Taiping rebellion
EVE
Q1195076
Yangtze delta
LOC
Q9581
Confucian
Concept
Q748
Buddhism
Concept
Q1076715
Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
UNK
Q16666
Nanjing
LOC
Q16666
Jinling
LOC
Q21
England
LOC
Q142
France
LOC
Q736311
Japanese Buddhist
ORG
Q1186145
Nanjo Bunyu
PER
南条文雄
UNK
Q837541
Timothy Richard
PER
李提摩太
UNK
Q1150818
Su Manshu
PER
Q11059
Sanskrit
Concept
Q134293
Dharma
Concept
None
Ouyang Jian
UNK
Q906267
zhīnà
MEDIA
Q197162
Zhang Taiyan
PER
Q1191225
Tan Sitong
PER
Q795292
Taixu
PER
Q2464653
Yang Wenhui
PER
Q2464653
Yang Wenhui
PER
1837-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1837
DATE
1862-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1862
DATE
1866-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1866
DATE
1878-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1878
DATE
1894-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1894
DATE
1908-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1908
DATE
1910-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1910
DATE
1911-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1911
DATE
-1911^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-1911
NUMBER
date of birth
religion
date of death