Ven. Master Yin Shun Gushan Buddhist Academy Zhejiang province, China

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Ven. Yin Shun(Zhang Luqin) was born in 1906 in a small agricultural village in the district of Haining, located in the province of Zhejiang. After the passing of both his parents, in 1930, he became a monk under Ven Ching Nian's teaching. This occurred in Fu Chuan Temple located in Putuo Mountain. He was given the Dharma name Yin Shun. In 1931, he went to study at Ming Nan Buddhist Academy in Pu-Tuo Temple in Xiamen. However, in the same year, the chief of the academy, Ven Ta Xing, introduced him to teach in Gushan Buddhist Academy because of his outstanding wisdom. Instead, he became a teacher.

Throughout his life, Ven. Yin Shun inherited the legacy of Buddhism revolution from Wu Chang Buddhist Academy. He unearthed the basic principles of Buddha Dharma in a critical manner. He placed emphasis on discriminating inaccurate assumptions made during the evolution of Buddhism while reinstalled and promoted accommodative new theory, which was suited to the current era. He was such an excellent revolutionary Buddhist thinker of the era.

Ven. Yin Shun's Buddhist thinking was not restricted to any particular sutra, sastra, sect or school. In fact, he thoroughly comprehends the overall evolution of Buddhism. He selected the essence of Buddhism which he completely understood to portray the original intention of Buddha. His 'human Buddhism' has indeed become the leading main stream Buddhist thinking of the era. During his life time, he has penned many well known books including the Maio Yun collection, which consisted of 24 books and also many thick specialty books, totaling 7 million words, an unsurpassable quantity. All his life, Ven Yin Shun took name and money very lightly. Instead, he devoted totally to Buddha Dharma and the sentient beings. He was such a high achieving monk with very excellent faith and practice. He was also the very first monk in China with professorial qualification.

Throughout his life, he managed to culture many people. From his early days in China in Ming Nan, WU Chang, Han Tsang and Fa Wang Buddhist Academies till latterly in San Tao Temple and Fu Yuan Buddhist Academy in Taiwan, he has helped many talented Buddhists. Ven. Zheng Yuan of Zhu Zhi Foundation and our teacher Ven Tsang Hui were his students as well. The great venerables of the era including Ven Sheng yuan and Ven Sin Yun have also confessed to the influence from Ven Yin Shun's Buddhist thinking.

Although Ven. Yin Shun has passed away peacefully in 2005, he has been exemplary in many ways to us. We should learn the manner he studied Buddhism, including 'returning to the simplistic Indian Buddhism' and analysing Buddha dharma with Buddha Dharma'. We should also learn the way he elaborated undiscovered Buddhism facts with such devotion to the sentient beings that created very adaptable and contemporary Buddhism theories and content.