The Bodhi Mirror

INTRODUCING THE EMINENT BHIKSU DHARMA MASTER CH’ENG HSIANG

Translated by Disciple Upasaka Li Kuo Wei

Bhiksu Ch'eng Hsiang was born in 1920 in Hopei China, in the village of the Meng clan on the east side of the Ningtsin municipality. His father's name was Hsien Sheng and his mother's was Wang Shih. In 1946 he resolved to leave the home life and enrolled at Tientsin Great Compassion College where the Abbot, the Elder Master Hui Hsien, taught him and shaved his head.

In 1949 he traveled to Nan Hua Temple in Canton to draw near to the highest cultivator in the modern age, the Venerable Hs'u Y'un, in order to follow the sage's teachings. While slaving at Nan Hua he learned that the Elder Master Tan Hsu was sponsoring and operating the Hua Nan Buddhist Studies College in Hong Kong. Dharma Master Ch’eng Hsiang went there to study sutras.

      He studied hard with the Elder Tan and after graduation made a pilgrimage to Rangoon, Burma to pay his respects at the Great Gold Pagoda. He then returned to Hong Kong and once again drew near the Elder Master Tan, whom he served on the staff of the Chinese Buddhist Library.

In 1966, at the request of the Canadian Buddhist Association, he made the journey to Canada to take up residence there. Now in response to an invitation from the San Francisco Buddhist Association he is residing at Hung Fu Temple in San Francisco.

Shortly after his arrival in San Francisco Bhiksu Ch'eng Hsiang paid his respects to the Abbot of Gold Mountain and visited with the Sangha. On this occasion he said, "The record of the Venerable Abbot's virtue and his work propagating Dharma and transforming living beings is extremely great and known widely throughout the world. His transmission of Mahayana Buddhism to the West will enable the Buddha's light of wisdom to continue. I find it difficult to adequately praise his merit and virtue. Buddhism is very fortunate here in the West because of the meritorious retribution of the living beings of this hemisphere which make it possible."