Keng Yzu-chen, an influential thinker of the late Ch'ing period, came to have an interest in Buddhism primarily because of several factors：the introduction of the religion to him by his Buddhist friends Chien Tung-fu, Wu Hung-sheng, and Monk Wei-i; his open-minded attitude towards all Chinese intellectual schools; his disillusionment with the corrupt officialdom; and his poignant grief over the death of his mother in 1823. He took a special interest in the T'ien-t'ai, Ch'an and Pureland schools. The Buddhist scriptures he held in high esteem were Ch'an-yuan chu chuan (Explanations on the sources of Ch'an), Fa-hua hsuan-i (The profound meanings in the Lotus Sutra), and Miao-fa lien-hua ching (The Lotus Sutra). Among all Chinese Buddhist masters, he most revered Tzu Po, Ou I of the Ming dynasty and Pang Shao-sheng and Ch'e Wu of the Ch'ing dynasty. He also thought very highly of Chih I, Nagarjuna and Asvaghosha. In his study of Buddhism, Kung Tzu-chen paid particular attention to the textual problems of the sutras and vigorously attacked those Ch'an followers who ignored the scriptures altogether. He took up the publication of Buddhist books in the hope that this would lead him to the right path. As a result of his fervant interest in Buddhism, the religion provided an emotional catharsis in his old age infused subtleties to his poetry. In the context of modern Chinese political thought, the importance of Kung Tzu-chen lay in his introduction of other New Text scholars to Buddhism as this ultimately ushered in an era of "Scholastic Buddhism" in late Ch'ing. With the encroachment of the West upon China, Buddhism in the late 1890s was not only a spiritual refuge for the vexed and the disillusioned, but a body of doctrines which could be interpreted in various ways to suit their diverse intellectual and political purposes. In the translation from lay to scholastic Buddhism in modern China, Kung Tzu-chen undoubtedly played a very important role.
