This article follows up my earlier article, “ The Hsi-lai-an Incident and the Development of Taiwanese Buddhism with Special Reference to the Soto School,” published in the tenth issue of the Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal. It continues to center on Soto Zen and discusses the monks of this school and their interaction with Buddhist monks in Taiwan. I focus my discussion on leading figures of the Soto Zen movement in Taiwan such as Master Chuan-fang of the Kai-yuan Temple in Tainan（including Master Ben-yuan）, Master Shan-hui of the Ling quan Temple on Mt. Yue-mei, Keelung, and Master Jue-li of the Fa-yun Temple in Ta-hu, Miao-li. I evaluate the interactive relationship between the so-called “Three Major Schools of Taiwanese Buddhism” and the Japanese Soto School. I want to point out that I have chosen to cover the time span of forty years beginning from 1895, the twentyeighth year of the Meiji Period, to 1935, the tenth year of the Showa period, because three major events occurred in this period which negatively affected Soto Zen expansion in Taiwan: 1) as early as April 1917, the sixth year of the Taisho period, the Kai-yuan School left the Japanese Soto School and joined the Japanese Lin-ji School, 2) Master Jue-li died in 1933, the eighth year of the Showa period, and 3) Master Shan-hui moved from Taiwan to Fujian. As I mentioned in“the Hsi-lai-an Incident and the Development of Taiwanese Buddhism with Special Reference to the Soto School,” monks of the Soto School, at the initial period of spreading their teachings in Taiwan, established a root-and-branch relationship with numerous Taiwanese Buddhist monasteries. This relationship allowed them to make use of Buddhist resources there, to develop and expand their own resources, and to construct new temples. The Soto School expanded more quickly in Taiwan than other Japanese Buddhist schools because it was the first Japanese sect to arrive in Taiwan and also its roots were in mainland China, which allowed it to be more easily received by the Taiwanese. Even several leading Taiwanese Soto monks received their ordinations in Chinese Cao-dong（Soto Sect）monasteries, which included the Yong-guan Temple of Gu Mountain in Fujian Province, where the majority of the Taiwanese Soto monks received their ordinations, the Chang-ging Temple of Yi Mountain, Tian-tong Mountain, Tian-tai Mountain, and pu-tuo Mountain, all off them are noted in Sasaki Chinryu's Ch'ung-chun shih-li meng-yu t'an（p. 92）. Due to its advantages of an earlier establishment in Taiwan and its Chinese origins, the Japanese Soto School developed a significant relationship with Taiwanese monasteries. The substantial interaction between Soto Zen monks and Taiwanese monks along with their patrons and its influence on the development of Buddhism in Taiwan are of great significance and merit close examination in this article
