高僧=eminent monastics; 漢傳佛教史=history of Chinese Buddhism; 當代佛教=contemporary Buddhism; 燈錄體史書=Records of Transmission of the Lamp genre; 學案體史書=historical case study; 茗山=Mingshan; 無相=Wuxiang
This article is one of fifteen cases in “Humanistic Buddhism Records of Transmission of the Lamp in Mainland China”. Humanistic Buddhism Records of Transmission of the Lamp contains three parts, which are “Overseas”, “Mainland China”, and “Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan”. The author not only continues traditional Chinese approaches to history, but also uses modern European and American theory and methods for academic historiography. Taking a broad range of difficult to find data from 1949 until the present, this is an in depth study of one hundred eminent monastics, including their lives, their propagation of Humanistic Buddhism between the China Straits and overseas, their thinking and activities, which will leave a lasting record of the leaders of modern Humanistic Buddhism and their transmission. This paper, apart from taking Ven. Mingshan’s life and works as an exemplar of such eminent monastics, also analyzes the scholarly lineage of his Buddhist philosophy, the Dharma lineage of his robe and bowl, and the sources of his personal methods of spiritual cultivation. Having studied in depth his writings totally over one million Chinese characters, the special features of his Buddhist thought are analyzed. This shows the broad ranging influence that his disciples and Dharma heirs have had in the East of China. A selection of their most representative writings has been added to this study. As an historical case study, the life and works of his comrade, Master Wuxiang, have also been included in this paper
