In the early days of the Japanese colonial period, Western Taiwan gradually developed the four Ch’an linages that inherited Gushan Ch’an in Fujian. At the same time, two Yilan’s Gushan bhikkhus, Ven. Zhen-jing and Ven. Tong-ben, not only originated from the same Ch’an school as Wugu Lingyun Temple, Tainan Kaiyuan Temple, and Miaoli Dahu Fayun Temple, but also, the Development history and the ancestral ranking of the Yilan’s are not inferior. After 1898, Bhikkhu Zhen-jing and Tong-ben returned to Yilan to build temples and spread Buddhism. Their Dharmaic linage still influences the development of the present Yilan Buddhism. However, it is rarely known because it is in the secluded east. Their activities in the Lanyang Plain were not limited to Buddhist monasteries and had frequent contacts with “Zhaijiao” and “Zhaigu” (Vegetarian Nun). This article aims to discuss the spread and religious activities of the Gushan Ch’an School in Yilan at the beginning of the colonization.
