Darui Long

Professor, University of the West, Los Angeles

Yang was born in an eminent family of Confucian literati in Anhui Province in 1837, two years before the outbreak of the Opium War. He witnessed the years of turmoil in nineteenth century China: the Taiping Rebellion and subsequent series of China’s defeats and humiliations. When he was twenty-seven years old, his father died of illness and the following year Yang Renshan himself contracted the plague. After his recovery in Hangzhou, he continued to suffer from depression. By chance, he read two texts entitled Dacheng Qixin Lun (Mahāyānśraddhotpāda Śāstra; Mahayana Treatise on the Awakening of Faith) and Lengyan Jing (Śūraṅgama Sūtra).

Darui Long,Studies on Humanistic Buddhism IV: Human Life(Kaohsiung:Fo Guang Cultural Enterprise Co. Ltd,2021)173-177.COPY