Taixu

Taixu 太虛
Photo of Taixu from a book published in 1933
Religion	Chan Buddhism
School	Linji school
Personal
Nationality	Chinese
Born	1890 Haining, Zhejiang, China
Died	1947 (1948) (aged 57)
Religious career
Students	Chiang Kai-shek

Taixu (traditional Chinese: 太虛; simplified Chinese: 太虚; pinyin: Tàixū; Wade–Giles: T'ai Hsü), 1890-1947, was a Buddhist modernist, activist and thinker who advocated the reform and renewal of Chinese Buddhism.

Taixu was born in Hǎiníng (海寧/海宁) in Zhejiang province. His lay name was Lǚ Pèilín (呂沛林). His parents died when he was still young, and he was raised by his grandparents. At 16 he was ordained into the Linji school of Chan Buddhism in Xiao Jiǔhuá Temple (小九華寺/小九华寺) in Suzhou. Not long after being ordained he was given the Dharma name of Taixu, meaning Great Emptiness. In 1909 he travelled to Nanjing to join the Sutra Carving Society established there by the lay Buddhist Yang Renshan.

As a result of being exposed to the political writings of Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Tan Sitong and Zhang Taiyan, Taixu turned his mind to the reformation of Buddhism. In 1911 while in Guangzhou, he made contact with the revolutionaries plotting to overthrow the Qing dynasty and participated in some secret revolutionary activities. Taixu would later describe the formation of his political thinking during this time in his Autobiography (自傳 zìzhuàn):

My social and political thought was based upon 'Mr. Constitution', the Republican Revolution, Socialism, and Anarchism. As I read works such as Zhang Taiyan's "On Establishing Religion", "On the Five Negatives", and "On Evolution", I came to see Anarchism and Buddhism as close companions, and as a possible advancement from Democratic Socialism.