Foundation in literature

On October 23, 1880, Li Shu-tung was born into the huge, rich family of Li Hsiao-lou, a successful salt merchant in Tianjin, northern China. His father had at least four concubines, and Shu-tung's mother was one of them. When Shu-tung was born, his father was already sixty-eight years old while his mother was only twenty. Unfortunately, Li Hsiao-lou died of dysentery four years later at the age of seventy-two. But before he died, he invited Buddhist monks to his home to chant the Diamond Sutra by his bed. It helped him to maintain his tranquillity and he passed away in his sleep. During the memorial services later, more monks were invited to carry out Buddhist ceremonies. All this was forever etched in the mind of young Shu-tung. In the following years, the little boy and his mates often pretended to perform Buddhist services with himself, of course, playing the role of a monk.

When he was five years old, his mother started teaching him Chinese classics such as Classics on Filial Piety, Mencius, Four Books, Confucius, etc. When he grew older, he also learned traditional poetry and calligraphy. All these studies helped him to lay down an excellent literary foundation for the poetry and painting skills that he developed later in life.

In 1897, when Shu-tung was eighteen years old, he was married in a traditional match arranged by his mother. Although there was little love between the young couple, his wife was a nice woman and Shu-tung was a good son who could hardly disobey his mother's wishes, and so the two of them got along quite well. In the following year, Shu-tung moved his family, including his mother, from Tianjin to Shanghai in order to get away from the complex politics of a big family and to start a new life. It was a new life indeed, since his glorious literary life began to burgeon there.

Life in Shanghai

Not long after his arrival in Shanghai, Shu-tung joined a local literary group, the Cheng-nan Literary Club, which had been founded to organize a group of literature lovers to study Chinese literature. Shu-tung's literary skills were immediately made manifest when he won first place in an essay contest.

Club meetings were held in a place called Cheng-nan Cottage. The owner of this place, Hsu Huan-yuan, was a literary leader in Shanghai. Huan-yuan, Shu-tung, and few other literary lovers often gathered and composed poetry.

In addition to composing poetry, Shu-tung formed another club to publish a weekly newsletter on art and calligraphy. He was also a lover of Chinese opera. He performed in many roles on stage, such as that of the great warrior Huang Tien-pa, and he received public acclaim for his performances.

During this time, Shu-tung lived a wonderful life. On the one hand his life was filled with his favorite activities, and on the other his beloved mother and his wife were both living with him. However, this happiness was short-lived. In 1905, Shu-tung's mother passed away. At this time China was still ruled by the corrupt Manchu dynasty, which was often humiliated by foreign powers. Shu-tung had already had the idea of going abroad to study in order to be able to do more for his poor fatherland. The only thing that had prevented him from doing so was his concern for his mother. This obstacle no longer existed after she passed away, and so he decided to go to Japan.

Having buried his mother back in his old hometown in Tianjin and settled his wife and children, he departed for Japan in the fall of 1905.

Life in Japan

In Japan, Shu-tung completely changed his appearance. He cut off his queue and wore Western clothing. He also tried out the Japanese ways of living. No Japanese knew that this rich young man was a student from China.

He enrolled in a language school to improve his Japanese, and then published a magazine called Lion Awaken. He wrote many articles, mostly on Chinese and Western painting. As in China, Shu-tung's artistic mind didn't just stop here. He also published China's first-ever music magazine, Little Magazine on Music. He planned to publish it twice a year, but the magazine appeared only once. It had only twenty-six pages, but it contained many articles on music, painting, editorials, etc. Moreover, Shu-tung also did the layout of the whole magazine and designed the cover.

In the fall of 1907, Shu-tung was admitted into the Ueno Art School in Tokyo. In the following three years, the talented young man learned various kinds of Western painting skills. However, his love for opera and stage performances never diminished, and he organized the Spring Willow Club with a group of friends. Two performances in Tokyo based on La Dame Aux Camelias and Uncle Tom's Cabin received public acclaim. In order to play the role of Camelia Margaret, Shu-tung had his mustache shaved off and his waist tightly fastened. Years later Shu-tung and other club members brought this unique kind of theater back to China, where the performance of modern plays was still in a primitive stage. Thus these performers were probably the forerunners of modern Chinese theater.

While living in Japan, Shu-tung had a love affair with a Japanese woman. Many books have been written about this period in his life, although strangely they give quite different accounts, especially with respect to the name of this mysterious woman. So far, we only know that while Shu-tung was studying Western art in Japan, one of his models became his girlfriend and eventually his wife. But what about his Chinese wife? There is no record that he ever divorced his Chinese wife, so we suspect that Shu-tung married his Japanese girlfriend even though he was still married to his Chinese wife. This Japanese woman lived with him for more than ten years, starting from 1907, when he was studying in Japan, until he became a monk in 1918. Once he decided to become a monk, he asked a friend of his to take this woman back to Japan. She couldn't accept this at the beginning, because monks in Japan could have wives. She begged to see Shu-tung and was taken to see him in Hangzhou. It is not clear how the meeting between the two went. But it is said that Shu-tung gave his Japanese wife a watch as a souvenir and said he trusted she would be able to find herself a decent job, since she had some professional skills. Then Shu-tung simply took a boat and left without even looking back. Realizing his unwavering determination, she went back to Japan and was never heard of again.

Back in China

When Shu-tung returned to Shanghai in 1912, he was hired as the main writer for the Pacific newspaper, where he wrote articles for the arts section. What set this newspaper apart from other contemporary newspapers was that it had special artwork for the articles and for the ads. Other newspapers of that time contained only text without a single piece of art. A coworker from Pacific said that Shu-tung designed the graphs and the layout of the newspaper and also did the artwork for the ads.

Nevertheless, the newspaper job didn't last long. Printing stopped in the fall, and Shu-tung went to teach in the Zhejiang Provincial Normal School in Hangzhou, eastern China, for six years. It was there that Shu-tung really devoted his time and his love for art to the teaching of modern art. He was also the first teacher in Chinese art history to use nude models to teach the drawing of human bodies. According to Feng Tzu-kai, one of Shu-tung's top students, the school was preparing its students to become schoolteachers, and it put a great deal of emphasis on the arts, especially painting and music. The school had equipment for painting, and there were also fifty or sixty small organs and two pianos in independent music rooms. Shu-tung helped to design the cover of a school magazine. One of his students later recalled that the students had several after-school clubs where they learned things such as Western artistic wood carving, which was first promoted in China by no other than Shu-tung himself.

Was such an artistic person as Shu-tung in any way different from other teachers? He certainly was. In his book on Li Shu-tung, Chen Xing gave two examples. Shu-tung wasn't much of a talker, and he always taught his students by setting himself as an example. He always treated his students with respect, so they all loved him very much. If someone spit during class, he would not scold that student in class. Instead, he would wait until class was over and then say to that student in a soft but assertive voice, "Don't leave yet... don't spit on the floor next time." Then he would bow to the student and say, "Now you may leave." Another time a student farted in class; there was no sound but it fouled the air. When class was over, Shu-tung announced to the whole class, "Please wait a moment, I still have one announcement to make: next time you want to fart, please do so outside." He again made a bow. What an interesting teacher!

Religious life

Li Shu-tung might have been influenced by the atmosphere of that time and place where he later renounced his lay life and became a Buddhist monk. Hangzhou was famous for its flourishing Buddhist temples. Many litterateurs studied Buddhism to strengthen their spirit, since China at that time was torn by rivalries among local warlords and invasions by foreign powers.

Hsia Mien-chun, another great scholar of the same period, was Shu-tung's colleague at the normal school. In 1916, Hsia read an article on fasting, in which it was noted that fasting was a way to renew one's physical and mental self. Hsia forwarded this article to Shu-tung, who suffered from neurasthenia. He decided to try fasting to see if it could cure his problem, and that winter he went to nearby Hu-pao Temple.

The temple, first built in 819, was located in a beautiful mountain setting. When Shu-tung went there, the temple was mostly empty with only one monk in residence. He was fascinated by the tranquil, peaceful atmosphere there.

Shu-tung spent seventeen days in the temple, and he was greatly impressed by the spiritual lifestyle there. After his fasting, he enjoyed the vegetarian food in the temple, so when he returned to school he asked the school cook to prepare his meals in the same way as the monk had in the temple. Moreover, he started worshipping buddhas in his room. His lifestyle also changed dramatically. He no longer enjoyed socializing with his friends and preferred to stay alone in his room to study Buddhist sutras. Hsia wasn't pleased with the changes in his colleague, and he scolded him by saying, "If being a lay person is not good enough for you, then why don't you just shave your head and become a monk?" Shu-tung just smiled and didn't say a word, because in fact he intended to realize his friend's propitious premonition.

In the second half of 1917, Shu-tung became a true vegetarian and he also started reading more Buddhist sutras. In short, he was preparing himself to become a monk.

In 1918, Shu-tung returned to the same temple for the winter break. At about the same time, a friend also went there, but in just a few days this friend became enlightened, renounced worldly ways and became a monk. It was a great surprise to Shu-tung, because he thought he was very devout and never thought that someone else could become enlightened in such a short time. Therefore, he asked Hung Hsiang, the monk at the temple, to accept him as a Buddhist disciple. However, the monk knew that Shu-tung was a famous artist and litterateur and felt he was not qualified to be his master. Hung Hsiang then asked his mentor, Master Liao Wu, to come to Hu-pao Temple to accept Shu-tung as a Buddhist disciple. Li Shu-tung was given the Buddhist name, Hung Yi. The date was January 15, 1918.

On the thirteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar in the same year, the 39-year-old Shu-tung finally decided to shave his head and become a monk. This news took all his friends and relatives by surprise. It was as if Hemingway or Picasso had suddenly decided to become a priest. The day before his official renunciation, Shu-tung donated his valuable oil paintings to an art school in Beijing and his other personal items, such as his calligraphy, paintings, clothes and other items, to friends. His friends felt they had lost a dear friend. In his Master Hung Yi, Chen Xing quotes Hsia Mien-chun:

The wonderful friend that I respect the most is now a monk, and I am so lonely. In the past seven years, there were three or four times that he wanted to leave Hangzhou. Sometimes it was because he wasn't pleased with the school, and sometimes it was because other places had invited him to teach. He never left because each time I begged him to stay... Now a good friend is leaving me because of his faith. Faith isn't like fame or benefits that can be compromised. I suspect that I can't hold him back this time. I regret having held him back before. If he had left Hangzhou earlier, he wouldn't have ended up becoming a monk. [Chen Xing, Master Hung Yi, Taipei: Hsinchaushe, 1996:122-123.]

We have already described the reaction of his Japanese wife, and his Chinese wife suffered a great blow too. According to Shu-tung's second son, she spent two years learning weaving to take her mind off the event.

The contemporary monk whom Master Hung Yi admired the most was Master Ying Kuang (1860-1940), who became a monk in 1881. Because of his high degree of spiritual cultivation, Master Ying Kuang was, and still is, highly respected in Chinese Buddhist circles. Master Hung Yi first came in contact with him around 1920.

Master Hung Yi always wanted to become Master Ying Kuang's disciple, but Master Ying Kuang never accepted any disciples. After failing twice, the new monk still did not give up. He even burned incense on his arm to show his sincerity, hoping the great master would change his mind and grant his request. It was the third time in late 1922 that Master Ying Kuang finally gave in to his request and took him in as his disciple. Master Hung Yi then went to stay with his new mentor for seven days in May 1924.

He learned a great deal from his mentor. He said the master never collected money, and if anyone gave him a large sum of money, he would use it for charity or to print Buddhist scriptures. All the monks and nuns in China respected Master Ying Kuang's teachings and viewed him as their mentor.

Master Hung Yi sincerely practiced his spiritual cultivation. The following passage illustrates how he lived his daily life. [Ibid: p.152-154.]

One day, he was in Ningbo in eastern China, where his old friend Hsia Mien-chun happened to be teaching. Hsia visited Master Hung Yi in the temple where he was staying.

Master Hung Yi said to him, "This is my third day in Ningbo. I lived in a small hotel the first two days."

"I suppose that hotel wasn't very clean."

"Not bad," Master Hung Yi replied with much satisfaction. "Only two or three fleas. The manager was very nice to me."

Hsia invited Master Hung Yi to stay at Baima Lake. When the monk arrived at the hotel, Hsia noticed that his luggage was very simple: some clothing wrapped in a piece of cloth. When they reached the master's room, he folded the clothes into a pillow, took out a ragged old towel and walked to the lakeside to wash his face.

Hsia was dismayed at the sight of the towel. "That towel is too old and torn! Let me get a new one for you."

"There's no need for that-this one's still usable." He even unfolded the towel and showed it to Hsia to indicate that the towel wasn't in such a terrible condition.

Master Hung Yi followed the precept of not eating after noon, so he didn't have any lunch when he arrived at the hotel that day. The next day before noon, Hsia brought him a bowl of rice and two dishes of vegetables. The vegetables were very simple, only turnips and cabbage, but the master ate them with relish as if they were the finest delicacies in the world. Hsia became upset and almost shed tears when he saw the joyful expression on the master's face as he ate this simple fare.

The next day, a friend brought over a lunch including four vegetarian dishes, one of which was rather salty. Hsia wasn't pleased with it and scolded the friend for making such salty food. However, the master said with much satisfaction, "Please don't worry, the salty food still has its special flavor."

Some days later the master said to Hsia that he didn't need to bring him any food and that he could just go home for his own meals. The master also jokingly said that begging for food was the monks' special way of surviving.

Hsia replied, "Then I'll bring you meals on rainy days."

"No need," the master said. "If it rains, I have a pair of clogs. Besides, walking every day is good exercise."

Hsia was speechless. He felt that by living in such a simple, austere manner, Master Hung Yi was bringing art into his life. The master was enjoying his life, and he was not bound by any worldly view on things. He just saw the way things should be. Hsia felt such true emancipation and enjoyment had been obtained through very profound soul-searching.

Master Hung Yi never gave up his artistic skills even after he became a monk. He simply used Buddhism as the subject of his art work: he carved Buddhist sculptures, composed Buddhist music, copied Buddhist scriptures with his elegant calligraphy, and wrote poems dripping with Buddhist thought.

After becoming a monk, Master Hung Yi's life evolved around constant traveling for Buddhism. For instance, in the spring of 1926, he attended a Buddhist service on Lu Mountain in Jiangxi province. In 1927, he went to Shanghai and stayed in the home of his famous disciple Feng Tzu-kai, who was also a prominent painter and litterateur. The master helped Feng by painting illustrations for a set of six books which promoted the idea of caring for animals. In early 1929, he went to Nan-pu-tuo Temple in Xiamen, Fujian province, to help organize a Buddhist school. In April of that year, he went to Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. In short, he gave his life to Buddhism by moving from place to place, giving lectures on Buddhism, organizing Buddhist schools and writing Buddhist books. He continued like this until 1942.

In September 1942, Master Hung Yi seemed to sense that the end of his life was approaching, so he wrote two letters to bid farewell to Hsia Mien-chun and Liu Che-ping, one of his close disciples. On October 13, 1942, he died peacefully in Chuanzhou, Fujian province, at the age of sixty-three. It was like the fall of a great star, but its radiant light has continuously shone forth to every corner of the world.