Fǎfǎng 法舫 (1904-1951)
Fǎfǎng 法舫 (1904-1951) was a close disciple of Tàixū 太虛, and was involved with many of the Buddhist seminaries and organizations associated with him. Fǎfǎng was particularly involved in international activities, and worked in Chinese, Japanese, English, Pāli and Sanskrit.
Fǎfǎng was born in farming family in Húběi 湖北. He was orphaned by a severe drought there in his youth, and as a result he went to live at a charity school run at Fǎyuán Temple 法源寺 in Běijīng 北京. With the help of Yáo Jiājǐng 姚家井 he took tonsure under Shìàn 是岸 at Guānyīn Temple 觀音寺 in 1921. He was 17. He received full ordination at Fǎyuán Temple under Dàojiē 道階 the same year. Fellow ordinands included Fǎzūn 法尊.
In 1922, Fǎfǎng traveled to Wǔchāng 武昌 to be a part of the first class at the Wǔchāng Buddhist Seminary 武昌佛學院. He graduated in 1924. After graduation, Fǎfǎng traveled to Běijīng to attend the Tibetan Language School 藏文學院. In 1925, he joined the Residing-in-Tibet Dharma Studies Group 留藏學法團, whose members sought to travel to Tibet to study its Buddhism. Like most of the members of that group, Fǎfǎng did not make it to Tibet. Instead, he returned to Wǔchāng to help Dàjìng 大敬 look after the Wǔchāng Buddhist Seminary, which had been requisitioned by the army as part of the Northern Expedition in fall of 1926.
In 1930, Tàixū sent Fǎfǎng to Běipíng 北平 to assist Chángxǐng 常惺 run the newly established (and very short-lived) Bǎilín Institute 柏林教理院. There, he lectured on the Abhidharma-kośa 具社論. After the school shut down the following year, Tàixū asked him to go back to Wǔchāng to head the library at the World Buddhist Studies Center 世界佛學苑, which had been set up by Táng Dàyuán 唐大圓 in 1929. Around this time, Fǎfǎng also began editing the Hǎicháo yīn. He worked at the library from 1932 to 1936, during which time he also ran the Buddhist Studies Research Department 佛學研究部 at the Wǔchāng Buddhist Seminary. There he oversaw research being carried out by 27 graduates of various Buddhist Seminaries in China. Among them were Huìjué 會覺, Zhīfēng 芝峰, Yìnshùn 印順, and Dàxǐng 大醒. He was also sometimes associated with the Right Faith Society 正信會. After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he moved to Sìchuān 四川 to help Fǎzūn 法尊 run the Sino-Tibetan Institute 漢藏教理院. He worked there for 2 or 3 years.
In 1941, Fǎfǎng received permission to travel to Sri Lanka (through Burma) for more than a year, and then on to India, where he arrived in February, 1943. There he studied English, Sanskrit, and Pāli. Upon his return to China, he opened a Pāli Studies Institute in Xī’ān 西安, the purpose of which was exchange of monks between Sri Lanka and China. After Tàixū died in the spring of 1947, Fǎfǎng traveled to Malaysia and Hong Kong, meeting with Chinese communities in southeast Asia. He then briefly took over the Wǔchāng Buddhist Seminary again, starting a new term.
During the summer and winter of 1949, he lectured in Hong Kong. The lectures he gave in May, 1949, at Hong Kong's Dōngliān juéyuàn 東蓮覺苑 on Consciousness-Only 唯識 thought where later collected and published as Wéishì shǐguān jí qí zhéxué 唯識史觀及其哲學 (Consciousness-Only: Its Historical Viewpoint and Philosophy). Fǎfǎng eventually settled in Sri Lanka where he lectured on Chinese Buddhism at a Sri Lankan University.
He died of a brain hemorrhage in Sri Lanka on October 3, 1951.