Wáng Hóngyuàn 王弘願 (1876-1937)
Courtesy name: Shīyù 師愈
Style name 號: Layman Yuánwǔ 圓五居士
Dharma name 法名: Hóngyuàn 弘願
Wáng Hóngyuàn 王弘願 (1876-1937) was a lay Buddhist of the Republican period, and an important, but highly controversial, proponent of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism 東密.
When young, Wáng received a traditional Confucian education. He received his Xiùcái 秀才 degree when he was 23 (1899). He taught at the Cháozhōu Middle School 潮州中學堂 for eight years, becoming principal after the founding of the Republic, though he left this position soon thereafter. He eventually returned to Cháozhōu Middle School to teach.
At age 40, Wáng began to read about Buddhism, starting with the Huáyán Sūtra 華嚴經. He was unable to understand it, so he began to study under Yíguāng 怡光 of Kāiyuán Temple 開元寺 with whom he developed a strong friendship.
In 1921, Wáng published his most famous work, Mìzōng gāngyào 密宗綱要 (Essentials of the Esoteric School), which was a translation of Mikkyō kōyō 密教綱要, a work by the Japanese Shingon 真言 master Gonda Raifu 權田雷斧. Wáng's work attracted Gonda's attention, and in May, 1924 Gonda and several of his colleagues came to Kāiyuán Temple in Cháozhōu to transmit their brand of Esoteric Buddhism. Wáng received both of the two levels of abiṣeka 灌頂, or esoteric initiation, at that time. For this occasion he wrote Jìnggào hǎinèi fóxuéjiā shū 敬告海內佛學家書 (Letter of Proclamation to all the Buddhist Scholars in China).
In 1926, Wáng traveled to Japan and became a 49th-generation Ācārya 阿闍梨 (or teacher) in the Shingon school. Upon his return to China, he gave esoteric initiation to thousands in Cháozhōu, Guǎngzhōu 廣州, Hong Kong, and Shàntóu 汕頭.
In 1928, he began giving abiṣeka in the dilapidated northern hall of Liùróng Temple 六榕寺 in Guǎngzhōu. In 1930 he and his followers began work on the Jiěxíng Hermitage 解行精舍, which was completed in 1932. The Hermitage was used by Tiěchán 鐵禪, Zhào Shìjìn 趙士覲, Hú Yìshēng 胡毅生, Hú Hànmín 胡漢民, and Féng Dáàn 馮達庵.
In 1933, Wáng published the piece 佛教解行特刊序, in which he laid out some of his main ideas about esoteric Buddhism. It was because of this that Wáng came into conflict with Tàixū 太虛, who was critical of the lifestyles led by Japanese Buddhist priests, and the loose behavioral standards that esoteric Buddhism seemed to allow. Tàixū was especially nonplussed by Wáng's assertion that lay Buddhists could give abiṣeka to ordained Buddhists. Wáng also attracted the criticisms of many other Buddhists at the time, such as Fǎfǎng 法舫, and Yìnguāng 印光, for his de-emphasis of the Buddhist precepts. The negative reaction of Chinese monastics towards Wáng's work can also be seen in how Wáng is treated by the historian of modern Chinese Buddhism, Shì Dōngchū 東初.