Ou-yang Ching-wu (20 November 1871-23 February 1943), leading Buddhist layman and scholarly representative of the wei-shih school. The son of an assistant department director in the Board of Civil Affairs, Ou-yang Ching-wu was born in Ihuang, Kiangsi. His father died when Ou-yang was six, and he was raised by his mother and other female relatives. In 1890 he earned the sheng-yüan degree, but he did not study for higher degrees because he had abandoned the style of writing required in the examinations. Later on, Ou-yang attended the Ching-hsun Academy in Nanch'ang, where he specialized in Han Learning, the study of reaching truth through concrete facts. He also studied mathematics and astronomy. After the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95 ended, he spent much of his time studying the writings of Lu Chiu-yuan (1139-1192) and Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529), two Neo-Confucian scholars who had opposed the rationalism of the Confucianist Chu Hsi. Ou-yang attempted to find principles of national salvation for China in these texts. In 1904 Ou-yang Ching-wu sat for the metropolitan examination at Peking, but did not pass it. On his way back to Kiangsi, he stopped in Nanking and visited Yang Wen-hui (1837-1911; T. Jen-shan) , who was the director of the Chin-ling k'o-ching ch'u (Nanking Buddhist Press). Ou-yang was so impressed by Yang that he began a study of Buddhism. Soon afterwards, he established the Ching-chih School in Ihuang, where he taught for one year. In 1906 he became inspector of schools at Kuangch'ang, but he left the post almost immediately because his mother was gravely ill. After her death, he was so grieved that he took the vows of a Buddhist chu-shih [lay-monk], which prohibited the eating of meat, sexual activity, and acceptance of official appointment. He retired to a mountain retreat at Chiu-feng-shan to mourn his mother's death and to attempt to achieve enlightenment. A year later, he returned to Nanking and began studying under Yang Wen-hui.

At Yang Wen-hui's suggestion, Ou-yang Ching-wu went to Japan in 1907 to study Shingon, or Japanese tantric Buddhism. In Tokyo he became acquainted with the scholars Chang Ping-lin and Liu Shih-p'ei (qq.v.), who also were interested in Buddhism. He returned to China in 1908, where he taught at the Canton Higher Normal School. A few months later, he was compelled by ill health to retire to Ihuang. Ou-yang went to Nanking in 1910 to study both wei-shih, or "consciousness-only," Buddhism and classical yoga under Yang Wenhui. In 1911, after Yang died, he assumed the editorship of the Buddhist Press. He organized China Buddhist associations in 1912 at Nanking and Peking after proposals were made in the Parliament to make Confucianism the state religion; the pronouncements of the Buddhist associations bitterly criticized the inability of the Buddhist clergy to uphold their beliefs. As editor of the Buddhist Press, Ou-yang began in 1914 to publish "consciousness-only" scriptures brought to China from India and translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by Hsüan-tsang (602-64) .

Ou-yang Ching-wu soon became a wellknown editor and scholar, and he attracted a large following of Buddhist students. His teaching method in leading students to a comprehension of "consciousness-only" Buddhism was to acquaint them first with earlier Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhist writings in chronological and developmental sequence. In 1918 Ou-yang Ching-wu, Chang Ping-lin, Ch'en San-li (q.v.), and others established the China Institute of Inner Learning at Nanking, where much valuable research on Buddhism was done during the next ten years. In July 1 922 Ou-yang was appointed chancellor of the Nanking Buddhist Academy; his inauguration was attended by such Buddhist laymen as Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, Carsun Chang (Chang Chia-sen, qq.v.), and others. In 1925 Ou-yang Ching-wu and about 40 of his students at the academy began to edit and publish more than 100 volumes of Buddhist scriptures which had been translated from Sanskrit into Chinese during the T'ang period (618-907). However, work on the project had to be suspended during the political disturbances of 1927 (see Chiang Kai-shek) when Nationalist soldiers encamped on the academy grounds. In 1928 Ou-yang traveled to Lushan, Kiangsi, to discuss Buddhism with Ch'en San-li and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao. After order and political stability had been restored in Nanking, he returned to the academy.

During the 1930's Ou-yang Ching-wu continued to pursue his editorial, scholarly, and teaching activities. In 1931 he founded the Nei-yüan nien-k'an [academy annual] and the Nei-yuan tsa-chih [academy magazine] to discuss and propagate "consciousness-only" doctrine. He also became agitated about the threat of Japanese aggression in north China, and in January 1932 he called upon Ch'en Ming-shu (q.v.), who had been one of his students and who had become minister of communications in the National Government, to urge strong military resistance to Japan. After the Sino- Japanese war began in the summer of 1937, Ou-yang moved the Buddhist Academy from Nanking to Chiangchin, Szechwan. He continued to direct the academy until his death on 23 February 1943.

Ou-yang Ching-wu married at an early age, and he continued to live with his wife and children after taking Buddhist lay vows in 1905. His daughter, Ou-yang Lan, died in 1914, and his second son, Ou-yang Tung, drowned in 1923; his wife nee Hsiung, died in 1940. His eldest son, Ou-yang Ko, was captain of the gunboat Yung-feng, the vessel in which Sun Yat-sen took refuge after the June 1922 coup of Ch'en Chiung-ming (q.v.).

Ou-yang Ching-wu was one of the foremost Buddhist laymen of his day, and he achieved fame for his leadership of the movement to revive the "consciousness-only" school of Buddhism. This school, which was founded in India by Asanga (c. 410-c. 500), was a dominating influence on Chinese scholars from the fifth to the seventh century. Ou-yang Chingwu's major contributions to the literature of "consciousness-only" Buddhism were his prefaces for the classical Buddhist texts published by the China Institute of Inner Learning and his "Wei-shih chueh-tse t'an" [a decisive analysis of idealism], in which he attacked the doctrine of The Awakening of Faith, upheld by the Chingt'u sect and the T'ien-t'ai and Hua Yen schools. Ou-yang's well-known statement that "Buddhism is neither religion nor philosophy" reflects his view of Buddhism as a unique system which includes all branches of human discipline. In the 1920's he engaged in a number of polemical arguments with T'ai-hsü (q.v.), who believed that a broad synthesis of Buddhism and Western thought was necessary. Ou-yang opposed synthesis and advocated strict adherence to the tenets of "consciousness-only" Buddhism. He also disagreed with Hsiung Shih-li (q.v.), who reconstructed idealistic Neo-Confucian philosophy to include "consciousness-only" concepts. Ou-yang Ching-wu's collected works, Ching-wu nei-wai-hsüeh, were published posthumously.