View source for Cihang (1895-1954)

{{Bio_infobox
|name-date=Cíháng 慈航 (1895-1954)
|names=* Lay surname 姓: Ài 艾
* Name 名: Jìróng 繼榮
* Courtesy name 字: Yàncái 彥才
|image=[[File:Cihang.png|200px|center|Cihang]]
|birth=8/7 Guāngxù 光緒 21 ([[1895]]) in Jiànníng County 建寧縣, Fújiàn [[福建]]
|death=May 6, 1954 at the Maitreya Hermitage 彌勒精舍 in Xìzhǐ 汐止, Táiwān [[台灣]].
|associates=
|editor-name=
}}
{{Disambig|note=Another monastic of this name was Cíháng [[慈航 (1869-1919)]]}}

'''Cíháng 慈航 (1895-1954)''' was active in Southeast Asia in the [[1930s]] and [[1940s]], and then in Taiwan. His mummified "flesh body" 肉身 was the first such made in Taiwan, and is still on display today.

== Biography ==
Cíháng's mother died when he was 10 ''suì'' 歲, and his father died two years later. Cíháng was then raised by an aunt and uncle. As a young man he learned his uncle's trade, which was the making of monastic robes. During this time he visited many temples, and eventually decided to become a monk. He tonsured under Zìzhōng 自忠 in [[1912]], and then went to Néngrén Temple 能仁寺 in Jiāngxī [[江西]] to receive full ordination the following year.

From [[1912]] to [[1927]], Cíháng visited many famous centers of monastic learning and studied under Dìxián [[諦閑]], Yúanyīng [[圓瑛]], and Èlǎo 厄老. 

In September of [[1927]] he became a student at the Mínnán Buddhist Seminary [[閩南佛學院]]. At that time, Tàixū [[太虛]] (the abbot of the overseeing monastery) was often away. Later that winter, a conflict broke out between those running the monastery and one Xuécháo [[學潮]]. Although Cíháng was not part of this fight, he was implicated in Xuécháo's group, and left the seminary voluntarily.

In the fall of [[1928]], Cíháng was asked by Zhú'ān 竺庵 to become abbot of Yíngjiāng Temple [[迎江寺]] in Ānqìng [[安慶]]. By this point in his life, Cíháng had not received a great deal of education, but he knew that as abbot of the monastery he had to study. He began by assiduously studying Táng Dàyuán's [[唐大圓]] ''Lectures on Consciousness-Only'' (Wéishì jiǎngyì 唯識講義). He also established a night school at the temple for local orphans.

After a fire destroyed half of the temple complex in the first month of [[1930]], Cíháng retired from his abbacy and traveled to Hong Kong [[香港]], then Burma where he took up the abbacy of Lónghuá Temple 龍華寺 in Rangoon. He taught there for two or three years. On Buddha's Birthday in [[1933]], several local lay Buddhists helped him establish a "Chinese Buddhist Studies Association" 中國佛學會, at which he and several lay people lectured.

Cíháng went on a lecture tour in Eastern China in [[1935]]. These lectures were later published by the World Buddhist Studies Center [[世界佛學苑]]. Cíháng returned to Rangoon after the Second-Sino Japanese War began in the summer of [[1937]]. For part of [[1939]] Cíháng joined Tàixū and others on a tour of Buddhist sites in South and Southeast Asia. For the next ten years, Cíháng taught in the overseas Chinese Buddhist communities in Southeast Asia.

In [[1947]], Cíháng was invited by Miàoguǒ [[妙果]] to come to Táiwān [[台灣]] to set up a Buddhist Seminary [[佛學院]]. Cíháng arrived in October of that year. Although he was initially discouraged by the poor conditions at Yuánguāng Temple [[圓光寺]], he persevered and they soon established the Taiwanese Buddhist Seminary [[台灣佛學院]]. At first they had only few nuns, lay people, and monks, but in the fall of [[1949]], many famous monks from the mainland came to Taiwan, and sought to teach and study at the Seminary. The resources of their temple would only let them accommodate so many refugees. This led to some conflicts with the temple, and negotiations. Cíháng continued to work for the refugee monks from the mainland.

[[File:Cihang_roushen.JPG|200px|left|Cihang's "Meat Body" 肉身]] On New Year's Eve 除夕 of 1953, Cíháng told his disciples that he would be passing away by the fourth month of the following year. He passed away on May 6, 1954 at the Maitreya Hermitage 彌勒精舍 in Xìzhǐ 汐止.

As reported in Welch<ref>{{BRC}} Pp. 343-344.</ref>, Cíháng's body was famously exhumed by some of his followers on May 19, 1959 and when he body was found to be more or less intact, he was mummified according the practices of the Chinese Buddhist tradition.<ref>A slideshow of the mummification process can be viewed [http://km.cca.gov.tw/myphoto/gallery1.asp?action=viewimage&slideshow=on&categoryid=20&imageid=877&box=&shownew= here].</ref> He was the first monk to be preserved in this way in Taiwan.

== Notes ==
<references/>

== References ==
* {{ZFJS}} Pp. 2.927-931.
* {{XFRC}} Pp. 2.1285b-1288b.

[[Category:Biography]]