Zhūhóng 袾宏
Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲袾宏 (1535–1615), zì Fóhuì 佛慧, hào Liánchí 蓮池 (“Lotus Pond”); lay surname Shěn 沈. Native of Rénhé 仁和 (Hángzhōu). One of the Four Eminent Monks of the late Míng (WǎnMíng sì dà gāosēng 晚明四大高僧) alongside Hānshān Déqīng 憨山德清, Zǐbǎi Zhēnkě 紫柏真可, and Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭.
Early Confucian education (successful at shēngyuán 生員 level) before ordination in 1566 after the deaths of his parents and wife. Studied under Biànróng Zhēnyuán 遍融真圓 and Xiàoyán Débǎo 笑巖德寶, then spent a long residence at Yúnqīsì 雲棲寺 on Wǔyúnshān 五雲山 near Hángzhōu — whence the name Yúnqī. Central figure in the late-Míng revival of Pure Land practice, and architect of the sānjiāo héyī 三教合一 (“unity of the three teachings”) integrative programme that harmonised Chán, Pure Land, and Confucian moral cultivation.
Major writings include the Āmítuó jīng shūchāo 阿彌陀經疏鈔 (a commentary on the shorter Sukhāvatīvyūhasūtra), the Zìzhī lù 自知錄 (the Morality Book of Self-Knowledge, a systematic lay-Buddhist moral-accounting manual), the Zhú chuāng suíbǐ 竹窗隨筆 (three-part collection of essays on religious practice), numerous commentaries and Pure-Land instructional works, and numerous short prefaces and postfaces for reprinted classical texts. His 1609 preface to an earlier engraving of Pǔmíng’s Mùniú tú sòng is preserved in the Kāngxī-1 compilation KR6q0161.