Qián Yīān 錢伊庵
Late-Qīng lay Buddhist scholar. Zì Dōngfǔ 東甫; hào Yīān 伊庵 (“Yi-Hermitage”). Native of Wǔlín 武林 (Hángzhōu). Birth year unrecorded; died Dàoguāng 17 (1837).
A lay practitioner (fēi sēng 非僧) with sustained serious engagement in Chán and Pure Land traditions. Studied Chán under Fùchūn Shàn Huázàng 富春單華藏, a Zhèjiāng Chán lay teacher. Widely read in both Chán and Pure Land; active in the late-Qīng Buddhist lay-intellectual culture centred around the Jiāngnán printing houses.
Principal works:
- Zōng fàn 宗範 KR6q0170 — his 1835-published two-juan systematic Chán practice-manual, later reprinted by Yáng Wénhuì at the Jīnlíng Kèjīng chù in 1886.
- Preface to the 1820 (Jiāqìng 24) reprint of the Chèwù dàshī yíjí 徹悟大師遺集 — evidencing his participation in the late-Qīng Chán–Pure Land integrative revival tradition of Chèwù Jìlóng 徹悟際龍 (1742–1810).
The Zōng fàn’s late-Qīng reception in Yáng Wénhuì’s Jīnlíng Kèjīng chù printing programme helped establish it as one of the canonical practical-meditative manuals for the early-Republican-era Chinese Buddhist revival.