Recently, “One Mountain and One Ning and Song Yuanchang National High Monk Ink Document Exhibition” was launched in the Dinghai District Cultural Center. This exhibition displays more than 50 ink pictures related to the “overseas grass saint” Yishan and Yining, as well as the ink blots of other senior monks in the Song and Yuan dynasties. The exhibition will last until the 25th of this month.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Yishan Yining Zen Master was the abbot of Zuyin Temple in Changguo (Dinghai). According to relevant historical materials, Yishan Yining (1247–1317), known as Yishan, Zhan Yining, a monk of the Rinzai sect in the Yuan Dynasty, a stubborn practitioner of Mifa, commonly known as Hu, a native of Linhai, Taizhou, once studied with Taizhou Hongfu Temple Wuxian Zen master, and then went to Qingyuan Mansion (now Ningbo) Ashoka Temple to practice Zen. In the 21st year of the Yuan Dynasty (1284), the abbot of Changguo Zuyin Temple (now Dinghai Zuyin Temple); In the 31st year of the Yuan, the abbot was the abbot of Baotuo Temple (present-day Puji Temple on Putuo Mountain). In the third year of Dade (1299), the Yuan court ordered Master Miaoci Hongji and the president of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Sect to make Japan a good one. Ichizan has lived in Kamakura Kenchoji Temple, Enkakuji Temple, Joji Temple, and Nanzenji Temple, an imperial temple in Kyoto, and is extremely prestigious. He is known as the “Ichizan School” in Japan’s legal system, and he has made important contributions to the fields of Zen, Song Studies, literature and calligraphy in Japan, and is known as the ancestor of Japan’s “Five Mountains Literature”, the “overseas grass saint”, and the main propagator of Song Studies, and revived and frequently promoted Sino-Japanese folk cultural exchanges in the Kamakura period, promoting peace between the two countries.
Last year, the Provincial Youth Book Association, the Dinghai District Book Association and the Dinghai District Cultural Center hosted the “One Mountain, One Ning” Cup Zhejiang Youth Calligraphy Invitation Exhibition, which initially polished the cultural imprint of “One Mountain Dongdu” in the province. The three-year action plan for the construction of the Tang Poetry Road in eastern Zhejiang (2020-2022) puts forward that “through the protection and utilization of ancient buildings, inscriptions, documents, landscapes and other resources, excavate and enhance the Buddhist culture represented by Zhiyan, Jigong, Yining Zen Master, etc.”, and lists Yishan Yining Zen Master as one of the three representative figures of eastern Zhejiang Buddhist culture, requiring relevant provincial departments to do relevant work. To this end, the relevant units organized forces to complete the preliminary research on the life and ink of Yishan Yining.
Through this exhibition, the cultural imprint of “One Mountain Dongdu” will be further polished, the construction of the Dinghai cultural brand of the island scenery of the “important window” will be promoted, and the radiation of Zhejiang culture will be further enhanced.