CHAPTER THREE

THE HISTORY OF TZU CHI: ORGANIZATION, LEADERSHIP AND PUBLIC RESPONSES

Since Tzu Chi was founded in 1966, advocating the belief that worldly sal- vation is obtainable through altruistic acts, the Movement has developed from a small, isolated charity into the biggest lay voluntary organization in the history of . Over more than three decades, Tzu Chi has devel- oped from only a handful of female members to several thousand devotees of both sexes and approximately one hundred nuns. Under the leadership of Master , the movement has successfully established itself as a religious organization with several secular institutes and regular, reliable money donors to sustain its activities.102 In addition, the Movement has achieved many new records in charity work: it claims to have helped many thousands of people, and it was the fi rst Taiwanese charity to participate in international relief programmes: in , Rwanda and Chechnya. As with most New Religious Movements, the history of the Tzu Chi movement cannot be separated from the history of its founder, Master Cheng Yen. Master Cheng Yen is the founder of the Movement, the pres- ident of the organization, the Abbess of the Abode, Jiengsi Jienshe, and the religious master to disciples as well as lay members. In this chapter, I will present the history of the founder of the Tzu Chi Movement as well as of the Tzu Chi Movement itself. I will look at the life history of Master Cheng Yen from two angles. First, using the existing historical material and data;103 and second, from the perspective of the members: what they said about her and came to believe about her. Th ese two approaches are

102 By 1996 Tzu Chi was well known by the academics and the media of Taiwan to have recruited approximately 3.5 million people (known as huiuan in Mandarin) to make cash donations to it on a regular basis; see Charles Jones 1996: 282. 103 Th e life history of Master Cheng Yen is well known. Th e source material for this section is as follows: Jones C., in Taiwan: A Historical Survey, 1996: 362-90; Chen Sheng-jen, Understand the Buddhist Tzu-Chi Association – A Cultural Approach, 1990: 61-74; Ho Ming-jung, Aspects and Implication of a Taiwanese Charity Organisation – Tzu Chi or the Buddhist Compassion Relief Association, 1995; Chen Hui- jian, (in Chinese) Master Cheng Yen and her Tzu Chi World, 1992: 4-47; Pen Shu-chun, ‘Refl ecting Mountains When Facing Mountains, Refl ecting Water When Facing Water: Th e Story of Master Cheng Yen’, in Kao Hsin-chiang (ed.), Still Th ought By Dharma Master Cheng Yen, 1993: 210-36 and ‘Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association’, in the same book, pp.196-9. 60 chapter three important: the former is objective, giving an actual historical account of the Master, while the latter is more subjective. Personal experiences may sometimes be a more important infl uence on what people believe about a charismatic leader than historical facts. A brief history of the media coverage of Tzu Chi will be included in this chapter, as the Movement has attracted a great deal of media inter- est in Taiwan. It will provide another objective of how the Move- ment has been received and portrayed.104

The History of Master Cheng Yen

Master Cheng Yen was born in 1937 into a Wang family from a town called Qingshui in central Taiwan. She was named Jin-yun and when she was eleven months old, she was adopted by her paternal uncle.105 Jin-yun grew up during wartime in a traditional environment. As far as religion was concerned, the deities of Taoism and Buddhism were both enshrined in most temples, and the Guan Yin [or Kuan Yin] was the most favoured goddess and was worshipped in almost every household.106

104 Some of the material on media response was derived from Jian Hui-mei and Kang Le, Xinyang yu Shehui (Belief and Society) 1995: 67-72. 105 According to my oral information and Tzu Chi’s approved literature, the adop- tion took place because Jin-yun’s natural family already had two elder daughters, and her paternal uncle and his wife did not have any children. Aft er the adoption, Jin-yun’s adopted mother subsequently gave birth to four other children. See Qin Yun’s Qian- shou Foxin (Th ousand hands and Buddhist heart) (Taipei: Qi Er, 1995) 194-5. 106 A Bodhisattva is a spiritual assistant to the Buddha. Among the diff erent levels of Bodhisattva, the most advanced stage is known as celestial Bodhisattva; among them Guan Yin (Kuan-yin, Kuan-shih-yin or Avalokitèshvara [in Sanskrit]) is one of the most famous ones. Avalokitèshvara was commonly worshipped in India by the fi ft h century and generally appeared in male form. In China the Bodhisattva who is known as Guan Yin is usually represented as a female. Th e Chinese name Guan Yin signifi es looking out for and responding to the sounds of living beings. Guan Yin is usually rep- resented iconographically with eleven heads, facing all directions in order to save living beings. As the eyewitness to suff ering, Guan Yin immediately relieves the sorrows of all who call on her name. In the , Guan Yin is the saviour of the distressed world. Beginning in the seventh and early eighth centuries, Guan Yin is manifested as a delicately slender, white-clad female fi gure and this becomes the dominant portrait for both female and male Buddhists. She is referred to as a goddess of mercy, white- clad, who usually carries a white lotus in her left hand, oft en with a water jug or a small child in her arms or near her feet. Guan Yin has become the patroness of women who want children and of sailors who wish to have her protection from calamities at sea. See Diana Paul, (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1985) chapters 5 and 7, and Chun-fang Yu, Kuan-yin, Th e Chinese Transformation of Avalokitesvara (: Columbia University Press, 2001).