The Venerable Master Hsing Yun, a Buddhist monk who built a global network of temples that extended to mainland China, putting him at the vanguard of popularizing Buddhism in a country whose government had long been hostile to religion, died on Feb. 5 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He was 95.
His death, at the Fo Guang Shan Monastery, was announced by his organization, Fo Guang Shan. No cause was given.
Master Hsing Yun was criticized for his political ties, especially for his support of China’s authoritarian leader, President Xi Jinping. But his movement flourished in China because it focused on individual piety and compassion, not social change, and did not challenge the government.
Insisting that Buddhism was apolitical and that Buddhists supported “whoever was in charge,” he was the rare religious figure to secure the backing of Beijing, and he maintained a congenial, yearslong relationship with Mr. Xi. He met the Chinese leader four times, and Mr. Xi claimed to have read “all the books that master sent me.”
An adherent of humanistic Buddhism, which emphasizes this life over the afterlife, Master Hsing Yun tried to broaden its appeal by building universities in the United States, Australia and the Philippines, and by using rock-concert-style effects like smoke generators and lasers at religious events.
He was also a major figure in Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing considers a breakaway province. He helped revive Buddhism and build the trappings of a vibrant civil society there as Taiwan transitioned from a military dictatorship to a democracy in the 1970s and ’80s.
Master Hsing Yun’s organization was based in Taiwan, but he was born in the mainland, where he later returned on visits to build his modern branch of Buddhism.
He saw himself as a “symbolic bridge” between the two entities, said Stuart Chandler, a professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania who has written a book on the master and his monastic order.
“People gravitated toward him because of his charisma,” Professor Chandler said. “He was a monk from the mainland who connected with Taiwanese, and as Taiwanese started going around the world, he was a symbol of Chinese culture.”
But it was a tricky balancing act, and his support for Beijing sometimes alienated his base in Taiwan.
In 2009, in a clumsy effort to point out that the people on the mainland and in Taiwan were the same, he said that residents of Taiwan were Chinese, not Taiwanese, stoking the ire of those who supported the island’s independence. In 2013, he declared his support for Mr. Xi’s “Chinese dream,” saying he believed that the agenda would lead to a more egalitarian society.
He also stumbled into a political scandal in the United States, after nuns and monks of his Hsi Lai Temple in Southern California were accused of making illegal donations to the Democratic Party at a luncheon in 1996 attended by Vice President Al Gore and the monk, prompting a federal investigation that became an embarrassment for the campaign.
Hsing Yun was born Li Guoshen, the third of four children of a poor family in the eastern city of Yangzhou, China, in August 1927. His father, Li Chengbao, an incense vendor, disappeared in the wake of Japan’s invasion of Nanjing. While searching for him with his mother, Li-Liu Yuying, Hsing Yun visited a famous temple that ignited his interest in religion, according to his official biography.
He soon joined a monastic order and was ordained in his early teens. He stumbled upon the dictionary definition for “hsing yun,” or “nebula,” and was so taken by its connotations of cosmic infinity that he selected it as his dharma name, according to his writings.
As the Communist Party took control of China, Master Hsing Yun escaped to Taiwan in 1949, joining an exodus of Buddhist monks who feared religious repression. But Taiwanese leaders, who were then suspicious of religions other than Christianity, had the secret police follow him around, and he was briefly imprisoned on suspicion of spying for the Communists.
Over time he built a following and in 1967, seeking to make Buddhism more accessible to ordinary people, he established the Fo Guang Shan monastic order in the southern Taiwanese port city of Kaohsiung. He also embraced mass-marketing tactics. And, taking inspiration from Roman Catholic missionaries, he sought to promote the faith through education.
As Taiwan lifted martial law, he founded a number of schools, Buddhist seminaries, publishing houses and even a television station. His teachings, emphasizing social harmony and reconciliation, helped balance some of the potentially disruptive forces of the political transition, according to Richard Madsen, an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of “Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan” (2007).
“He popularized Buddhism in a way that made it very user-friendly with these emerging middle classes and led to a surge of religiosity among the middle classes,” Professor Madsen said. “It was indirectly political and provided stability in civil society.”
As waves of Taiwanese migrated to North America and elsewhere, Master Hsing Yun set his sights on global expansion. His organization established two temples in Los Angeles County in 1976 and constructed the 15-acre Hsi Lai Temple in the Los Angeles suburb Hacienda Heights in 1988.
Fo Guang Shan has since opened more than 120 temples in 30 countries, catering mainly to the Chinese diaspora, according to Jens Reinke, the director of the Institute for the Study of Humanistic Buddhism at University of the West in Los Angeles. In addition to the one in California, the group has major temples in Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa, and Berkeley, Australia.
Master Hsing Yun employed elaborate theme-park-style attractions like fireworks, light shows and slot machines to draw followers to his sprawling temples. Their grounds attract crowds every Lunar New Year, when the monastery and temples are decked with multicolored lights and lanterns.
“People would come for the show, but they would leave with the dharma,” the essential Buddhist principles, Professor Chandler said. “That was an important seed for him to do things kind of big and flashy.”
Master Hsing Yun’s relations with Beijing were not always smooth. In 1989, he was barred from China for a few years after he reportedly sheltered an official who fled his post in the wake of the Tiananmen Square crackdown that year.
The monk denied it and was allowed into China to visit his hometown in 2003.
Since 2007, he has built eight Buddhist facilities in China, including cultural centers, libraries and a giant temple in the city of Yixing featuring a 15-story pagoda. Even as the government cracked down on other religions, he was allowed to expand thanks in large part to his willingness to set aside criticism of Communist Party leaders.
“I support the leadership,” he said in a 2017 interview with The New York Times. “They care for us, as well. It is mutual. We Buddhists uphold whomever is in charge. Buddhists don’t get involved in politics.”
He chafed at being called a “political monk” by critics but eventually seemed to come to terms with it. In his 2005 memoir, “Hear Me Out: Messages From a Humble Monk,” he wrote: “Having been a monk my whole life, I neither want to be an official or the people’s representative. But when it comes to fairness in society, sometimes I can’t help but share my opinions.”
