Chan Master Huotang Zhengyan,a third-generation eminent monk of the Sanfeng school,was a highly re-spected figure who resided at the renowned Lingyin Monastery in Hangzhou during the Ming and Qing dynasties.His writings in his lifetime,rare but now fortunately published,provide a relatively accurate recording of his life.Huotang spent a long period in Shanghai during the transition between the Ming and Qing dynasties.But materials such as tower inscriptions and biographies do not document this period.During his stay in Shanghai,he had frequent interactions with notable recluses and laymen such as Chen Jiru,and later generations like Song Cunbiao and Shan Xun,as evidenced by his surviving collection of poems.In his later years,Huotang was implicated in a monastic case,leading to his imprisonment in Nanjing.The roots of this case can be traced back to his residence in Shanghai,and the monastery involved in the case was also in Songjiang Prefecture.Through an examination of Huotang's interactions in Shanghai,it can be inferred that Buddhist development in the Qing Dynasty in the Shanghai region had reached a considerable scale,and the proselytization and social interaction of Chan monks believing in Chinese Buddhism with local eliteshad reached the peak.Additionally,these investigations are of crucial help for future revisions of the history of Buddhism in Shanghai and broader studies of local religious life.
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