Fazun

Fazun (法尊, 1902–1980) was a Chinese Buddhist monk who played major role in the spread of Tibetan Buddhism and translation of scriptures into modern Chinese.

One Teacher, Many Traditions states:

Several young Chinese monks studied Buddhism in Tibet in the 1920s and 30s. Fazun (1902–80), a disciple of Taixu, was a monk at Drepung Monastery, where he studied and later translated into Chinese several great Indian treatises and some of Tsongkhapa’s works.

Works translated into Chinese included:

• Tsongkhapa’s The Great Treatise on the Graduated Path to Enlightenment (jangchup lamgyi rimpé chenmo, Puti dao cidi guanglun)

Gray Tuttle states:

...he also wrote the first Chinese language textbook for studying the Tibetan language, helped produce the first modern Tibetan-Chinese dictionary, and authored numerous works on the history of and the contemporary situation in Tibet.

The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism states:

Fazun also translated into Tibetan the Abhidharma-mahavibhasa, extant in the two hundred rolls of Xuanzang’s Chinese rendering (Da piposha lun), by the title Bye brag bshad mdzod chen mo.

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Dalai Lama; Thubten Chodron (2014), Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions, Wisdom Publications 
• Dharma-master Fazun (2006), by Gray Tuttle (Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies)

Further reading

• Gray Tuttle, Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China, Columbia University Press, 2005
• Orzech, Charles D. (general editor) (2011). Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Brill. 
• The Rising Popularity of Tibetan Buddhism among Chinese in Mainland China – A Conversation with Professor Gray Tuttle