In Memory of Professor Lou Yulie

Rainbows shine everywhere, praising Master Lou’s sacred legacy of a lifetime; a compassionate heart, a loving witness, may the Professor return on the strength of his vow.

In the early hours of 9 October 2026, our esteemed Honorary Dean, the eminent scholar of Chinese learning, Professor of Philosophy at Peking University, and Honorary Dean of Peking University’s Institute of Religious Culture, Professor Lou Yulie, passed away peacefully in Beijing at the age of ninety-three.

The news reached Hobart in the Southern Hemisphere and spread around the world. Disciples everywhere are steeped in deep grief.

Professor Lou Yulie was born in Hangzhou in 1934. In 1955 he entered the Department of Philosophy at Peking University, where he studied under great philosophers such as Feng Youlan and Tang Yongtong. From then on he taught at Yanyuan (the Peking University campus) for more than sixty years, and his students are found everywhere.

His Collated Annotations of the Works of Wang Bi set a standard for how later generations interpret the classics. In the bleakest years for Buddhist studies, he compiled Selected Materials on Chinese Buddhist Thought, which lit the path of wisdom for a generation of young scholars and monastics. All his life he advocated bringing the best of traditional culture back into our everyday lives.

To us, Professor Lou was more than a towering figure of the study. For seventeen years he was our Honorary Dean, a witness to, and supporter of, our work.

On 27 July 2009, the 43rd anniversary of the passing of the Sacred Patriarch, the Elder Dharma Lord Jingwu, Professor Lou travelled with Professor Jin Xun of Peking University and others to Hobart, at the southernmost end of the earth. He personally unveiled the IChinese Han Transmission Esotericism Academy, gladly accepted the post of Honorary Dean, and delivered a scholarly paper at the Academy’s first academic conference.

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Everyone remembers that on the night Professor Lou arrived at Rainbow Mountain, a vast aurora australis lit up the sky. The next morning, during the unveiling ceremony, a great rainbow appeared in the sky, with its head and tail clearly visible.

At the ceremony Professor Lou said:

“What we are doing today will surely shine over heaven and earth like a rainbow.”

When he visited the seaside, flock after flock of seagulls flew in and circled around him. The signs of heaven and earth bore witness for him in this way.

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Just one month later, in August 2009, the Bhagavan Zhi Ji Vimalakirti, our Venerable Master, personally led a delegation of seventeen from the Academy to Hokkaido, Japan, to attend the international academic conference of the East Asian Society for Religion and Culture. Professor Huang Xianian of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences chaired the Institute’s paper session, and Professor Lou gave on-the-spot commentary on three papers: those of the Venerable Master and of the Elder Gurus Vajra Long-Sheng and Vajra Hong-Jing.

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From Hobart in the far south, to Sapporo in the north, they met twice within a single month. A bond like this cannot be severed by a thousand or ten thousand miles.

In the years that followed, Professor Lou, writing as a leading figure in the academic world, composed the essay “Let the World Share the Spiritual Wisdom of Chinese Buddhism.” Citing artefacts unearthed at Yanchang Temple, he solemnly pointed out that Tang Esoteric Buddhism had not only never died out in China but had in some places flourished greatly. He wrote that the founding of the Institute of Chinese Han Transmission Esotericism Academy “filled this academic gap.”

In 2012, the Venerable Master’s collected radio addresses, Buddhism Beyond Boundaries, was published, and Professor Lou personally wrote the preface for both the Chinese and English editions.

In May 2015, the Venerable Master led a delegation to Beijing to attend the Zhao Puchu Cultural Thought Symposium, where he was reunited with Professor Lou and his wife after a long separation. The teachings Professor Lou shared at the banquet remain in everyone’s hearts to this day.

In November 2016, the 5th Overseas Chinese Leaders’ Cross-Strait Peaceful Development Forum and the Prayer Assembly of Eminent Monks from the Four Regions of the Two Shores were held in Hong Kong. Professor Lou also came to Hong Kong in person and attended the prayer assembly together with the Venerable Master.

Professor Lou spent his life speaking on the fundamental spirit of Chinese culture and the harmony of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. What the Venerable Master prayed for in Hong Kong, peace and harmony for the two shores, was likewise the peace and harmony of Chinese culture. A great scholar of the north and a master of the south shared one mind and one aspiration in that moment. This is spiritual resonance.

During their time in Hong Kong, Professor Lou and the Venerable Master talked at length about the future of the Chinese Han Transmission Esotericism Academy, the future of the Zhi Ji Museum, and the future of the Jin Gang Dhyana Temple, the southernmost Buddhist temple on earth. Professor Lou gave positive assessments and guidance on each of these undertakings.

Theirs was the friendship of kindred spirits, heart answering heart.

At the end of 2019, the Venerable Master went to Beijing again to attend the International Academic Symposium on Han Transmission Esoteric Buddhism in China. Professor Lou, already 86 years of age that year, still conversed warmly with the Venerable Master and posed for a commemorative photograph.

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On 16 May 2021, although separated by oceans, Professor Lou still delivered an address as Honorary Dean at the Academy’s online Bathing Buddha ceremony.

Across ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains, their Dharma friendship never wavered.

Counting from the day Professor Lou personally unveiled the Institute, over these seventeen years he has lent his learning, his reputation, and his sincerity to give the thousand-year lineage of Chinese Han-Tradition Esoteric Buddhism the strongest academic validation and support.

The sage has departed, but his bearing endures.

Professor Lou, we will always remember the words you spoke beneath the rainbow:

What we are doing will surely be carried forward and flourish. Having aspirations, one renews oneself day by day throughout life.

Honorary Dean Professor Lou Yulie, farewell for all ages!