Haichaoyin

Haichaoyin (海潮音, "Voice of the Sea Tide") was a monthly Buddhist journal founded by the monk Taixu (太虚), which appeared from 1920.^{1 • 2} Taixu's retrospective relates that the society behind the quarterly Jueshe congshu (觉社丛书) was formed in Shanghai after Jiang Yuyan (蒋雨岩), Chen Yuanbai (陈元白), and Huang Baocang (黄葆苍, the monk Daci 大慈) heard Taixu lecture on Buddhism at Putuo.⁴ Taixu stated its purpose as "to propagate the true meaning of Mahayana Buddhism and to guide the right thinking of the modern mind" (发扬大乘佛法真义，应导现代人心正思).^{1 • 2}

Origin and founding

According to Taixu's retrospective, the Awakening Society (觉社) was formed in Shanghai as a group for the study and propagation of Buddhism.⁴ When the quarterly reached five issues in the winter of 1919, calls to convert it into a monthly led to the change, and the new monthly took the name Haichaoyin.^{1 • 4} Taixu's retrospective records that the first issue of volume 1 carried a "Declaration of Haichaoyin's Appearance in the World" together with his own declaration.⁴

Sources differ on the founding date and the founding body. The Dharma Drum catalog dates volume 1 to March 1920, while the Taiwan journal-history study and Taixu's own retrospective place the first appearance in January 1920.^{3 • 1 • 4} A Buddhist reference work describes the journal instead as founded by the Wuchang Buddhist Academy in 1920, an attribution the sources tracing it to the Awakening Society do not make.⁵ The line of descent from the Jueshe congshu is the one given by the specialized catalog and by Taixu himself.^{3 • 4}

Contents and editorial organization

Taixu's retrospective states that he edited volume 1 himself in Hangzhou, entrusting printing and distribution to the Zhonghua Book Company in Shanghai.⁴ He recorded that volume 9 was published by the Buddhist Laymen's Society of Taixian county (泰县佛教居士林).⁴ He further recorded that from volume 12 the journal was edited in succession by Manzhi (满智), Fafang (法舫), Zhifeng (芝峰), and Daxing (大醒), after which his own burden on the journal could gradually be handed to the Buddhist Academy's students.⁴

The Taiwan journal-history study records that the mainland-period monthly society typically had twenty directors to raise funds, plus one president, one editor, one publishing manager, and one accountant; contributors were not fixed in number.¹ The Dharma Drum catalog lists the journal's editors over the years as Shanyin (善因), Shi Yiru (史一如), Tang Dayuan (唐大圆), Zhang Huasheng (张化声), Huijue (会觉), Lengqie Shanmin (楞伽山民), Qian Chengshan (钱诚善), Manzhi (满智), Fafang (法舫), Zhifeng (芝峰), Daxing (大醒), Weifang (苇舫), Chenkong (尘空), and Fushan (福善).³

Publication history, 1920 to 1949

The Dharma Drum catalog records that the journal ran on the Chinese mainland from 1920 to April 1949, reaching 352 issues.³ The catalog notes a marked change with the issue of February 15, 1931 (volume 12, number 1), which carried a new cover design and was the first published by the Shanghai Buddhist Books company (上海佛学书局), a publisher of Buddhist texts established in 1929.^{3 • 2} A study of the Shanghai period argues that in 1931 to 1933, under Shanghai Buddhist Books' distribution, the journal surpassed its 1920s form in editorial format, content, and social circulation, avoiding suspension and regaining vitality.²

Taixu's retrospective records that from volume 4 the journal carried running debates with scholars of the Sino-Japanese Buddhist Institute (內學院) in Nanjing: the monk Dajing (大敬) disputed the dates of the Buddha's birth and death with Lü Qiuyi (吕秋逸, Lü Cheng), and Nie Ougeng (聂耦庚) debated with Shi Yiru over the methods of Yinming (因明, Buddhist logic), a polemic he described as setting Buddhist currents in Wuchang and Nanjing against each other.⁴

Continuation in Taiwan

The Dharma Drum catalog records that after the mainland run ended, publication continued in Taiwan.³ According to the study on the development of postwar Taiwan Buddhist journals, when the editor Daxing fell seriously ill, volume 33 appeared as a quarterly; on November 8, those concerned agreed that the monk Yinshun (印顺) would remain in Taiwan as president of the journal, with Li Zikuan (李子宽) handling publication and an invitation extended to the monk Xuming (续明) to come to Taiwan as editor.¹ The same study records that on July 24, 1976 (民国65年), at Shandao Temple (善导寺) in Taipei and under the supervision of the monk Dongchu (东初), the monk Leguan (乐观) handed the journal's seal and a fund of NT$50,000 to Sun Zhang Qingyang (孙张清扬), representing the Shandao Temple board, after which the journal entered a period under Shandao Temple's responsibility.¹

Influence and assessment

A degree thesis describes the journal as a witness to a century of Chinese Buddhist reform and Buddhist studies, noting its role as the journal of the China Buddhist Association (中国佛教会), the body Buddhist circles organized themselves in the first half of the twentieth century.² Its debates with the Neijing scholars made it, in Taixu's account, one pole of the period's leading doctrinal controversy.⁴ A reprint bookseller's description credits its thirty years of publication with reflecting the condition of Chinese Buddhism in the first half of the twentieth century fairly completely.⁶

References

1. 戰後臺灣佛教雜誌的發展：以在臺復刊後的《海潮音》月刊為主(1949-2010)
2. 《应时契理，弘法利生——〈海潮音〉月刊在上海（1931-1933）》（学位论文摘要）
3. Haichao yin 海潮音 - DMCB Wiki
4. 太虚全集 - 佛学 - 悲华在线（太虚《十五年来海潮音之回顾》）
5. 佛教名刊《海潮音》-佛教导航
6. 海潮音 - 51古书网

Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › China › Republic of China (1912 to 1949) › Writers, artists, and scholars

Initially written Sep 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026

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