ABSTRACT
A monk and an active defender of the Buddhist religion, Fa Lin was born in Henan, into a family surnamed Chen. He became a monk at nineteen, and devoted himself to the study of both the Buddhist and non-Buddhist canons. During the Wude reign in the Tang Dynasty, when the Grand Astrologer Fu Yi was a minister in the early Tang Dynasty and a member of the literati class, he shunned the strictly measured syntax and florid literary style of the Six Dynasties, and was known for his use of plain expressions in his prose writings. In the early years of the Zhenguan reign, he was abbot of Longtian Monastery on Zhongnan Mountain, Shaanxi. His Defending What is Right- a piece written in defence of Buddhism, and to elucidate a range of Buddhist concepts - brought him the accusation of the Taoist priest Qin Shiying.
