Venerable Master Hsing Yun
佛光山开山-星云大师
Venerable Master Hsing Yun was born in 1927 in Jiangdu, Jiangsu Province, China. Having grown up in a poor household with both parents working, Venerable Master Hsing Yun never received formal education and was left in the care of his maternal grandmother. In 1938, he was tonsured by eminent Master Zhi Kai in Qixia Temple, Nanjing. In 1947, Venerable Master Hsing Yun graduated from Jiaoshan Buddhist College, where he underwent a complete Buddhist education of Ch’an, Vinaya, doctrinal traditions, and later became the abbot of Huazang Temple in Nanjing.
He arrived in Taiwan in 1949 and became the dean of the Taiwan Buddhist Seminar as well as the editor-in-chief of Human Life Magazine. In 1964, he founded Shou Shan Temple and Shou Shan Buddhist College in Kaohsiung; and then founded the Fo Guang Shan (Buddha’s Light Mountain) Buddhist Order in 1967. With the objectives: to propagate the Dharma through culture; to foster talents through education; to benefit society through charity, and to purify people’s minds through spiritual cultivation, he has dedicated his efforts to propagating Humanistic Buddhism. Additionally, he integrated tradition and modernity in establishing the rules and regulations which were drafted and published into the Rules and Regulations of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order, bringing Buddhism into a new milestone of modernization.
Having been a monastic for over eighty years, Venerable Master has successively established over three hundred temples around the world, among which Hsi Lai Temple in the United States, Nan Tien Temple in Australia, Nan Hua Temple in South Africa, and Zulai Temple in Brazil, each being the largest in the country. He also founded sixteen Buddhist Colleges, twenty-four art galleries, libraries, several publishing companies, bookstores, fifty Cloud and Water Mobile Libraries, fifty Chinese schools, as well as Chih-Kuang Commercial and Industrial Vocational High School, Pu-Men Senior High School, Jiun Tou Elementary and Junior High School, Junyi School for Innovative Learning, and several kindergartens. Other education institutes were also established in the United States, Taiwan, Australia, and Philippines such as Hsi Lai University (now University of the West), Fo Guang University, Nanhua University, Nan Tien Institute, and Guang Ming College respectively.
Throughout his lifetime in propagating Humanistic Buddhism, Venerable Master Hsing Yun has indeed contributed tremendously to the systematisation, modernisation, humanisation, and internationalisation of Buddhism development!
星雲大師，中國江蘇江都人，生於一九二七年。幼年家貧，輟學，父母因忙於家務，隨外祖母長居多時，後盧溝橋中日戰起，父應於一九三八年間因戰火罹難，與母尋父，有緣於南京棲霞山禮志開上人披剃，實際祖庭為江蘇宜興大覺寺。一九四七年焦山佛學院畢業，期間歷經宗下、教下、律下等叢林完整的佛門教育。之後應聘為白塔國民小學校長、《怒濤月刊》主編、南京華藏寺住持等。
一九四九年至台，擔任「台灣佛教講習會」教務主任及主編《人生雜誌》。
一九五三年任宜蘭念佛會導師；一九五七年於台北創辦佛教文化服務處；一九六四年建設高雄壽山寺，創辦壽山佛學院；一九六七年於高雄開創佛光山，樹立「以文化弘揚佛法，以教育培養人才，以慈善福利社會，以共修淨化人心」之宗旨，致力推動「人間佛教」，並融古匯今，手訂規章制度，印行《佛光山清規》，將佛教帶往現代化的新里程碑。
大師出家八十餘年，於全球創建三百餘所寺院，如美國西來寺、澳洲南天寺、非洲南華寺、巴西如來寺等，均為當地第一大寺。此外，並創辦十六所佛教學院、二十五所美術館、圖書館、出版社、書局、五十部「雲水書坊」行動圖書館、五十餘所中華學校，暨智光商工、普門中學、均頭中小學、均一中小學和多所幼兒園等。以及先後創辦美國西來大學、台灣南華大學、佛光大學、澳洲南天大學及菲律賓光明大學等。二〇〇六年，西來大學正式成為美國大學西區聯盟（WASC）會員，為美國首座由中國人創辦並獲得該項榮譽之大學；二〇一〇年澳洲南天大學通過政府高等教育品質與標準署（TEQSA）認證。二〇一五年，五校整合成為第一個跨國又跨洲的國際性「佛光山系統大學」。
一九七〇年起，相繼成立育幼院、佛光精舍、慈悲基金會，設立仁愛之家、雲水醫院、佛光診所、雲水護智車，協助高雄縣政府開辦老人公寓，並於大陸捐獻佛光中、小學和佛光醫院數十所，並於全球捐贈輪椅、組合屋，從事急難救助，育幼養老，扶弱濟貧。
一九七六年《佛光學報》創刊，翌年成立「佛光大藏經編修委員會」，重新標點分段，編纂《佛光大藏經》近千冊暨編印《佛光大辭典》。一九八八年成立「佛光山文教基金會」，舉辦學術會議、出版學術論文集、期刊等；一九九七年出版《中國佛教經典寶藏精選白話版》一三二冊、《佛光大辭典》光碟版，設立「佛光衛星電視台」（後更名為「人間衛視」），並於台中協辦「全國廣播電台」。二〇〇〇年《人間福報》創刊，成為第一份由佛教界發行的日報。
二〇〇一年發行二十餘年的《普門雜誌》轉型為《普門學報》論文雙月刊（二〇一六年復刊更名為《人間佛教學報‧藝文》）；同時期，收錄海峽兩岸有關佛學的碩、博士論文及世界各地漢文論文，輯成《法藏文庫‧中國佛教學術論典》共一一〇冊。二〇一三年，出版《世界佛教美術圖說大辭典》二十巨冊，二〇一四年出版《佛光大辭典》增訂版十大冊、《獻給旅行者365日──中華文化佛教寶典》，以及《金玉滿堂》人間佛教教材。