星洲道院 • 世界紅卍字會新嘉坡總主會
The Origins and Founding of the Singapore Dao Yuan
and The World Red Swastika Society (Singapore Administration Centre)
Part Eight: The Passing of the Founder - Yu Zizhong
The Final Chapter - Return to Hong Kong, the Last Illness, A Life Wholly Given
After the Singapore Dao Yuan was firmly established and its governance was in capable hands, Yu Zizhong was directed to return to Hong Kong to assist in and raise funds for the Hong Kong Red Swastika Society building at 25 Dragon Road, Causeway Bay. Before his departure from Singapore, the leadership structure was formally appointed through planchette instruction: Dr. Lo Chengde (Zhiyuan, 智元) as Dao Yuan’s Chief Overseer (首席統掌); Zhu Xiangqu (Zhiduan, 智端) as Chief Dean (首席院監); Wu Shengpeng (Oufu, 歐福) as President of The World Red Swastika Society. A trusted group of Overseers – Zhiyuan, Zhiduan, Zhiqiu, Zhiyu, Zhihui, Zhimian, Zhirong, Ouyi, Zhiyuan and others – was appointed to assist. With these arrangements in place, Yu Zizhong was able to depart with confidence.
On the 15th day of the 9th lunar month, 1939, Yu Zizhong departed Singapore with Li Yihai (Zhifa) and Liao Heling (Zhiqing), settling in Hong Kong. Wang ZhengTing (王正廷) wrote letters appealing for donations for the Hong Kong Red Swastika building fund. Wang ZhengTing came south again in October, and a board meeting was convened on the 25th. The very next day — the 26th of October 1939 — Yu Zizhong fell ill.
He was sixty-three years old. His constitution had never been strong, and years of ceaseless travel – between Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Singapore, always in service, never resting – had gradually worn him down. Repeated exposure to wind and dust, the accumulated fatigue of a life wholly given, had left him increasingly vulnerable. The illness, once it took hold, could not be reversed.
Medicines gave no relief. The fund raising for Hong Kong Red Swastika Society was the last meritorious service completed before his demise. On the 11th of February 1940 (庚辰年二月十一日), at the age of 63, Yu Zizhong passed away peacefully at the Hong Kong Tian Qing Cao Tang. He had returned to the Dao.
The Divine Tribute
When news of Yu Zizhong’s passing reached the Singapore community, Overseers and cultivators were deeply grieved. A planchette painting altar (書畫壇) was opened on the 2nd of November 1940 for a commemorative ceremony. The Buddha Ji descended and inscribed two paired scrolls – each bearing a drawn flower – as an arch of tribute:
萬水千山竭歷林，方知大道正而深。
先天師使從斯起，修真歸元且痛吟。
Buddha Ji then gave instruction regarding Yu Zizhong’s soul:
His soul has been protected and guided to the Stone Gate (石門叩上矣). But his soul has not yet fully congealed; it still needs to be further solidified before it can come and go freely without obstruction. Chant for nine days: the first one to two days, chant the Holy Arctic Canon (真經 ); the remaining seven days, chant the Diamond Sutra (金剛經) – to assist in the congealing of his spirit. Other matters may be arranged according to human affairs.
The cosmological significance of this instruction is profound. The soul being guided to Stone Gate (石門) – the same Stone Gate referenced in the gratitude memorial of the 1920 Jinan Canon transmission – places Yu Zizhong’s passage within the lineage of all beings who have been liberated through the Dao tradition across the ages. His soul is not simply departed; it is being returned to the primordial source of Dao he spent his life building. The instruction to chant the Holy Artic Canon first and then the Diamond Sutra mirrors similar instructions given for all deceased Dao Yuan members – but the specific mention of Stone Gate elevates his passage to a cosmological event: a soul returning to the origin of Dao itself.
The Posthumous Title and Annual Commemoration
The Most Holy One bestowed the posthumous Divine title:
南洋督慈使宣化真君
The True Lord of Propagating Transformation, Superintendent of Compassion for the Nanyang
Yu Zizhong is commemorated annually on the 23rd day of the 2nd lunar month with a three-offering ceremony (三獻典禮). The annual commemoration messagepreserved in the institutional records addresses him in biographical verse, tracing his life’s journey from government service through spiritual awakening to the founding of the Dao in Southeast Asia:
公英年卓犖，達大禎期，
志氣超凡，靈根早具，
肄業之江學校，頭角崢嶸，
督辦寧陽沙田，勛勞昭著，
紅燈早兆，素蘊仙緣，
首創草堂，道基先啟，
悟玄音於羊城，覺妙道於燕山，
玄機默化，洎命東朝，
訪道真先，馳驅北指，
東魯恭迎聖位，
南天昌展道慈，平濟奔馳，港星顧盼，
The verse continues through the founding of the Singapore Dao Yuan, the northward expansion, and his final exhausted passing – closing with the vow to uphold his legacy and the aspiration that his spirit, now residing in the divine realm, will continue to guide and protect the tradition he built.
The full posthumous honours include placement in the highest shrine position (崇上祀憅寶殿), a three-offering ceremony (三獻禮儀), and an exhortation that he will return through vow (乘願再來) to assist the liberation of beings in the final age of calamity. He is commemorated annually on the 23rd day of the second lunar month. His portrait hangs in the Singapore Dao Yuan to this day.
Return to Guangzhou - The Tian Qing Cao Tang
Back in Hong Kong, Yu Zizhong told his story to friends and family. Most did not believe him. He demonstrated the mirror-light oracle to groups of visitors – still without convincing many. Undeterred, he returned to Guangzhou, to his home at 19 Shazhou Lane (沙州巷19號), and gathered those who would listen. Using the mirror-light oracle and planchette as demonstrations, the circle of participants grew gradually.
Through the planchette, the Deity Fu Sheng (孚聖) directed the formal establishment of a community planchette. The Tian Qing Cao Tang (天清草堂) was constituted in Yu Zizhong’s main reception hall, venerating four Divine figures: the Peach Buddha (桃佛), the Deity Fu Sheng (孚聖), the Buddha Ji (濟佛), and the Great Sage Sun Wukong (孫悟空). The community’s stated purpose: self-cultivation and goodness, compassion as guiding principle, inner cultivation and outer charitable action as its vow.
The compiler of source (E), Lin Ou Zhu, closes his account with this reflection: “He sacrificed the small self of personal advancement to become the great self of establishing the Dao; practicing compassion, rescuing all beings from the sea of suffering. And now, the Singapore Dao Yuan and The World Red Swastika Society of the South have their opening and flourishing; cultivators have their refuge for body, heart, nature, and life-mandate – all of this is the gift of the founder, Yu Zizhong.”