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Cai Cang (Tai-Ts'ang) was the last abbot of Jin Shan Jiang Tian Chang Si (Chin Shan Monastery) prior to the Communist revolution in China. He was also the Dharma teacher of Holmes Welch (Shi Mo Hua). Professor Welch met Cai Cang while in Taiwan gathering research for the first serious Western investigation of Chinese Buddhist practice. Cai Cang gave Shi Mo Hua the charge to establish an American school of Chan Buddhism; this can be found in the biography of Cai Cang in Professor Welch's monumental work, "The Practice of Chinese Buddhism: 1900-1950." Cai Cang traveled to Taiwan to escape persecution during the Communist revolt in China; he never returned to the mainland.
