Master Wei Fang, the ninth abbot of the monastery, was from Dongtai, Jiangsu Province, his family name Zhu and dharma name Cheng Yuan. His family was devout in Buddhism for generations. In 1922, he became a monk in the Fuhui Temple of the same town only at the age of 13. In 1926, he attained full ordination in the Baohua Mountain. He once studied in the Fangsheng Temple of Gaoyou, the Buddhist College of Xingfu Temple in Changshu, and the Buddhist College of the Bailin Monastery in Beiping. Then on account of assisting Master Tai Xu in regulating Buddhist disciplines he went to study in the Wuchang Buddhist College and followed Master Tai Xu for several years. Every time when Master Tai Xu was explaining a sutra, he made the records. At the same time he put himself out of the way to edit Pure Land Monthly. Later, he went to be a teacher in the Chinese-Tibetan Buddhist College. After the Incident of July 7 1937, he took charge of the Wuchang Buddhist College and edited the monthly Voice of Tide. In 1940, he followed Master Tai Xu to visit India, Ceylon and Burma, and so on, to publicize the Anti-Japanese War policy of Chinese people. He received orders to recover the Wuchang Buddhist College and the World Buddhist Library. He got the order in the Jinshan Monastery of Zhenjiang and became the abbot of the Dalin Monastery in the Lu Mountain, Jiangxi Province. He succeeded the abbot of the Jade Buddha Monastery in March 1949. After the founding of new China, he made great contribution to the recovery of the monastery and world peace. He was director of Shanghai Buddhist Branch of the Shanghai Branch Association of the War of Resistance against U.S. Aggression and Aid to Korea (1950-1953). He became a standing director of Chinese Buddhist Association, vice-chairman and secretary-general of Shanghai Buddhist Association, and was a representative of the First to the Fifth People’s Congress of Shanghai, and a member of the Third and Fourth People’s Political Consultative Conference in Shanghai. He took part in the edition of Buddhist entries for Ci Hai (Ocean of Words). During the period of Cultural Revolution, Buddhism suffered serious setback. Master Wei Fang tried his best to protect Jade Buddha Monastery from damage and sadly passed away .