回国挽救寺难
滇全体僧来电云。政府提寺产。寄禅约回国共图挽救。丙午六十七岁。春回国。船经台参观灵泉寺。至日参观各地佛寺。时中日暗交恶。两国僧人。亦不许自由活动。三月回国。抵沪上。
宣化偈曰:
妙老回国嘱讲经。法华药师继阐明。
吉隆灵山讲楞伽。前后皈依万余名。
Returning to China to save the monasteries
The Master received a telegram from the Yunnan Province Sangha Association, which said that the government was seizing monastery property. Dharma Master Chi Ch'an urged the Master to return to China where the problem could be collectively resolved. In the spring of 1906, the Master's sixty-seventh year, he departed for China. When the ship stopped at Taiwan, he visited Ling Ch'uan (Magic Spring) Monastery, and later in Japan, visited various Buddhist temples. At that time, communications between China and Japan were worsening, and members of the Sangha in both countries were forbidden freedom of movement. In the third lunar month, the Master returned to his country, arriving at Shanghai.
The gatha says:
The Venerable Miao returned to China and urged him to lecture Sutras.
The Dharma Flower and Medicine Master sutras he successively expounded clearly.
At Ling Shan (Magic Mountain) Temple in Kuala Lumpur, he explained the Lankavatara.
Altogether more than ten thousand people took refuge with the Master.