Venerable Yi-Kong (Man Tsu Chang) was born in 1951 in Taiwan. In 1976 Ven. Kong was fully ordained as a Buddhist monk under Venerable Master Hsing Yun. Ven. Kong received a MA degree from India Philosophy Graduate School at University of Tokyo in Japan, and a Ph.D. from Chinese Graduate School at National Kaohsiung Normal University in Taiwan. Ven. Kong was used to be the dean of the Guang Shan Cultural Academy, the president of newspaper Merit Times.

Presently Ven. Kong is Fo Guang Shan Religious Affairs committee, committee of Pu-Men Newspaper, the executive director & professor of Nanhua University, and the executive director at University of the West. Ven. Kong also has written several books which were published in Chinese.