Interview with Shen Wenrong (The Steel Tsar of China)

Interviewer: Chief Writer Fa Ning

June 27, 2026

Shen Wenrong:

I never expected that I, Shen Wenrong, would have the opportunity to be interviewed by the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia. This is truly such an honour and a joy! I have spent some time in the Western Land of Dharma Nature, have been greatly purified, and am very different from before.

Ah, I haven't told everyone who I am yet! People call me the "Steel Tsar." This title really makes people think I am a person with an iron fist, or someone with tough methods, speaking directly without leaving any room for others to step down. That is probably how it was; I did indeed have that kind of personality at times.

To be honest, as the number one person in China's private steel industry—meaning within the steel group that our family operated in China—our production volume was indeed the highest. Come to think of it, the process of starting this business was truly not easy; it took decades of hard work. I really started from the grassroots, and I spent my whole life delving into technology, delving into the world of steel, and never left it.

To be honest, as someone as powerful and with such a strong personality as I was, and who was later able to achieve success, I always thought it was because my personality was very well-suited for this job, which is why I could achieve such success. I even smugly thought that it was because of my decisive and swift personality that I could achieve success in my career. But later, after I died and went to the hells to suffer retribution, I truly began to realise that I was wrong—terribly wrong. I am very repentant and very ashamed!

So today, Namo Amituofo and Practitioner Su from the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia have called me out to speak. I thought, am I here to repent? Is this a confession? I think perhaps it is, but that is nothing, because I have only just discovered that most people, when they do not understand the universal principle, the Truth, and the righteous path, will go to the hells to suffer retribution. This is a very normal thing.

I, Shen Wenrong, am like this, and so are the vast number of my Chinese compatriots; many are like this. Everyone is not just suffering retribution in the hells, but is trapped in their respective spaces suffering, and not many people can go to a good place. Without Buddha’s teachings, this is a sorrow for us Chinese, especially modern Chinese. Looking at the whole world, it is actually mostly the same. True Buddha’s teachings can only be realised at the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia, because this is a temple where Namo Amituofo resides, and there is Practitioner Su, who has attained Buddhahood through awakening, to lead the people here to walk on the Buddha's path, and can also help immeasurable and boundless spirit realm beings obtain Chao Du.

We, this group of Chinese people, are among the lucky ones! Think about it, Practitioner Su has already performed Chao Du for over a hundred famous Chinese people. Many are from financial groups, and many are well-known figures from various academic fields, or people from the medical field, scientists in engineering, and so on. Everyone is gathered here; it is so lively! The Western Land of Dharma Nature is truly a magical place. Only through the compassion and vows of Practitioner Su could such a world be established, allowing people from all over the world, even from different countries, and even beings and spirit realm beings from the entire universe and the entire Dharma Realm, to have the opportunity to obtain deliverance.

Watching the Chao Du every day here is very magnificent. I can even see many famous historical figures of China here, which really surprised me. It turns out that Practitioner Su has performed Chao Du for so many famous people; some were even my idols before! This is truly a very special thing. I have never stopped feeling surprised and joyful in my heart in the Western Land of Dharma Nature, because all the facts and truths presented before my eyes make me feel that there is really no place in the human world that has such a vast undertaking. This is a Buddha’s education that can truly help beings. Buddha’s teachings are really not a religion, but an education. This is something I only truly learned after arriving in the Western Land of Dharma Nature.

Well, let me talk about my life. I really paid a great price for this steel. As a tycoon with a net worth of hundreds of billions, I can be considered a super-rich person in China. But because I have been a workaholic since I was young, I did not pay much attention to many details in life. I only liked to engage in steel, hoping that my career would be successful. However, I did not really care about material enjoyment, so I lived in this small worker's room almost my whole life, and ate the same meals as the workers. In the eyes of a big boss, this is a miraculous figure! I was indeed like that. I did not smoke or drink, and I did not indulge in many entertainment enjoyments. Because I was truly a workaholic, if I did not work on steel for a day, I would really feel uncomfortable all over. This matter is actually quite laughable, but I do not mind at all.

I just wanted to make my career successful, give everyone a good job, and let my descendants inherit this good enterprise well. That was probably the idea, but there was inevitably some selfishness in it. Of course, with my decisive and swift methods, and the mindset of always hoping to achieve success by being cautious at every step, I cared very much about my gains and losses. I just did not like too much enjoyment in life; I liked to work on steel, but I cared about the success or failure of it, and I cared about whether every bit and piece could meet my standards. Of course, my standards were not low. In the days and nights of working on steel, I also accumulated a lot of unique experience and technology. That is to say, I was someone who truly started from technology, and I could do well in all aspects, so I inevitably developed a lot of arrogance and the ambition to dominate the market.

In the past, everyone did not have Buddha’s education and always thought that the more the better, the more money the better, the more famous the better. Fame, profit, and money are all very tempting things. Especially in our generation, everyone was afraid of being poor. When I was a child, I was also a poor child. After I grew up and suddenly had this opportunity to turn my life around, I worked even harder and risked my whole life for it. When I say I risked my whole life, I really did not want to leave work; I was desperately rushing for all the political achievements and performance results day and night, and I also encouraged the employees in this company. Everyone was like me, working hard to pursue better and higher numbers.

I was also a bold person, so when I was managing all this, I often boldly purchased high-tech steel from abroad, technology for producing steel, or instruments, or various types of machinery. Although it required a large amount of capital, I was still willing to invest because, for me, this was the future. To be able to develop, one must have such methods and foresight. I can say that I am proud of what I did. Although the process was a bit risky and very brain-racking, I was indeed willing to do so. My brain never wanted to rest; it never stopped for a moment.

At that time, people did not have any religion or any sustenance; the only sustenance was work. It was truly about making one's own career bigger and bigger; this was the thing I was most proud of in my life.

But I did not expect that I would use my brain my whole life and never stop such high-intensity work. Later, my body became weaker and weaker, but I did not care. I desperately found various medicines, wanting to suppress my illness, so that I could barely live a better life, so that my body could barely hold on for a little longer, at least to continue working, and there would be no major problems.

But what I did not know in the midst of this was that my step-by-step decline was also because my soul had already gone to the hells to suffer retribution. My brain kept moving and moving, thinking about how my enterprise could develop, how to earn more, and how to ensure the status of our steel group in the country. So, this brain was thinking about myself, thinking about my own group.

This inevitably led to the fact that when I was not very old, many of my souls were already suffering retribution in the hells, especially the brain-gouging hell. No wonder in my life, especially in the second half of my life, my head often felt very heavy and tired, and I always needed to rely on a large amount of health supplements and medicine to support myself. Especially in those ten or twenty years of my later years, it was indeed like that.

I thought that relying on these external forces would allow me to hold on and do more things, and I did not take better care of my own health. Personality, especially personality—in terms of Buddha’s teachings, the reason why the body has so many situations is also because one's personality has not changed, and it is getting stronger day by day. I would do whatever I wanted to achieve, regardless of anything. Although this is not doing anything bad, the competitive spirit and the concern for success and failure also contributed a lot, and it also affected the people around me, the employees, and so on.

In the process of working hard with me, there was no way to rest; we could only keep working. This was the working environment of our generation. Although the development was very good and they could all receive very good wages, the time and energy invested were enormous, and this was also paying a painful price. Everyone was busy for these three meals and working hard to earn more pots of gold. So I remember that everyone did have the same direction and philosophy as me, so everyone gathered together; it was actually just taking what each other needed! To be honest, it was indeed like that.

In the end, after I got sick, at the age of seventy-five, my life finally reached its end. This can be considered okay; I felt that I had such achievements in my life, and I was satisfied. I thought that there might be nothing in the world after death, but I did not expect that I would still come to a pitch-black world to suffer retribution. This was really very, very bitter. For these two years, I have not stopped suffering. My brain was constantly being peeled open, my brains were being peeled out, and the ground was full of blood. This is the situation of suffering retribution in the hells.

Until not long ago, because of the guidance of Practitioner Su, when I came to the Western Land of Dharma Nature, under the illumination of Buddha’s light, I immediately knew that this Buddha-name was very important, so I followed along to recite this "Namo Amituofo," and suddenly I arrived at the Western Land of Dharma Nature. But my head was still in throbbing pain and had not fully recovered. Under the purification of Buddha’s light, my whole body slowly recovered, and my body became much healthier and younger.

The Western Land of Dharma Nature is indeed a very magical world, and it also allowed me to regain health and energy, and I began to know the preciousness of Buddha’s education again. Listening to sutras and hearing the Dharma here every day, I also learned a lot, and only then did I know that my personality, my actions, and the management of my career in the past had really left me covered in wounds, and also attracted countless karmic creditors to come looking for me. Because everything is originally like this, my mental notes were fluctuating so strongly, how could I not attract karmic creditors to come? All of this is also a natural phenomenon in nature; there is nothing to say.

In the Western Land of Dharma Nature, I am very moved to be able to see so many compatriots, especially many people from the hells; everyone has the opportunity to come to this world of light together. Without the compassion of Buddha or Bodhisattva, we really would not know how long we would be trapped in the hells, with no end in sight. Our family business is so big, and it is still like this today. I am also very ashamed; what I did in my life affected many people, and those who have the same personality as me are still like this in managing their businesses. These are influences that cannot be erased; the impact caused is already like this.

To say that our family has a large business, that is really not an exaggeration. We have a steel group, and there are tens of thousands of employees; I see there are thirty to fifty thousand people now!

Such a huge group, when I first started the business, it was only a small scale of a dozen people. To have such huge achievements in a few decades, this was something I used to be smug about, but now I also feel very ashamed. Because in order to make the steel production volume higher, I used a lot of my brain in this life.

I passed my mantle to my sons. I have two sons. The eldest son is my official successor, taking over the entire industry. In the vigorous management, he is also a person with a brain, knowing that today's society values greening, so he also developed towards the route of environmental protection and greening. The second son is relatively low-key and did not directly participate in these businesses, but participated in some of our smaller businesses.

My wife is still alive today and is still actively working. It can be seen that we people are actually planted in work for a lifetime and cannot leave. We think that work is everything to us, and we think that getting higher money, wealth, status, fame, and profit can represent our status in the human world.

Yet, people truly do not know that when one's last breath departs, all these things one is so proud of will instantly become nothing left; it is truly as if there is nothing at all. No matter how much future generations remember how great you were, it is of no use, because your spirit must still go to the hells to suffer retribution, and you must still live through the painful days of bearing your own laws of karma and cause and effect, with no way to escape all of this. Thinking of this, I am also deeply moved. I truly did not understand before; there was truly no one to teach me. Generation after generation, we have indeed been striving to manage everything in our lives in this way, managing our families, our bodies, and this career that we believe we can tightly control. Today, Namo Amituofo and Practitioner Su have named me to share these words with you all, and I also hope that our vast number of fellow Chinese citizens can listen. Looking at everyone's attachment to and desperate struggle for work today, it is actually no less than what I experienced back then. In a highly competitive environment, everyone is living a so-called 996 life; this is truly too bitter, too bitter. This is a habit created by society that everyone cannot let go of, or perhaps it is an obligation that must be fulfilled. I also advise all my fellow Chinese citizens to slow down and think: having come to this human world for several decades, what exactly did you come for? Could it really be just to work for a lifetime, to gain more and more, and then die in such loneliness? In terms of the Buddha’s teachings, this is called "arriving alone and departing alone, coming alone and going alone," and you cannot take anything with you. Emotions are the same. Everything becomes nothing left when you breathe your last. Thinking of this, it is truly not worth it! In just a few decades of a human body, one actually plants oneself in these things that cannot be taken away. In the end, it is because there is no Buddhist education. The ideology and policies in China over these past few decades have greatly blocked the Buddha’s teachings, so when people want to come into contact with this kind of spiritual education, there are not many people left managing it. Therefore, seeing the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia, under the leadership of Namo Amituofo and Practitioner Su, so actively managing this truly world-saving cause, makes me yearn for it. I sit here and see it very clearly; every day, every scene is so magnificent. This is a place where Namo Amituofo truly resides, which is why so many good things can be felt happening here. Everyone is actively striving to save the world. Every day, especially during the Thrice Yearning Ceremonies