Venerable Hou Zhong was born in Taiwan to a Lim family. In 1966, his sister – Venerable Zong Hui of Xiang Shan Temple, introduced him to FuyanVihara at Hsinchu to ordain under Venerable Yin Shun.  At that time, Venerable Yin Shun was entrusted to accept a disciple on behalf of his Dharma brother Venerable Yin Shi who was residing in Singapore and decided that Venerable Hou Zhong would ordain under Venerable Yin Shi but learn under him. Hence, in 1975, Venerable Hou Zhong received his full precepts under both teachers in Hong Kong.

Between 1967 and 1977, Venerable Hou Zhong resided at Huiri Auditorium, attending night classes conducted for elementary and advance Buddhism, for his own practice and in preparation to propagate the Dharma.

In 1977, he spent a year on self cultivation at Mount Da Gang – DiGuanLanruo in Mount Da Lan, followed by a period between 1980 and 1982 spent in Bao’enXiaozhu. Thereafter, he moved to Singapore and set up The Mahaprajna Buddhist Society in 1985 to teach Buddhism. Based on the book “The Way to Buddhahood” written by Venerable Yin Shun, he added and expanded on the content to develop a graded three year Dharma course. Weekly classes of 2-hour each were conducted for 3 levels of classes – beginner, intermediate and advanced.  During the weekends, Venerable Hou Zhong would give Dharma talks. His initiatives led to the sprouting of dharma courses in Singapore in the 80s, the enthusiasm for Buddhist education was revived since the 60s when Venerable Ci Hang was leading the movement to promote Buddhism in the human realm.

When Venerable Zong Hui passed away in May 1996, Venerable Hou Zhong returned to Taiwan in December 1999 to take over the leadership at Xiang Shan Temple and started similar dharma classes in Hsinchu. Thereafter, he regularly commuted between Singapore and Taiwan. Since 2008, he has spent most of his time in Singapore.