Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳
Continued Lives of Eminent Monks
compiled by 道宣 (Dàoxuān, 596–667, 撰), founding patriarch of the Nánshān Lǜ 南山律 vinaya school, Táng monk of Jìngyèsì 淨業寺 on Zhōngnánshān
About the work
The second of the four canonical Lives of Eminent Monks compilations, in 30 juan, picking up the narrative thread of KR6r0052 Gāosēng zhuàn in 502 CE (where Huìjiǎo’s bracket effectively ends, though formal transition is at 519) and carrying it down to Dàoxuān’s own time in the mid-seventh century. The principal manuscript was completed in Zhēnguān 貞觀 19 (645) and contained 340 principal lives in 22 juan; Dàoxuān continued to revise and expand the work until his death in Qiánfēng 乾封 2 (667), at which point the text had grown to its final 30-juan form with c. 485 principal lives plus c. 219 fùjiàn supplementary lives. It is also called the Táng gāosēng zhuàn 唐高僧傳.
Abstract
Dàoxuān adopts and extends Huìjiǎo’s ten-category typology, slightly redrawing the categorical boundaries: (1) Yìjīng 譯經 (Translators), (2) Yìjiě 義解 (Exegetes), (3) Xíchán 習禪 (Meditators), (4) Mínglǜ 明律 (Vinaya Masters), (5) Hùfǎ 護法 (Defenders of the Dharma — a new category), (6) Gǎntōng 感通 (Thaumaturgical Reciprocators — replacing 神異), (7) Yíshēn 遺身 (Self-Sacrificers), (8) Dúsòng 讀誦 (Sūtra-Readers), (9) Xīngfú 興福 (Benefactors), (10) Zákē 雜科 (Miscellaneous, including hymnodists and proselytisers).
The most distinctive contribution of the Xù gāosēng zhuàn is its prosopographical depth on the great sixth- and seventh-century figures whose careers Dàoxuān himself witnessed or had at one remove from eyewitnesses: 智顗 Zhìyǐ (538–597, founder of Tiāntāi), 吉藏 Jízàng (549–623, San-lùn), 玄奘 Xuánzàng (602–664), 窺基 Kuījī, 法藏 Fǎzàng (643–712, early career), and the vinaya lineage including 智首 Zhìshǒu (Dàoxuān’s own teacher). The Xuánzàng zhuàn in juan 4 is one of the principal sources for Xuánzàng’s biography alongside the Dà cí’ēnsì sānzàng fǎshī zhuàn KR6r0091. Dàoxuān’s own life is not included in the original — the present Shì Dàoxuān zhuàn preserved in some recensions is a later interpolation derived from Zànníng’s Sòng gāosēng zhuàn.
The text underwent multiple authorial revisions during Dàoxuān’s lifetime; consequently the various editions transmit divergent recensions, and the figure “30 juan, c. 485 principal lives” represents the final state. The Zhèngyuán 貞元 catalog (800) records 30 juan and 504 lives; the Korean canon and the SòngYuánMíng editions show variant divisions of juan 4–6 (translators) and juan 25–30 (later supplements). The Taishō text follows the Jīnzàng 金藏 / Guǎngshèngsì 廣勝寺 recension as principal witness with extensive variant apparatus.
Translations and research
- Koichi Shinohara, Two Biographies of Saint Hui-yüan in the Hsü Kao-seng Chuan (Burnaby: Institute for the Advanced Study of World Religions, 1981) and his subsequent series of articles on Dào-xuān’s biographical method, e.g., “Two Sources of Chinese Buddhist Biographies: Stupa Inscriptions and Miracle Stories,” in Monks and Magicians: Religious Biographies in Asia, ed. P. Granoff and K. Shinohara (Oakville: Mosaic Press, 1988).
- John Kieschnick, The Eminent Monk (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1997) — covers the Xù gāosēng zhuàn extensively.
- Chen Jinhua 陳金華, Monks and Monarchs, Kinship and Kingship: Tanqian in Sui Buddhism and Politics (Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2002) and Philosopher, Practitioner, Politician: The Many Lives of Fazang (643–712) (Leiden: Brill, 2007) — both rely heavily on the Xù gāosēng zhuàn and supply much of the modern source-critical apparatus.
- 富士川英郎 et al., 《續高僧傳：諸本對照》 (Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 1997).
- 吉村誠 (Makoto Yoshimura), 「續高僧傳の編纂と道宣の歴史意識」, Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū, various.
Other points of interest
Dào-xuān’s Yì-jiě and Hù-fǎ sections are the principal source for the anti-Buddhist persecutions of Northern Zhōu Wǔdì 周武帝 (574–578) and for the doctrinal-political contestations of the Suí-early-Táng period. The Hù-fǎ category itself — absent from Huìjiǎo — is Dào-xuān’s innovation, and reflects the post-persecution Táng church’s heightened concern to memorialise monks who defended the saṃgha against state pressure. The Xù gāosēng zhuàn is also one of the principal documentary sources for the early Chán lineage, including the early biographies of Bodhidharma 菩提達摩 (juan 16) and Huì-kě 慧可 (juan 16); these biographies were subsequently picked up and retold in the Chán-school dēng-lù 燈錄 literature.
Links
- CBETA: T50n2060
- Wikipedia: Xu gaoseng zhuan