Huìrì 慧日 (680–748)
The great Táng Pure Land master, founder of the Címǐn pài 慈愍派 (“Compassionate-Pity faction”) of Chinese Pure Land orthodoxy. Lay surname Xīn 辛, native of Dōnglái 東萊 (modern Láizhōu 萊州, Shāndōng).
He undertook a substantial Indian pilgrimage of some thirteen to fourteen years (c. 702 / 705 – 719), travelling by sea via Sri Vijaya (modern Sumatra) and Sri Lanka, reaching the Buddhist heartland and visiting Kapilavastu (the Buddha’s birth-place), Nālandā, and other major Buddhist sites. The hagiographical tradition records that he received a personal vision of Avalokiteśvara at Mount Potalaka instructing him in the orthodoxy of Pure Land devotion as the canonically warranted path for mò-fǎ-age practitioners. He returned to China in Kāi-yuán 7 (719) and was personally received by the Xuán-zōng 玄宗 emperor, who conferred the title Cí-mǐn sān-zàng 慈愍三藏 (“Tripiṭaka of Compassionate-Pity”) — the sān-zàng honorific being granted only to a small number of Táng masters who had completed the Indian travel (most famously Xuán-zàng 玄奘 and Yì-jìng 義淨).
His distinctive doctrinal contribution is the Pure-Land-as-orthodoxy polemic against the Northern-school Chán current that rejected niànfó practice. He is the doctrinal sibling of 善導 Shàndǎo (613–681) and a key transmitter of the orthodox tradition into the post-Shàn-dǎo era. His successor Chéngyuǎn 承遠 carried the teaching to Nányuè 南嶽 (Mount Héngshān 衡山), and from Chéngyuǎn it descended to 法照 Fǎzhào (c. 747–821), founder of the Wǔhuì niànfó tradition; the two principal Táng Pure Land lineages thus converge on Huìrì.
His principal extant work is the 《略諸經論念佛法門往生淨土集》 Lüè zhū jīnglùn niànfó fǎmén wǎngshēng jìngtǔ jí (also titled Cíbēi jí 慈悲集), of which only the upper juǎn survives, transmitted through the Taishō Gǔyìbù 古逸部 from the Dūnhuáng manuscript recoveries (T2826, KR6p0135). His other major work, the Wǎngshēng jìngtǔ jí 往生淨土集, is preserved only in fragments.
He died at the Báimǎsì 白馬寺 (Luòyáng) in Tiānbǎo 7 (748) at age 69. His DILA Authority record notes him as one of the principal Tang Pure Land teachers; CBDB does not record him.