Huìjiǎo 慧皎 (497–554), Liáng-dynasty monk-historian, native of Kuàijī 會稽 (modern Shàoxīng, Zhèjiāng), resident at Jiāxiángsì 嘉祥寺 there — whence his honorific name 嘉祥. He was renowned as an yìjiě 義解 (doctrinal exegete) and as an authority on the vinaya; according to the Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳 (T2060, j. 6) he lectured each spring and summer on the canon and devoted autumn and winter to writing.
His major and only fully extant work is the 《高僧傳》 Gāosēng zhuàn (T2059, KR6r0052), the first systematic Chinese collection of Lives of Eminent Monks, completed at Jiāxiángsì in Tiānjiān 天監 18 (519) covering 257 principal biographies (with c. 274 supplementary lives) of Chinese Buddhist masters from the Hàn through the early sixth century. Huìjiǎo organised his lives into ten functional kē 科 — translators (譯經), exegetes (義解), thaumaturges (神異), meditators (習禪), vinaya masters (明律), self-immolators (亡身), sūtra-chanters (誦經), benefactors (興福), gāthā-makers (經師), and proselytisers (唱導) — a typological scheme that became the template for all later Chinese eminent-monks compendia (T2060, T2061, T2062). His preface explicitly criticises 寶唱’s earlier Míngsēng zhuàn 名僧傳 (KR6r0062) for confusing fame with eminence and for editorial laxity.
He also composed a Nièpánjīng yìshū 涅槃義疏 in 10 juan and a Fànwǎng jīng shū 梵網經疏, both lost. He died at Jiāxiángsì in Chéngshèng 承聖 3 / 2 (554) at the age of 58, during the disturbances of the HóuJǐng 侯景 rebellion. Per DILA Buddhist Person Authority A001724.
Works in the Kanripo corpus: KR6r0052 Gāosēng zhuàn.