Zhìyǎn 智儼 (602–668), commonly styled Zhìxiāng dàshī 至相大師 (Great Master of Zhìxiāng [Monastery]) and Yúnhuá zūnzhě 雲華尊者 (the Reverend of Yúnhuá), was the second patriarch of the Chinese Huáyán 華嚴 school in the traditional five-patriarch list (Dùshùn 杜順 → Zhìyǎn → Fǎzàng → Chéngguān → Zōngmì). His native place was Tiānshuǐ 天水 in Qínzhōu 秦州 (modern eastern Gānsù), of the Zhào 趙 family. According to the Huāyán jīng zhuàn jì 華嚴經傳記 (T2073, juan 3) and the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 (T2061, biography of Fǎzàng), at age twelve he was brought up Mt. Zhōngnán 終南山 to Dùshùn 杜順 (557–640), the reputed founder of the Huáyán lineage, who entrusted his education to his disciple Dáfǎshī 達法師 at the Zhìxiāng-sì 至相寺. He took the precepts at fourteen, studied She dasheng lun 攝大乘論 under Fǎcháng 法常, received full ordination at twenty, and went on to read the Sìfēn lǜ 四分律, the Chéngshí lùn 成實論, the Shídì jīng lùn 十地經論 and the Niè-pán jīng 涅槃經. He then took the [[KR6e0001|Huáyán jīng (60-fascicle)]] from Zhìzhèng 智正, but is reported to have penetrated its meaning only after grasping the doctrine of “six characteristics of mutual interpenetration” (六相圓融) in Vasubandhu’s Daśabhūmika-sūtra-śāstra — a synthesis that became the conceptual cornerstone of his teaching.
Zhìyǎn’s principal extant works are the [[KR6e0003|Sōuxuán fēnqí tōngzhì fāngguǐ 搜玄分齊通智方軌]] / T1732 in 5 fascicles (a sub-commentary on the 60-fascicle Huáyán); the Huāyán jīng nèizhāng mén děng zá kǒngmù zhāng 華嚴經內章門等雜孔目章 / T1870; the Huāyán wǔshí yào wèndá 華嚴五十要問答 / T1869; and the Jīngāng bōrě jīng lüè shū 金剛般若波羅蜜經略疏 / T1704 (on the Vajracchedikā). His students included 法藏 Fǎzàng (643–712, who would systematize the school), Huáijì 懷齊, and the Korean monks 元曉 Wǒnhyo / Yuán-xiǎo and 義湘 Ŭisang / Yìxiāng — the latter the founder of the Korean Hwaeom 華嚴宗. He died on 668/10/29 at the age of 67. His doctrinal contributions — the “six characteristics,” the rudimentary pañjikā layout of the Sōuxuán jì, and the formal concept of “wonderful interpenetration” (圓融) — were the immediate precursors of Fǎzàng’s mature Huáyán scholasticism.