The third patriarch of the Chinese Yogācāra (Fǎxiàng / Cí’ēn) school 法相宗 / 慈恩宗, in succession to Xuánzàng 玄奘, Kuījī 窺基 (窺基), and Huìzhāo 慧沼 (慧沼). DILA Authority A001260. Honorific Púyáng dàshī 濮陽大師 (“Great Master of Púyáng”). Native of Sìzhōu 泗州 (modern Jiāngsū). Born Yífèng 儀鳳 3 (= 678 CE); died Kāiyuán 21, 6th month, 21st day (= 9 August 733 CE), aged 56.
Took monastic vows in his youth at the Púyángsì 濮陽寺. Studied under Huìzhāo at the Dàyúnsì 大雲寺 in Zīzhōu and inherited the Cí’ēn Yogācāra doctrinal apparatus. After Huìzhāo’s productive period at Cháng’ān, Zhìzhōu became the principal southern transmitter of Cí’ēn doctrine, teaching at Púyáng and Sìzhōu and consolidating the Cí’ēn scholastic curriculum for transmission to the Japanese Hossō 法相 school.
Major surviving works include subcommentaries on the principal Yogācāra texts: the Chéngwéishí lùn yǎnmì 成唯識論演秘 (T1833, alongside Huìzhāo’s Liǎoyì dēng), the Yīnmíng rù zhènglǐ lùn shū qiánjì 因明入正理論疏前記 and hòujì 後記 (T1841, T1842), the Dàshèng rù dào cìdì zhāng 大乘入道次第章 (T1864), and the present Fǎhuá jīng xuánzàn shèshì 法華經玄贊攝釋 (KR6d0028, X34n0636) — Zhìzhōu’s textual condensation of Kuījī’s Xuánzàn.
His Japanese disciples — most importantly Genbō 玄昉 (?–746) and Dōshō 道昭 (629–700, in fact already in China before Zhìzhōu’s productive period) — carried the Cí’ēn doctrinal apparatus to Japan, where it became the basis of the Hossō school of Nara Buddhism.
Note: distinct from the SuíTáng Chán-school Zhìzhōu 智周 (DILA A006125, 556–622) of Xiàpī 下邳, and from the Southern-Sòng Zhìzhōu (DILA A009603), a dharma-heir of Biéfēng Bǎoyìn 別峯寶印 (1110–1191).
Sources: Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 (T2061) juan 4; Fómíng 5020; DILA A001260.