The most important pre-modern Chinese Buddhist canonical bibliographer. Native place and lay surname not preserved; lifedates uncertain (active early 8th c., with biographical reconstructions placing him conventionally as ca. 669–786 but with very wide uncertainty in the death date — as no biographical record specifies it). Resident śramaṇa of Xī Chóng-fú-sì 西崇福寺 in Cháng-ān during his canonical-bibliographic productivity in the late Kāi-yuán 開元 era (730).
His scholarly output of 730 CE is foundational for Chinese Buddhist canonical-bibliographic history:
- Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (KR6s0093, T2154, 20 juan, 730) — the single most important pre-modern Chinese Buddhist canonical bibliography; established the 5,048-juan canonical roster that became the standard for every subsequent East Asian Buddhist canon-printing from the Kāibǎo canon (971–983) onward.
- Kāiyuán shìjiào lù luèchū 開元釋教錄略出 (KR6s0094, T2155, 4 juan, 730) — abridged version of the Kāiyuánlù providing the Rùzàng lù (canonical roster) in compact form.
- Xù gǔjīn yìjīng tú jì 續古今譯經圖紀 (KR6s0091, T2152, 1 juan, 730) — biographical-translator companion to the Kāiyuánlù, supplementing Jìngmài’s earlier Gǔjīn yìjīng tú jì (KR6s0090).
- Xù jí gǔjīn fódào lùnhéng 續集古今佛道論衡 (KR6r0140, T2105, 1 juan) — continuation of 道宣 Dàoxuān’s Jí gǔjīn fódào lùnhéng (KR6r0139, 661), with materials specifically on the Indian western-region Buddhist context.
His canonical-bibliographic contribution is foundational: the 5,048-juan Kāiyuánlù roster is the single most consequential bibliographic decision in the history of East Asian Buddhism, defining the standard canonical corpus for the next 1,200+ years through the Taishō canon of 1924–1934.
There is also a separate Zhìshēng 智昇 entry in the DILA Buddhist Person Authority (A006372) for a different person; the bibliographer is the A001261 entry.
Source: DILA Buddhist Person Authority A001261; Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳, j. 5; Hé Méi 何梅, Lìdài hànwén dàzàngjīng mùlù xīnkǎo (Zōngjiàowénhuà, 2014); auto-prefaces of his three 730 CE works.