Northern-Sòng Tiāntái 天台 master and exegete; zì Tánwǔ 曇武, sobriquet Zhāān 樝菴 (or 樝庵, “Hawthorn Hermitage”). DILA Authority A000383. Lay surname Hú 胡 (one source: 何); native of Línghǎi 臨海 in Tāizhōu 台州 (modern Zhèjiāng). Born 1021, died on the day of fūzuò (cross-legged seated meditation) in early summer of Jiànzhōngjìngguó 建中靖國 1 (= April–May 1101 CE), aged 81, with 68 years of monastic seniority.
Took monastic vows at six under a master at the Língjiù 靈鷲 of Tiāntáishān; received full ordination at fourteen. Reading Yǒngmíng Yánshòu’s 永明延壽 (904–975) Xīnfù 心賦 occasioned an awakening; he subsequently travelled to the Néngrénsì 能仁寺 to study under Shénzhào Běnrú 神照本如 (982–1051), the dharma-heir of Sìmíng Zhīlǐ 四明知禮, and there mastered the Tiāntái doctrines of yīxīn sānguān 一心三觀 (“threefold contemplation in a single mind”) and Fǎhuá sānmèi 法華三昧 (“Lotus Sūtra samādhi”). He served first as abbot of the Wúxiàng Huìyīnsì 無相慧因寺, then was transferred to the Chìchéng Chóngshànsì 赤城崇善寺, where his teaching attracted large numbers for several decades.
In Shàoshèng 紹聖 (1094–1098) the prefecture invited him to be abbot of Néngrénsì; he declined and retired to the eastern peak of Dōngyèshān 東掖山, where he built a thatched hut next to a hawthorn tree (whence his sobriquet Zhāān) and devoted himself for some twenty years to Pure Land practice (ānyǎng 安養 / Sukhāvatī).
Major works: Xuánqiān bèijiǎn 玄籤備檢 (KR6d0009, X28n588, the supplementary check on Zhànrán’s Xuányì shìqiān), Wénjù jiānnán 文句箋難 (subcommentary on Zhìyǐ’s Fǎhuá wénjù), Zhǐguān zhùlǎn 止觀助覽 (a study aid for the Móhē zhǐguān), Ānlèxíng zhù 安樂行注 (commentary on Huìsī’s Lotus Sūtra Course of Ease and Bliss), Lóngwáng fǎyìn jīng shū 龍王法印經疏, Ēmítuó lǐwén 阿彌陀禮文 (Pure Land liturgy), and Huòduì 或對. Disciples include Fǎlín 法麟 and Yīngtōng 應通.
Sources: Fózǔ tǒngjì 佛祖統紀 (T2035) juan 13 and 24; Shìmén zhèngtǒng 釋門正統 juan 6; DILA A000383.