Bodhiruci 菩提流支 (also written 菩提留支), one of the principal Northern-Wèi 北魏 translators and the founding figure of the Chinese Dìlùn 地論 school. Sanskrit: Bodhiruci; Chinese gloss Dàoxī 道希 (“Way-Hope”). DILA Authority A001357. Native of North India. Born in unrecorded year, died c. 527.
A scholar of the Mahāyāna Yogācāra school descending from Vasubandhu (per the Jīn-gāng-xiān lùn 金剛仙論, Bodhiruci was a fourth-generation disciple of Vasubandhu). Permitted to be a master of the tripiṭaka, intelligent and broadly learned, expert in dhāraṇī. Long-cherished the ambition to spread the Dharma; in Yǒng-píng 永平 1 (508 CE), reached Luòyáng, where Northern Wèi Xuān-wǔ-dì 宣武帝 highly esteemed him and ordered him to reside at the Yǒng-níng-sì 永寧寺 to undertake the translation of Sanskrit sūtras. Subsequently relocated with the Eastern Wèi court to Yè-chéng 鄴城 in 534 and continued translating until at least Tiān-píng 天平 2 (535).
Major translations (38 works in 127 juan total):
- Shídì jīnglùn 十地經論 (T1522, by Vasubandhu) — 12 juan; the foundational treatise of the Dìlùn school.
- Jīngāng bōrě jīng 金剛般若經 (T236) and Jīngāng bōrě jīnglùn 金剛般若經論 (T1511, by Vasubandhu) — 1+3 juan.
- Rù lèngqié jīng 入楞伽經 (T671) — 10 juan.
- Fǎjí jīng 法集經 (T761) — 8 juan.
- Shèngsīwéi Fàntiān suǒwèn jīng 勝思惟梵天所問經 — 6 juan.
- Shēnmì jiětuō jīng 深密解脫經 (T675) — 5 juan.
- Bù zēng bù jiǎn jīng 不增不減經 — 2 juan.
- Bǎojí jīnglùn 寶積經論 (by Sthiramati) — 4 juan.
- Wúliàngshòu jīng yōupótíshè jīnglùn 無量壽經優波提舍經論 (by Vasubandhu) — 1 juan.
- Fǎhuá jīnglùn 法華經論 (by Vasubandhu) — 2 juan.
- Jiū-jìng yī-shèng bǎo-xìng lùn 究竟一乘寶性論 (by Asaṅga, with commentary by Sāramati) — 4 juan.
- The present Dà Sàzhē Nígānzǐ suǒshuō jīng 大薩遮尼乾子所說經 (KR6d0111, T272) — 10 juan.
Bodhiruci is regarded as the founding patriarch of the Dìlùn 地論 school — the Sinitic Mahāyāna tradition of Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda doctrine that flourished in northern China through the late Northern-and-Southern Dynasties period. Through Bodhiruci and his collaborator Lè-nà-mó-tí 勒那摩提 (Ratnamati), the school produced the systematic Sinitic exposition of Vasubandhu’s Daśabhūmika commentary that became foundational for both the Sui period Sānlùn-Dìlùn synthesis and for the eventual Cí’ēn 慈恩 Yogācāra tradition under Xuán-zàng and Kuī-jī.
Sources: Liáng gāosēng zhuàn 梁高僧傳; Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 (T2034); DILA A001357; Fóguāng 5204.
name: 菩提流志 pinyinName: Pútíliúzhì alternateNames: [菩提留支, Bodhiruci, 達摩流支, Dharmaruci, Dámóliúzhī] dynasty: 唐 birthDate: deathDate: 727 cbdbId: dilaAuthorityId: A000150 created: 2026-05-06 updated: 2026-05-06
A second, distinct Táng-period Bodhiruci is sometimes also written 菩提留支 / 菩提流支 in early manuscripts, leading to centuries of confusion with his Northern-Wèi namesake above. The standardised Táng spelling, however, is 菩提流志 (Pú-tí-liú-zhì), a graphic substitution dictated by Wǔ Zé-tiān 武則天, who renamed him from his original ordination name Dámó-liúzhī 達摩流支 (Dharmaruci) so as to substitute the more orthodox 菩提 (bodhi) for 達摩 (dharma) and the more elevated 志 (aspiration) for 支. Native of South India (南天竺), Brahmin caste; reached Cháng-ān in Yǒng-chún 永淳 2 (683) at the imperial summons of Gāo-zōng 高宗 and translated under Wǔ Zé-tiān, Zhōng-zōng, Ruì-zōng, and Xuán-zōng. Died Kāi-yuán 15 (727) at Cháng-ān, allegedly aged 156 (though this figure is conventional). Best known as compiler-translator of the great Dà-bǎo-jī jīng 大寶積經 (KR6c0001, T310, 49 fascicles), the principal Mahāyāna ratnakūṭa anthology in Chinese, completed in 713; he also rendered the Bǎo-yǔ jīng 寶雨經 (T660), the Yī-zì-fó-dǐng-lún-wáng jīng 一字佛頂輪王經 (T951), and a number of dhāraṇī manuals — including the present Shǐ-zhòu fǎ jīng 使呪法經 (KR6j0498, T1267) and Dà-shǐ-zhòu fǎ jīng 大使呪法經 (KR6j0499, T1268). DILA Buddhist Person Authority A000150.