Fēixī 飛錫 (mid–late 8th c. Tang)
A mid-Tang Buddhist scholar-monk, active during the reign of Tang Dàizōng 代宗 (r. 762–779). Fēixī is principally remembered as the author of the Niànfó sānmèi bǎowáng lùn 念佛三昧寶王論 KR6p0046 (T47N1967), the major Tang-period Pure Land doctrinal treatise associated with the Bǎowáng 寶王 (“Jewel-King”) school of Pure Land thought. Lifedates not preserved.
According to the standard biography in Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 juǎn 27, Fēixī was a member of the imperial-translation-bureau under Tang Dàizōng and participated in the translation activities of the late-Tang Buddhist court. He is credited with editorial-collator work on several major translations of the period, and was associated with the Qiānfúsì 千福寺 in Cháng’ān. The Niànfó sānmèi bǎowáng lùn is dated by internal evidence to the period after the An Lushan Rebellion (755–763), with a terminus a quo of c. 765 and a likely terminus ad quem of c. 779 (the end of Dàizōng’s reign).
His distinctive doctrinal contribution is the sānshì niànfó 三世念佛 (“recollection of the Buddhas of the three times”) doctrine: the proper objects of niànfó are not only the present Buddha Amitābha but also the past Buddha Śākyamuni and the future Buddha Maitreya. This integrative-historical approach to niànfó is the doctrinal feature most distinctive to Fēixī’s school. DILA Authority id A001299.
Sources: Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 vol. 27; Lèbāng wénlèi KR6p0048 vol. 3; Mochizuki, Chūgoku jōdo kyōrishi (1942/1964).