Southern Sòng Tiāntái-school master, courtesy name (字) Guāngyuǎn 光遠, sobriquet Bóting 柏庭 (“Cypress Court”, from the ancient cypress at his residence). Lay surname Fāng 方; native of Dìnghǎi 定海 (in modern Níngbō, Zhèjiāng). Born Shàoxīng 19 (1149); died Chúnyòu 1 (10 March 1241), aged 93. DILA A000848.
Studied with Zhèngjué Dàobìng 正覺道並 (his ordination teacher), Cǎo’ān Dàoyīn 草庵道因, Yuètáng Huìxún 月堂慧詢 (the formal dharma-heir relation), and Zhúan Kěguān 竹庵可觀. He served successively as abbot of Dōnghú Biànlìsì 東湖辯利寺 (1180), Cíxī Bǎoyánsì 慈溪寶嚴寺, Yuèbōsì 月波寺, Nánhú 南湖 (1192), and finally Shàngtiānzhúsì 上天竺寺 (1213) at Hángzhōu, with the imperial title 左街僧錄 (“Recorder of the Left-Street Monks”, 1215). In late life he retreated to Dōngān 東菴 due to eye trouble.
His commentarial output is extensive and includes major works on the Śūraṅgama (Léngyán xuán-lǎn 楞嚴玄覽), the Diamond Sūtra (Jīngāng huì-jiě 金剛會解), the Sūtra of Perfect Awakening (Yuán-jué lüè-shuō 圓覺略說), the Laṅkāvatāra (Léngqié jīng tōng-yì 楞伽經通義), and the present Rénwáng-jīng shū commentary subcommentary Shén-bǎo jì (T1706 = KR6c0205). His dharma-heirs included Xiānglín Qīngcì 香林清賜 and Yítáng Liǎoyuán 伊堂了圓.
He is one of the leading Southern Sòng Tiāntái scholars and a significant transmitter of the school’s commentarial tradition into the late Sòng. His biography is in Fózǔ tǒngjì j. 18–19 and Bǔxù gāosēng zhuàn j. 3.