Late-Wànlì Tiāntái-school Buddhist monk, native of Wǔlín 武林 (= Hángzhōu). The DILA Buddhist Studies Person Authority (A000051) records only that he was a “Wǔlín monk who composed the Bōrě xīnjīng zhèngyǎn (X549 = KR6c0168) in one fascicle” — biographical details unknown. The floruit given here (1580–1620) reflects the work’s likely composition window in the late Wànlì.
His sole attested work is the Bōrě xīnjīng zhèngyǎn 般若心經正眼 (“True Eye of the Heart Sūtra”), a Heart Sūtra commentary structured according to the Tiāntái míngtǐzōngyòngjiàoxiāng 名體宗用教相 (name, substance, thesis, function, doctrinal classification) five-fold scheme; he draws explicitly on Tiāntái Zhìyǐ’s title-classification methodology, suggesting he was working within the late-Wànlì Tiāntái revival centred at Wǔlín (Hángzhōu) and at Tiāntái Mountain proper.
The Wǔlín-area lay-and-monastic Buddhist scholarly circle of the late Wànlì included Yúnqī Zhūhóng (袾宏), the Yúnxī Chuándēng (傳燈) Tiāntái lineage, and various other monastic-and-jūshì commentators; Dàwén’s affiliation within this network is not securely established but his Tiāntái-style methodology suggests a Tiāntái-school orientation.
Distinct from Qīng-period Shàngtǎ Dàwén 上塔大文 (DILA A004178), disciple of Juélàng Dàoshèng 覺浪道盛, who is a different person.