The second patriarch of the Tiāntái 天台 school (in succession to Huìwén 慧文, the foundational sixth-century master) and the teacher of Zhìyǐ 智顗 (智顗, 538–597). DILA Authority A001711. Honorifics: Nányuè Huìsī 南嶽慧思 (“Huìsī of Nányuè”), Nányuè zūnzhě 南嶽尊者 (“Venerable of Nányuè”), Sīdà 思大 (“Great Sī”). Native of unknown region. Born 515; died Tàijiàn 太建 9 (= 6 February 577 – 25 January 578), aged 63.
Took monastic ordination in his youth and became the principal disciple of Huì-wén 慧文 (sixth c.), from whom he received the early Tiāntái meditative-doctrinal synthesis. Subsequently took residence at Nán-yuè 南嶽 (Mount Hēng 衡 in Hú-nán), one of China’s five sacred mountains, where he developed the Tiāntái tradition’s distinctive integration of prajñāpāramitā doctrine with the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka / Lotus Sūtra meditative tradition. Became Zhìyǐ’s principal teacher in the 560s.
Major works:
- Zhūfǎ wúzhèng sānmèi fǎmén 諸法無諍三昧法門 (KR6d0151, T1923, 2 juan) — Dharma-Gates of the Non-Dispute Samādhi of All Dharmas.
- Dàshèng zhǐguān fǎmén 大乘止觀法門 (KR6d0152, T1924, 4 juan) — Mahāyāna Cessation-and-Contemplation Dharma-Gates; the foundational pre-Tiāntái-mature meditation manual.
- Fǎhuá jīng ānlèxíng yì 法華經安樂行義 (KR6d0156, T1926, 1 juan) — The Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra’s Course of Ease and Bliss; the foundational text of the East-Asian Lotus Sūtra meditative-confessional tradition.
- Lì shìyuàn wén 立誓願文 (T1933) — Establishing-Vow Text.
Doctrinal significance: Huìsī is the central transitional figure between the early Sinitic Buddhist meditative tradition (Bodhidharma, Huìkě, Huìwén) and the mature Tiāntái doctrinal-meditative synthesis under Zhìyǐ. His emphasis on the integration of meditative practice with Lotus Sūtra exegesis, and his articulation of the Lotus Sūtra samādhi (法華三昧) practice, established the foundational meditative-doctrinal framework that Zhìyǐ subsequently systematised as the mature Tiāntái apparatus.
Sources: Liáng gāosēng zhuàn 梁高僧傳; Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳; Fózǔ tǒngjì 佛祖統紀 (T2035) juan 6; DILA A001711; Fóguāng 6035. Cf. Magnin (1979); Stevenson and Kanno (2006).