The second patriarch of the Chinese Yogācāra (Fǎxiàng / Cí’ēn) school 法相宗 / 慈恩宗, the principal Chinese institutional successor to Xuánzàng 玄奘 (602–664) and Kuījī 窺基 (632–682). DILA Authority A001708. Lay surname Liú 劉; native of Zīzhōu 淄州 (modern Shāndōng); honorifics include Sāndōng yībiànzhào 山東一遍照 (“the One Universal Illuminator of Shāndōng”) and Zīzhōu bànbiàn Zhāo 淄州半徧沼 (“Half-Universal Zhāo of Zīzhōu”), both reflecting his stature as the principal northern transmitter of Cí’ēn doctrine in the late seventh and early eighth centuries.
Born Zhèngguān 貞觀 22 (648 CE); died in the Kāiyuán 開元 era between Kāiyuán 14 and 29 (726–741); age at death conventionally given as 94 (alternatively 79). The biographical data are not entirely consistent across sources; the most thorough modern reconstruction (Yáng Jiànxiāo 2018) settles on a defensible bracket of c. 648 – c. 741.
He took monastic ordination in his youth and entered Xuánzàng’s translation bureau as a translator-disciple while still relatively junior; after Xuánzàng’s death (664) he became a principal disciple of Kuījī and inherited the systematic exposition of Yogācāra doctrine in the Cí’ēnsì 慈恩寺 lineage. After Kuījī’s death (682) he became the recognised institutional head of the school, teaching primarily at the Dàyúnsì 大雲寺 in Zīzhōu and at the Dàjiànfúsì 大薦福寺 in Cháng’ān.
Major surviving works include the Chéngwéishí lùn liǎoyì dēng 成唯識論了義燈 (T1832, the standard Yogācāra subcommentary on Xuánzàng’s Chéngwéishí lùn), the Yīnmíng rù zhènglǐ lùn yìzuǎnyào 因明入正理論義纂要 (T1840, on Buddhist epistemology / hetuvidyā), the Yīnmíng zhènglǐmén lùn shū 因明正理門論疏 (T1839), the Néngxiǎn zhōngbiān huìrì lùn 能顯中邊慧日論 (T1863), and the present Fǎhuá xuánzàn yìjué 法華玄贊義決 (KR6d0027, T1724) — Huìzhāo’s defense of Kuījī’s Yogācāra reading of the Lotus Sūtra.
Sources: Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 (T2061) juan 4; Shéntǎbēi 神塔碑; Fēiwén 扉文; Dà Táng Qízhōu Shénbǎosì jì jiémíng 大唐齊州神寶寺記碣銘. Cf. Yáng Jiànxiāo 楊劍霄, Huìzhāo yánjiū 慧沼研究, 2018.