Sui–early-Tang scholar-monk and translation-bureau collaborator, lay surname Fáng 房, native of Zhēndìng 真定. Born 578; date of death unknown but he was still active well into the Zhēnguān era (627–649). Resident at the imperial Jì’guó Monastery 紀國寺 in the capital.
In Zhēnguān 2 (628), under Tài-zōng’s patronage, he participated in the imperial translation bureau organised around the Indian master Prabhākaramitra 波頗 / 波羅頗迦羅蜜多羅, where he served as bǐshòu 筆受 (recorder/redactor) for the translation of Asaṅga’s Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṃkāra 大莊嚴論 and afterwards composed a 30-juan commentary on it (now lost). His scholarly fame from this work earned him the appellation 「東方菩薩」 (“Bodhisattva of the East”) from Fáng Xuánlíng 房玄齡 and other Tang court literati.
His extant works include: the Yúlánpén jīng zànshù 盂蘭盆經讚述 (T2781), the Āmítuó jīng yìshù 阿彌陀經義述 (T1756), the Wēnshì jīng shū 溫室經疏 (T2780), the Jīngāng jīng zhùshū 金剛經註疏 (X0456), and the present Bōrě xīnjīng shū 般若心經疏 (X0521 = KR6c0142). His attested but lost works include sub-commentaries on the Záxīn lùn 雜心論, the Abhidharmakośa 俱舍論, the Sūtrālaṃkāra, and the Renwáng bōrě 仁王般若 (the Yàoyào zàn 出要贊), as well as a literary anthology Shī Yīnghuá 詩英華.
He represents the late-Suí / early-Tang generation of doctrinal monks whose Buddhist scholarship spanned both Yogācāra and Madhyamaka traditions, working before the post-Xuánzàng (after 645) generation transformed the Chinese scholastic landscape. The Sòng Gāosēng zhuàn 高僧傳 entries on him are at Xù gāosēng zhuàn (T2060), j. 3 (and j. 4 in standard divisions).