Northern-Sòng Buddhist exegete and the principal Sòng systematiser of the Yàojiě 要解 (“essential interpretation”) commentarial genre. DILA Authority A000514. Honorific Wēnlíng dàshī 溫陵大師 (“Great Master of Wēnlíng”). Lifedates unrecorded; productive period spans the late Northern Sòng / early Southern Sòng transition (Xuānhé 宣和 era 1119–1126 and Jiànyán 建炎 era 1127–1131). Native of Quánzhōu 泉州 (modern Fújiàn).
Resident at the Bǎoshèngyuàn 寶勝院 of the Quánzhōu Kāiyuánsì 泉州開元寺, whence his sobriquet Wēnlíng dàshī (Wēnlíng = literary name for Quánzhōu); during the Jiànyán era moved to the Wēnlíng Báiliánsì 溫陵白蓮寺.
Major works:
- Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng yàojiě 妙法蓮華經要解 (KR6d0067, X30n0602, 7 juan) — composed in the Xuānhé era (1119–1126), the standard Sòng yàojiě commentary on the Lotus Sūtra and the most widely circulated late-Sòng Lotus exegesis. Also preserved as the larger 19-juan recension at KR6d0068 (L184n1617, the Northern Yongle canon edition).
- Lèngyán jīng yào-jiě 楞嚴經要解 — yào-jiě commentary on the Śūraṃgama-sūtra.
- Huá-yán jīng yào-jiě 大方廣佛華嚴經要解 (X8n0238) — yào-jiě commentary on the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, with preface dated Jiàn-yán 2 (1128).
Jièhuán’s yàojiě genre — providing accessible essential commentary that bypassed the dense Sòng-period subcommentarial apparatus and engaged directly with the sūtra-text — became a standard pedagogical genre in subsequent Chinese Buddhism. His Lotus Sūtra commentary in particular remained the most widely circulated non-Tiāntái Lotus commentary through the medieval and early-modern periods.
Sources: Xīnxù gāosēng zhuàn sìjí 新續高僧傳四集 juan 3; Quánzhōu Kāiyuánsì zhì 泉州開元寺志; Huáyán jīng yàojiě preface; DILA A000514.