Pǔdù 普度
Southern-Sòng / early-Yuán Yángqí-branch Línjì Chán master, hào Xūzhōu 虛舟 (“Empty-Boat”). Per DILA: 1199 – Zhìyuán 17.4.24 (31 May 1280), shì 82, xià 68. Surname Shǐ 史, native of Wéiyáng Jiāngdū 維揚江都.
Tonsured at twelve at Tiānníngsì; received the precepts from Lóngxī Zǔxìn 龍溪祖信. Dharma-heir of Huázàng Wúdé Juétōng 華藏無得覺通 (a Mìān line parallel to Pòān / Sōngyuán). Eight successive abbacies ending at Jìngshān from Zhìyuán 14 (1277). Seven dharma-heirs including Hǔyán 淨伏 Jìngfú, Yōngsǒu Shízhōng 庸叟時中, and Zhúxī Miàotǎn 竺西妙坦. Recorded sayings: Xūzhōu Pǔdù chánshī yǔlù (KR6q0340).
Not to be confused with the Yuán-dynasty Yōután Pǔdù 優曇普度 (d. 1330, Hǔxī Zūnzhě 虎溪尊者), author of the Liánzōng bǎojiàn 蓮宗寶鑑 and “restorer” of the White Lotus tradition — a completely different figure (separate entry below).
name: 普度 pinyinName: Yōután Pǔdù alternateNames: [優曇普度, Yōután Pǔdù, 優曇, Yōután, 廬山普度, Lúshān Pǔdù, 虎溪尊者, Hǔxī Zūnzhě] dynasty: 元 birthDate: deathDate: 1330 cbdbId: dilaAuthorityId: A001515 created: 2026-05-06 updated: 2026-05-06
Yōután Pǔdù 優曇普度 (d. 1330)
The Yuán-dynasty White-Lotus reformer and restorer of the Liánzōng 蓮宗 (Lotus / Pure Land) tradition descending from Lúshān Huìyuǎn 廬山慧遠 (334–416). His exact birthdate is not recorded; he was active under the reign of Wǔzōng 武宗 (r. 1307–1311) and Rénzōng 仁宗 (r. 1311–1320). He served at Dōnglínsì 東林寺 on Lúshān 廬山 — the ancestral monastic seat of the Pure Land tradition, founded by Huìyuǎn — and his sobriquet Hǔxī Zūnzhě 虎溪尊者 (“Venerable of Tiger Stream”) refers to the famous “Tiger Stream” of Lúshān, where Huìyuǎn was said to have refused to cross even when seeing off Daoist and Confucian visitors.
His major work is the 《廬山蓮宗寶鑑》 Lúshān liánzōng bǎojiàn KR6p0054 (T1973, 10 juǎn), completed around 大德 9 (1305) and presented to the Yuán court — a comprehensive history-cum-doctrinal-handbook of the Pure Land tradition that consolidated the Liánzōng identity in the face of the imperial proscription of the White Lotus Society (Báiliánjiào 白蓮教) as a heterodox lay-religious movement. The Bǎojiàn is the principal surviving document of the orthodox Liánzōng’s effort to distinguish itself from the millenarian White Lotus rebels and to claim the legacy of Huìyuǎn for institutionally orthodox Pure Land Buddhism. Pǔdù died in 至順 1 (1330).