Zhìyán 智嚴
Late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Chán cānxué 參學 disciple of 師備 Xuánshā Shībèi (835–908); named as the original compiler (jí 集) of his master’s three-juan guǎnglù (KR6q0375). The preserved textual form of the guǎnglù is, however, a Sòng-era recension of c. 1082 under Sūn Jué 孫覺’s Fúzhōu tenure — by which time only “five or six broken and incomplete copies” of Zhìyán’s original compilation remained. Lifedates unrecorded. (The common monastic name 智嚴 is shared across many historical figures; this is the Shī-bèi-circle compiler, distinct from several other DILA entries under the same characters.)
name: 智嚴 pinyinName: Zhìyán alternateNames: [釋智嚴, 嚴公] dynasty: 劉宋 birthDate: 350 deathDate: 427 cbdbId: dilaAuthorityId: A001999
Zhìyán 智嚴 (LiúSòng / translator and meditationmaster)
Eastern Jìn through LiúSòng Buddhist translator and meditation-master. DILA Authority A001999. Native of Liángzhōu 涼州 (modern Gānsù). Born 350; died Yuánjiā 元嘉 4 (= 427/428 CE), aged 78.
In youth took monastic ordination at the Zhǐ-yuán-sì 枳園寺. Travelled west to Jì-bīn 罽賓 (Kashmir), where for three years he received meditation-instruction at the Mó-tiān-tuó-luó jīng-shè 摩天陀羅精舍 from the bhikṣu Fó-dà-xiān 佛大先 (Buddhasena), receiving the full transmission of his meditation-method. Subsequently met the meditation-master Fó-tuó-bā-tuó-luó 佛馱跋陀羅 (Buddhabhadra, 359–429), whom he invited to Cháng’ān to propagate meditation; later resided at the Shān-dōng jīng-shè 山東精舍.
In Yuán-jiā 4 (427), together with the śramaṇa Bǎo-yún 寶雲, translated several major sūtras: the Pǔ-yào jīng 普曜經 (the Lalita-vistara), the Guǎng-bó yán-jìng jīng 廣博嚴淨經 (KR6d0107, T9n0268), the Sì tiān-wáng jīng 四天王經, and others. Catalog tradition also attributes the Fó-shuō Fǎhuá sānmèi jīng 佛說法華三昧經 (KR6d0108, T9n0269) to Zhìyán, though this attribution is contested in the textual tradition.
In late life he travelled by sea again to India to consult more advanced masters; on the return journey he reached Jìbīn (Kashmir) and there died without illness.
Sources: Liáng gāosēng zhuàn 梁高僧傳 (T2059), juan 3 (the Shì Zhìyán zhuàn 釋智嚴傳); Fómíng 768; Fóguāng 5039; DILA A001999.
Note: distinct from at least four other monks named Zhìyán in DILA: A001302 (Suí, Yùchí Lè), A010519 (Tang), A025895 (Tang, Gǔshān Zhìyán “Liǎojué dàshī”), A036222 (Sòng, Miàotóng Zhìyán), and the Korean Bīsōng Zhìyán 碧松智嚴.
name: 智嚴 pinyinName: Zhìyán alternateNames: [釋智嚴] dynasty: 唐 birthDate: deathDate: cbdbId: dilaAuthorityId:
Zhìyán 智嚴 (Táng / Zhìxiāngsì translator)
Táng-dynasty Buddhist monk-translator of the [[KR6i0547|Shuō miào-fǎ jué-dìng yè-zhàng jīng 說妙法決定業障經]] (T841), the parallel text to Xuánzàng’s T840 Chēng-zàn dà-shèng gōng-dé jīng. The colophon names him as 大唐至相寺沙門釋智嚴 (“the śramaṇa Shì Zhìyán of the Zhì-xiāng-sì of the Great Táng”). The Zhì-xiāng-sì 至相寺 (“Highest-Phenomena Monastery”) at Zhōngnán-shān 終南山 outside Cháng’ān is famous as the seat of the early Huáyán-school masters Dùshùn 杜順 (557–640), Zhìyǎn 智儼 (602–668, the second Huáyán patriarch — note that this Huáyán-master Zhìyǎn 智儼 is NOT the same as the present translator-monk Zhìyán 智嚴, though the two characters are often confused), and others. The translator’s lifedates are unrecorded; the translation of T841 must be later than Xuánzàng’s T840 (645 onward). No DILA authority match has been securely identified.