Early-Tang translator-monk specialising in dhāraṇī literature. Native of Ānyì 安邑 (Hédōng), surname Zhào 趙. Ordained in the Suí Dà-yè period; later registered at Zǒngchí-sì 總持寺 in Chang-an. Skilled in Vinaya and broadly learned in scriptures and śāstras. Travelled to the Luòyáng Translation-Academy (洛京翻經館) where he studied Sanskrit script and language under masters there.
In Zhēnguān (627–649) he co-translated with a North-Indian monk a Sanskrit recension of the Qiān-bì qiān-yǎn jīng 千臂千眼經 (an Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī text). In Yǒng-huī 4 (653) at his home temple Zǒngchí-sì he produced three further Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī texts: the Qiān-zhuǎn tuóluóní guān shìyīn pú-sà zhòu 千轉陀羅尼觀世音菩薩呪 (KR6j0233, T1035), the Guān zì-zài pú-sà suí-xīn zhòu 觀自在菩薩隨心呪 (KR6j0254, T1103a/b), and the Qīng-jìng guān shìyīn pú-sà tuóluóní 清淨觀世音菩薩陀羅尼 (KR6j0236, T1038). Together these constitute one of the earliest substantial Tang-period dhāraṇī corpora attributable to a single monk-translator and represent an important pre-Esoteric (i.e. pre-Śubhakarasiṃha) phase of Tang dhāraṇī literature.
The DILA authority records several contemporaneous monks named 智通 (A001275, A006104, A007551, A010445, A014107); the dhāraṇī translator at Zǒngchí-sì is A001275, identified here from the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn biography.
Sources
- Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳, T50 no. 2061, p. 719c (《智通傳》).
- DILA Buddhist Studies Person Authority A001275.