The founding patriarch of the Tiāntái 天臺 school of Chinese Buddhism — one of the most consequential figures of pre-modern Chinese intellectual and religious history. Lay surname Chén 陳; native of Yǐngchuān 潁川 (in modern Hénán). Born 538 CE; died at Tiāntáishān 天臺山 in Kāihuáng 開皇 17 = 597 CE, age 60.
He was a disciple of Huìsī 慧思 (515–577), the second Tiāntái patriarch — and, through Huìsī’s transmission from Huìwén 慧文 (sixth c.), the doctrinal heir of the foundational Tiāntái meditative-doctrinal synthesis. Zhìyǐ established his mature scholarly-monastic establishment on Tiāntáishān 天臺山 in Zhèjiāng, where he developed the Tiāntái doctrinal system that became the most comprehensive pre-Tang Chinese-Buddhist scholastic synthesis.
His honorific titles include Zhìzhě dàshī 智者大師 (“Great Master of Wisdom”, conferred by Suí Yángdì 煬帝 then Jìnwáng 晉王 in 591) and Tiāntái dàshī 天臺大師 (after his Tiāntái-mountain residence). The Tiāntái school takes its name from his mountain.
His scholarly output is foundational — almost all of it preserved as oral-lecture transcriptions by his disciple Guàndǐng 灌頂 (561–632):
- Móhē zhǐguān 摩訶止觀 (T1911, 10 juan) — the foundational Tiāntái meditative-doctrinal manual.
- Fǎhuá xuányì 法華玄義 (T1716, 20 juan) — the principal Tiāntái commentary on the Lotus Sūtra.
- Fǎhuá wénjù 法華文句 (T1718, 20 juan) — the principal Tiāntái phrase-by-phrase commentary on the Lotus Sūtra.
- Jīngāng bōrě jīng shū 金剛般若經疏 (KR6c0037, T1698, 1 juan) — Tiāntái commentary on the Diamond Sūtra.
- And many further commentaries on the Vimalakīrti, Brahmajāla, Mahāparinirvāṇa, Avataṃsaka, and other major Mahāyāna sutras.
The Tiāntái school’s distinctive doctrinal contributions — the five-period eight-teaching classification (wǔshí bājiào 五時八教) of the Buddha’s career, the three-truths (sāndì 三諦 = empty / provisional / middle) doctrine, the one-thought-three-thousand (yīniàn sānqiān 一念三千) cosmology, and the threefold contemplation (sānguān 三觀) meditative method — all originate with Zhìyǐ’s exposition.
Tiāntái became one of the principal Chinese Buddhist schools through the Tang and beyond, with substantial influence on Japanese Tendai 天台 (founded by Saichō 最澄 in the early 9th c., importing Zhìyǐ’s corpus to Japan) and Korean Cheontae 天台.
Source: DILA Buddhist Person Authority A001301; Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳, j. 5; Bǔ jiào fójiào dàcídiǎn p. 5018; comprehensive Tiāntái-school biographical sources.