Northern Sòng Huáyán-school revivalist, courtesy name (字) Bóchǎng 伯長; sobriquets Jìnshuǐ 晉水 and Qiánsǒu 潛叟. Commonly designated Jìnshuǐ Jìngyuán or Huìyīn Jìngyuán (from his residence at Huìyīnsì 慧因寺 in Hángzhōu). Born Dàzhōngxiángfú 4 (1011); died Yuányòu 3 (19 December 1088), aged 78. DILA A001113.
He is the principal Northern Sòng Huáyán-school systematiser, revival leader, and bibliographer. His career was anchored at Hángzhōu’s Huìyīnsì (founded c. mid-Northern Sòng), where he organised a substantial Huáyán-school monastic community and produced an extensive scholarly output. He oversaw the printing of much of the classical Huáyán literature (Tang Fǎzàng, Chéngguān, Zōngmì) for the Northern Sòng canon, ensuring the school’s textual transmission through the dynasty.
His commentarial output covers Huáyán-school doctrine, the Lotus Sūtra, the Diamond Sūtra, the present Rénwángjīng (X520 = KR6c0215), and many other Mahāyāna canonical texts. He is one of the most institutionally and scholastically important figures in Northern Sòng Huáyán Buddhism, comparable in significance to 智圓 Gūshān Zhìyuán for the contemporary Tiāntái revival.
His Huìyīnsì also became a major centre for Korean Hwaeom Buddhist transmission: the Goryeo prince-monk Ŭich’ŏn 義天 (1055–1101) studied under him during his 1085 visit to China, and subsequently established the Korean Huìyīn-sì-tradition at Songgwangsa.