Early-Táng monk-philologist, the leading specialist in yīnyùn (phonology) and wénzì xùngǔ (lexicography) within Xuánzàng’s 玄奘 imperial translation team at Dàcí’ēnsì 大慈恩寺 in Cháng’ān. Birth and death dates not preserved; active from Zhēnguān 貞觀 19 (645 CE), the year Xuánzàng returned from India and the imperial translation bureau was opened, until at least the early Xiǎnqìng 顯慶 era (656–660). Almost certainly deceased before Xuánzàng (664).
He was a participant-translator on the imperial translation team and at imperial command (close of Zhēnguān, ca. 649) compiled the great twenty-five-juan canon-wide phonological-semantic glossary Yīqiè jīng yīnyì 一切經音義 (KR6s0010, C1163), conventionally known as the Xuányìng yīnyì 玄應音義 — the foundational Chinese-Buddhist yīnyì work and the basis of the much-expanded Huìlín yīnyì 慧琳音義 (T2128, 807). His other recorded works — a ten-juan Shè dàshèng lùn shū 攝大乘論疏, a Biàn zhōngbiān lùn shū 辯中邊論疏, a three-juan Yīnmíng rù zhènglǐ lùn shū 因明入正理論疏, and a three-juan Dà bōrě jīng yīnyì 大般若經音義 — are mostly lost or only fragmentarily preserved.
His preface (cf. KR6s0010) was furnished by an unnamed śramaṇa of Zhōng-nán Tài-yī-shān 終南太一山, conventionally identified as Dào-xuān 道宣 (596–667) of Jìng-yè-sì.
Source: DILA Buddhist Person Authority A000300; Sòng gāosēng zhuàn (T2061); Tāngyòngtóng Suí Táng fójiào shǐgǎo 隋唐佛教史稿; Fóguāng dà cídiǎn p. 2034.