Bó Fǎzǔ 白法祖 (also written 帛法祖; in the Gāosēng zhuàn he appears under the name Bó Yuǎn 帛遠, with 法祖 as his Dharma-name; lay surname Wàn 萬) was a Western Jìn 西晉 monk and translator from Hénèi commandery (河內郡, the area of modern Qìnyáng 沁陽, Hénán). According to the biography preserved in the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (T2145, 107a–108a, “Biography of Master Fǎzǔ” 法祖法師傳) and the parallel in the Gāosēng zhuàn 高僧傳 (T2059, 327a–c, “Biography of Bó Yuǎn” 帛遠傳), he set out on the religious life as a youth, with his father’s permission, and went on to establish a monastery in Cháng’ān where, the sources report, more than a thousand monastic and lay students gathered to attend his lectures. He was learned both in Chinese (he reportedly composed a now-lost commentary on the Śūraṃgama-sūtra 首楞嚴經) and in “barbarian” (i.e. Indic and Central-Asian) languages. In the closing years of Sòng-Huì 西晉惠帝 (c. 304–307), Sīmǎ Yóng 司馬顒, the Prince of Hénèi (河間王) and Grand Mentor (太宰), then guarding the Pass region, treated him with conspicuous deference. Soon afterwards Zhāng Fǔ 張輔 (d. 305), regional inspector (刺史) of Qínzhōu 秦州, attempted to recall him to lay life and to enroll him as a personal aide; on Bó Fǎzǔ’s firm refusal Zhāng had him flogged to death — “while still in the prime of life” (時方壯年). The death is securely placed in 304 or 305 CE.
The Taishō credits him with five surviving translations: the [[KR6a0005|Fó bānníhuán jīng 佛般泥洹經]] (T5, a Mahāparinirvāṇa recension), the Dà’àidào bānníhuán jīng 大愛道般泥洹經 (T144, on the parinirvāṇa of Mahāprajāpatī), the Púsà xiūxíng jīng 菩薩修行經 (T330), the Púsà shì jīng 菩薩逝經 (T528) and the Xiánzhě wǔ fúdé jīng 賢者五福德經 (T777). DILA Buddhist Person Authority A000305.