The founding systematizer of the Chinese Fǎ-xiàng 法相 (= Cí’ēn-zōng 慈恩宗) Yogācāra-Vijñaptimātra school. Lay surname Yù-chí 尉遲 (alternate persona-name Yù-chí Jī 尉遲基); native of Cháng’ān. Born 632 CE; died 682 CE, age 51, at Dà-cí’ēn-sì 大慈恩寺.
He was the nephew of the famous Tang general Yùchí Jìngdé 尉遲敬德 (585–658) — making him one of the few Chinese-Buddhist patriarchs of high-aristocratic background. He took ordination at age 17 (in Zhēnguān 22 = 648) at the imperial command of Tàizōng as a member of the imperial-translation-bureau ordinand cohort prepared for Xuánzàng’s 玄奘 (596–664) just-returned translation team.
He became Xuánzàng’s principal Chinese disciple and the central figure of the post-Xuán-zàng Yogācāra-school institutional consolidation. After Xuánzàng’s death in 664, Kuījī continued the Yogācāra translation-and-commentarial work at Dàcí’ēnsì 大慈恩寺 (the imperial monastery established by Tàizōng for Xuánzàng’s translation bureau), establishing the Chinese Fǎxiàng school’s distinctive doctrinal-systematic framework.
His scholarly output is enormous — he is credited with over 100 works in the standard hagiographies, ranging across the Yogācāra-school canonical commentaries, the Vajracchedikā commentary KR6c0039, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka commentary, and many further works. His major doctrinal-systematic works include:
- Chéng wéishí lùn shùjì 成唯識論述記 (T1830, 20 juan) — the principal commentary on Xuánzàng’s Cheng wei-shi lun (the foundational Chinese Yogācāra synthesis-treatise).
- Chéng wéishí lùn shūyào 成唯識論掌中樞要 (T1831, 4 juan) — abbreviated commentary on the same.
- Yīnmíng rù zhènglǐ lùn shū 因明入正理論疏 (T1840, 6 juan) — the principal Chinese commentary on Buddhist logic.
- Dàshèng fǎyuàn yìlín zhāng 大乘法苑義林章 (T1861, 7 juan) — comprehensive Mahāyāna doctrinal-systematic treatise.
The Chinese Fǎxiàng / Cí’ēnzōng school takes its second name (Cí’ēnzōng) from his Dàcí’ēnsì residence, and Kuījī’s 窺基 doctrinal works are foundational for the school’s transmission into Tang and beyond. Through the Yogācāra transmission to Korea (via Wǒn-cheuk 圓測, his elder fellow disciple) and Japan (via the Tang-pilgrim importations and the establishment of the Hossō 法相 school at Kōfuku-ji and Hōryū-ji), Kuījī’s doctrinal legacy spread across all three of the East Asian Buddhist traditions.
Source: DILA Buddhist Person Authority A001019; Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳, j. 4; comprehensive Chinese Fǎ-xiàng-school biographical sources.