Yìzhōng 義忠
Mid-Tang Cí’ēn-school (法相 Hossō / Yogācāra) scholar-monk, fl. eighth century. Best known as the author of the KR6n0099 Dàshèng bǎifǎ míngmén lùn shū 大乘百法明門論疏 (1368 in the Southern Hongwu Edition of the Canon) — a Cí’ēn commentary on Vasubandhu’s hundred-dharma catalog KR6n0096 (T31n1614), prefaced by 窺基’s own preface. The work is preserved only in the Hongwu canon (the principal Ming southern canon, 洪武南藏); it does not appear in the Taishō. Lifedates not preserved in the catalogs.
Yìzhōng’s Bǎifǎ míngmén lùn shū circulated in parallel with 大乘光’s KR6n0098 commentary; the two together constitute the principal Tang Cí’ēn-school commentaries on Vasubandhu’s hundred-dharma catalog. Beyond this work, biographical details are not preserved in the standard Buddhist biographical sources (the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn T2061 has no entry); the work itself is the principal evidence for his existence as a Cí’ēn-school scholar.
The dating of his floruit (c. 700–780) is inferred from the work’s inclusion of 窺基’s preface (which assumes Kuījī’s authority is established) and from the standard mid-Tang Cí’ēn commentarial style of the work itself.