Táng-dynasty Buddhist vinaya exegete and encyclopedist. Native of Yīquē 伊闕 (south of Luòyáng), lay surname Hán 韓, zì Xuányùn 玄惲 (also written 元惲 or 玄暉; in some Sòng witnesses Xuánhuī is also given). Ordained at twelve at Qīnglóngsì 青龍寺, where he undertook deep study of the vinaya. He took full ordination together with Dàoxuān 道宣 (596–667) under the Nánshān-律 master Zhìshǒu 智首 (567–635) at Hóngfúsì 弘福寺 in Suí Dàyè 11 = 615 CE — placing his birth ca. 600 by inference.
In Xiǎnqìng 顯慶 (656–660), at the imperial summons of the Crown Prince (later Gāozōng), he was installed at the newly-completed Xīmíngsì 西明寺 in Cháng’ān, where he resided alongside Dàoxuān and where the great compilations of his maturity were produced. The two masters jointly defined the Nánshān-律 lineage’s apex generation.
His written output is enormous: the hundred-juan Fǎyuàn zhūlín (KR6s0002, T2122, completed 668) — a monumental Buddhist lèishū and the work for which he is most remembered — together with the twenty-juan Zhūjīng yàojí 諸經要集 (KR6s0003, T2123, an abridgment of the canonical-citation portions of the Fǎyuàn), the Sìfēnlǜ tǎoyào 四分律討要 (six juan), the Sìfēnlǜ níchāo 四分律尼鈔 (five juan), the Dàxiǎoshèng chánmén guān 大小乘禪門觀 (ten juan), the Xìnfú lùn 信福論, the Jīngāngjīng jízhù 金剛經集註, and others.
Death: Hóngdào 弘道 1 (683 CE / early 684 by Julian conversion); the death notice is preserved at Sòng gāosēng zhuàn j. 4 (T50n2061_p0726c07) and at the Bǎizhàng qīngguī zhèngyì jì 百丈清規證義記 (X76n1516_p0091c08).
Source: Sòng gāosēng zhuàn j. 4 Dàoshì zhuàn (T50n2061_p0726c06–c25); DILA Buddhist Person Authority A000296.