Dàoān 道安 (lifedates unrecorded; active Yuán dynasty, probably 14th century), Yuán-dynasty monk, abbot of the Nánshān Dàpǔníng sì 南山大普寧寺. Known through his commentary (zhù 注) on the Báiyúnzōng founder Báiyún Qīngjué’s Chū xué jì 初學記 (KR6q0144, X63 n1253). The collaboration — a Yuán-dynasty orthodox-monastic commentator annotating a Northern-Sòng sectarian-heterodox original text — indicates Dàoān’s role in the Yuán-period rehabilitation and mainstreaming of the Báiyúnzōng corpus.
The Nánshān Dàpǔníng sì 南山大普寧寺 was the institutional centre of the Pǔníng cáng 普寧藏 (“Pǔníng Canon”) printing project — the major Yuán-dynasty Buddhist canon printed at the monastery during the late 13th century. Dàoān’s abbatial position there places him in that editorial-institutional milieu.
No independent biographical material survives. Works in the Kanripo corpus: KR6q0144 Chū xué jì (commentary role).
Per DILA A036836. Distinct from the famous early-Chinese Buddhist master Dàoān 道安 (312–385, Eastern Jìn), the Chinese-Chén-dynasty Dàoān (DILA A005712), and other figures of the same dharma-name.
name: 道安 pinyinName: Dàoān alternateNames: [釋道安, 彌天釋道安, 印手菩薩] dynasty: 東晉 birthDate: 312 deathDate: 385 cbdbId: dilaAuthorityId: A002080 created: 2026-04-25 updated: 2026-04-25
Dàoān 道安 (312–385), Eastern-Jìn Buddhist master, native of Chángshān 常山 Fúliǔ 扶柳 (modern Héběi); the most consequential figure in the formation of fourth-century Chinese Buddhism prior to Kumārajīva. According to the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (T2145, juan 15) and the Gāosēng zhuàn 高僧傳 (T2059, 351c–354a), he was a disciple of Fótúchéng 佛圖澄 (d. 348) at Yè 鄴 in the Later Zhào 後趙, then led a refugee-monastic community through the political turbulence of the mid-fourth century — successively at Lùhún 陸渾, Xiāngyáng 襄陽, and finally (from 379) at Cháng’ān 長安 under Fú Jiān 苻堅 of Former Qín 前秦, where he died in 385.
His contributions are foundational across multiple domains: (i) the first systematic catalog of Chinese Buddhist scriptures, Zōnglǐ zhòngjīng mùlù 綜理眾經目錄 (now lost, but extensively reconstructed in the Chū sānzàng jì jí); (ii) the codification of Chinese Buddhist clerical surname-practice — the rule that all monastics adopt 釋 (after Śākya) as surname; (iii) the “five losses, three difficulties” (五失本三不易) — the earliest articulated theory of Buddhist translation in Chinese, set out in his preface to the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra and elsewhere; (iv) sponsorship of the major Cháng’ān translation projects of 382–385, including [[KR6a0157|Sì-āhán-mù chāo jiě (T1505)]] which carries his preface, and the Sarvāstivāda Vinaya / Abhidharma corpus translated by Saṃghadeva, Dharmanandi 曇摩難提, and Buddhanandi 佛念; (v) extensive commentarial work on Ān Shìgāo’s translations, including [[KR6a0161|Rén-běn yùshēng jīng zhù 人本欲生經註 (T1693)]] and [[KR6a0162|Yīn-chí-rù jīng zhù 陰持入經註 (T1694)]], written in Xiāngyáng or Cháng’ān; and (vi) early Chinese Mahāyāna prajñā-school exegesis (běnwú 本無 doctrine).
Per DILA Buddhist Person Authority A002080. Distinct from the Yuán-dynasty Pǔníngsì abbot Dàoān (DILA A036836; entry above), and from various other monastic Dàoān figures.
Works in the Kanripo corpus (Eastern-Jìn Dàoān): KR6a0161 Rénběn yùshēng jīng zhù; KR6a0162 Yīnchírù jīng zhù (Dàoān is conventionally listed alongside 陳慧 as a co-annotator).