The founding patriarch of the Nánshān Lǜ 南山律 (Mt. Nán) vinaya school of Chinese Buddhism, and one of the most consequential Buddhist scholar-monks of the Tang. Native of Wúxìng 吳興 in modern Zhèjiāng. Born 596 CE; died at Jìngyèsì 淨業寺 on the southern Zhōngnán mountain (= the Nánshān of his school’s name) on the 3rd day of the 10th month of Qiánfēng 乾封 2 = 27 October 667, age 72.
He took ordination at age 14 at Rìyánsì 日嚴寺 in Cháng’ān, then deepened his vinaya studies under Zhìshǒu 智首 (567–635) — the leading Sìfēnlǜ vinaya master of the Suí-early-Tang transition. In Suí Dàyè 11 = 615, together with his fellow disciple Dàoshì 道世 (later compiler of KR6s0002 Fǎyuàn zhūlín), he received full ordination from Zhìshǒu at Hóngfúsì 弘福寺.
His scholarly output is foundational for Chinese Buddhism in multiple areas:
Vinaya scholarship:
- Sìfēnlǜ shānbǔ shīchí jiéběn 四分律刪補隨機羯磨 (T1808, the foundational Nánshānlǜ vinaya manual).
- Sìfēnlǜ shānfán bǔquē xíngshì chāo 四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔 (T1804, the great Nánshān commentary on monastic conduct).
- Multiple further vinaya commentaries that established the Nánshānlǜ as the dominant Chinese vinaya tradition through the Sòng and beyond.
Buddhist historiography:
- Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳 (T2060, ca. 645, 30 juan) — the great Tang continuation of Huìjiǎo’s 慧皎 Liáng gāosēng zhuàn (T2059), gathering biographies of monks from the Liáng (502) through the early Tang.
- Guǎng hóngmíng jí 廣弘明集 (KR6r0138, T2103, 30 juan, 664) — the Tang continuation of Sēngyòu’s 僧祐 Hóngmíng jí (KR6r0137, T2102), gathering Buddhist apologetic literature from the Hàn through the Tang.
- Shìjiā fāngzhì 釋迦方志 (KR6r0122, T2088, 2 juan, 650) — geographical-ethnographical treatise on the Indian subcontinent and the Western Regions, supplementing the DàTáng xīyù jì tradition.
- Jí gǔjīn fódào lùnhéng 集古今佛道論衡 (KR6r0139, T2104, 4 juan, 661) — collection of records of Buddhist-Daoist court debates from the Six Dynasties through the Tang.
- DàTáng nèidiǎn lù 大唐內典錄 (KR6s0088, T2149, 664, 10 juan) and its supplement KR6s0089 Xù DàTáng nèidiǎn lù (T2150) — the principal early-Tang official Buddhist canonical bibliography.
Other works:
- Shìjiā shì pǔ 釋迦氏譜 (T2041, biographical compilation).
- Several apologetic and ritual works.
He was the principal Buddhist authority figure of the early Tang outside the imperial translation bureau (where his peer Xuánzàng 玄奘 dominated). His residence at the Nánshān in his later years gave the vinaya school its name.
The biographical-tradition gives him a famous association with the Indian Buddhist god Wèituó 韋馱 (= Skanda / Vighnāntaka), who is said to have appeared to him repeatedly during his Nánshān residence and revealed the vinaya texts to him directly — a hagiographic tradition that became central to the Nánshān vinaya school’s self-presentation.
He is also the conventional preface-author of KR6s0010 Xuányìng yīqiè jīng yīnyì (T1163, ca. 645–660), under the persona of “a Tàiyī shànshì of Mount Zhōngnán” 終南太一山釋氏.
Source: DILA Buddhist Person Authority A001519; Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳, j. 14 Dàoxuān zhuàn (T2061); his auto-prefaces and biographical materials in the Nánshānlǜ corpus and the DàTáng nèidiǎn lù.