Dàoyǎn 道衍 / Yáo Guǎngxiào 姚廣孝 (1335–1418)
The single most extraordinary figure in Míng-dynasty political history. A monk of orthodox Línjì Chán formation who became the principal strategic and ideological advisor to Zhū Dì 朱棣 (the Prince of Yān, later Yǒnglè Emperor 永樂帝, r. 1402–1424) during the Jīngnán War (Jìng-nán zhī yì 靖難之役, 1399–1402) — the civil war by which Zhū Dì usurped the throne from his nephew the Jiànwén Emperor 建文帝 — and the chief intellectual architect of the Yǒnglè reign’s monumental Buddhist projects, including the great Yǒnglè Northern Canon 永樂北藏 of the Buddhist Tripiṭaka and the 《永樂大典》 Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. He served the Yǒnglè court ostensibly in monastic robes — earning the nickname 黑衣宰相 Hēi-yī zǎi-xiàng “Black-Robed Prime Minister” — and after the usurpation was returned to lay status with the imperial-bestowed name Yáo Guǎngxiào, ennobled as Duke of Róng (榮國公), and invested with the high political offices of Tài-zǐ shǎo-shī 太子少師 (Junior Tutor of the Heir Apparent).
Born in Chángzhōu 長州 (Sūzhōu region) into a literati-medical family of the Yáo clan, monastic surname Yáo 姚, zì (lay) Sīdào 斯道; he took monastic ordination in 1348 at age 14 under the dharma-name Dàoyǎn 道衍, hào Dú’ān 獨庵 (“Solitary Hut”). His initial monastic formation was under the late-Yuán Línjì master Xīyán Zhīzhèng 席巖知正 and the senior abbot Yúshān Zhìjí 愚山志及; his lay training included Confucian classics and Daoist arts. He met the Prince of Yān around 1382 (after the Hóngwǔ Emperor’s empress’s funeral, where he was assigned as the Prince’s monastic companion) and from that point became Zhū Dì’s chief confidant. After the Yǒnglè usurpation he declined high political honours and continued in nominal monastic capacity, dividing his time between strategic advisory work and the supervision of the great Yǒnglè-era textual compilations. He died in 永樂 16 (1418) at age 84, posthumously honoured as Gōngjìng 恭靖 (“Reverent and Pacific”), the only monk in Míng history to receive a formal posthumous title and burial in the imperial tomb complex.
His Buddhist writings are substantial but were overshadowed by his political role. The Jìngtǔ jiǎnyào lù 淨土簡要錄 KR6p0060 is his principal Pure Land work — a small anthology of essential Pure Land devotional material; he also produced the Dú’ān jí 獨庵集 (collected literary works), a long-form prefatory verse for the Yǒnglè Northern Canon, and various sūtra-prefaces. CBDB id 35140; DILA Authority A002174.