Mid- to late-Táng Tiāntái 天台 master; the tenth patriarch of the Tiāntái school, in succession to Zhànrán 湛然 (湛然, 711–782, the ninth patriarch). DILA Authority A001563. Honorifics: Xīngdào zūnzhě 興道尊者 (“Venerable Way-Promoter”), Zhǐguān héshàng 止觀和尚 (“Master of Cessation-and-Contemplation”). Lifedates unrecorded; productive period in the late eighth and early ninth centuries.
Dharma-disciple of Zhànrán; the principal post-Zhànrán transmitter of the Tiāntái scholastic tradition at Tiāntáishān itself, in succession to Zhànrán’s primary disciple Xíngmǎn 行滿. Co-author with Qiánshù 乾淑 (乾淑) of the Zhǐguān jìzhōng yìyì 止觀記中異義 (KR6d0136, X55n0918) — a study of variant readings in Zhànrán’s Zhǐguān fǔxíng zhuànhóngjué (KR6d0131, T1912).
Of central historiographical importance: Dàosuì was the Chinese teacher of the Japanese Tendai 天台 founder Saichō 最澄 (767–822), who travelled to China in Yánlì 延曆 23 (804) and there received the Tiāntái transmission from Dàosuì at Tiāntáishān before returning to Japan in 805 to establish the Tendai school at the Hieizan 比叡山 establishment. Through this transmission, Dàosuì is the institutional originator of the Japanese Tendai tradition.
Sources: Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 (T2061); Fózǔ tǒngjì 佛祖統紀 (T2035) juan 8; Saichō zenshū 最澄全集 (Saichō’s records of his Chinese travels); DILA A001563.