Daoxuan

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Daoxuan (Chinese: 道宣; pinyin: Dàoxuān; Wade–Giles: Tao-hsüan; CE 596-667) was the Chinese Buddhist monk and patriarch of the Vinaya school,^[1] who wrote both the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks (續高僧傳 Xù gāosēng zhuàn) and Standard Design for Buddhist Temple Construction. In legends he is attributed with the transmission of the Buddha relic Daoxuan's tooth, one of the four tooth relics enshrined in the capital of Chang'an during the Tang dynasty. He is said to have received the relic during a night visit from a divinity associated with Indra. ^[2]

Doaxuan was also a noted and influential bibliographer.^[3] His catalogue of Buddhist scriptures 《大唐內典錄》 Catalogue of the Inner Canon of the Great Tang aka Nèidiǎn Catalog (T2149 ) in 10 scrolls (卷) was commissioned by the Emperor Gaozong and completed in 664. Teh Nèidiǎn Catalog helped to define the shape of the Chinese Buddhist Canon in future years. Influenced by the apocalyptic Mo-fa or theory of the end of the Dharma, Doaxuan was particularly concerned to expose and denounce suspicious (疑偽) or fake (偽) sutras. He witnessed wholesale burning of texts suspected of being fake.^[4]. The Nèidiǎn Catalog is also notable for being the first bibliographical work to attribute the Heart Sutra to Xuánzàng who died the same year as the catalogue was completed.

References

Bibliography

• Buswell, Robert Jr; Lopez, Donald S. Jr., eds. (2013). Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 215. ISBN 9780691157863.
• Chen Jinhua (2002). An Alternative View of the Meditation Tradition in China: Meditation in the Life and Works of Daoxuan (596-667), T'oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 88, 4/5, 332-395
• Kenney, E. (2002). Dreams in Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (續高僧傳), Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies 51 (1), 18-21
• Kyoko Tokuno. 1990. 'The Evaluation of Indigenous Scriptures in Chinese Buddhist Bibliographical Catalogues' in Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, edited by Robert E Buswell. University of Hawaii Press, 31-74.
• Strong, John (2007), Relics of the Buddha, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-3139-1