Zhiyi

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Zhiyi (智顗 Wade-Giles: Chih-i; Jp: Chigi) (538–597) is traditionally listed as the fourth patriarch, but actually is the founder of the Tiantai tradition of Buddhism in China. Zhiyi is famous for being the first in the history of Chinese Buddhism to elaborate a complete, critical and systematic classification of the Buddhist teachings, in order to explain the seemingly contradictory doctrines of Buddhism. He is also regarded as the first major figure to make a significant break from the Indian tradition, to form an indigenous Chinese system.

Born with the surname Chen (陳) in Huarong, Jing Prefecture (荊州華容), Zhiyi left home to become a monk at eighteen, after the loss of his parents and his hometown Jiangling that fell to the Western Wei army when Zhiyi was seventeen. At 23, he received his most important influences from his first teacher, Nanyue Huisi (慧思) (515-577), a meditation master who would later be listed as Zhiyi's predecessor in the Tiantai lineage. After a period of study with Huisi, he spent some time working in the southern capital of Jinling (金陵). Then in 575 he went to Tiantai mountain for intensive study and practice with a group of disciples. Here he worked on adapting the Indian meditation practice of zhiguan into a complex system of self-cultivation practice that also incorporated devotional rituals and confession/repentance rites. Then in 585 he returned to Jinling, where he completed his monumental commentarial works on the Lotus Sutra, the Fahua wenzhu (587), and the Fahua xuanyi (593).

Among his many important works are the Mohe zhiguan, Liumiao famen, Fahua wenzhu, and Fahua xuanyi. Of the works attributed to him (although many may have been written by his disciples), about thirty are extant.

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