Source: Wright 1990

Wright, Arthur F. “Biography and Hagiography: Hui-chiao’s Lives of Eminent Monks.” In Wright, Studies in Chinese Buddhism, edited by Robert M. Somers, 73-111. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

Assertions

Assertion Argument Place in source Search

The Sui shu 隋書 attributes a Gao seng zhuan 高僧傳 to Sengyou 僧祐. No such notice appears in any Buddhist catalogues, and Wright argues that it was probably merely inferred that Sengyou wrote such a text from other parallels between his activities and those of Daoxuan 道宣.

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 The Sui shu 隋書 attributes a Gao seng zhuan 高僧傳 to Sengyou 僧祐. No such notice appears in any Buddhist catalogues, and Wright argues that it was probably merely inferred that Sengyou wrote such a text from other parallels between his activities and those of Daoxuan 道宣. Sengyou, 僧祐 Gao seng zhuan 高僧傳

The Sui shu 隋書, Xin Tang shu 新唐書 and Jiu Tang shu 舊唐書 all mention a supposed Gao seng zhuan 高僧傳 by Yu Xiaojing 虞孝敬, who was a secretary under Prince Xiangdong 相東王 (later Liang Yuandi 梁元帝, r. 552-555), and then entered orders and took the name of Huiming 惠命 or Huimin 惠敏. The Si ku quan shu editors then state that Huijiao 慧皎 took this work as a model. Wright argues that this notice is mistaken. Huijiao’s 慧皎 preface to his own Gao seng zhuan 高僧傳 suggests that he thought himself the first to use this title. There exists a citation from a Gao shi zhuan 高士傳 by Yu Xiaojing, and Wright suggests that the Sui shu editors got confused, created a ghost double of this secular work and listed it as Gao seng zhuan under Buddhist works, and this led to further confusion and misinformation in the later tradition.

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98-99

 The Sui shu 隋書, Xin Tang shu 新唐書 and Jiu Tang shu 舊唐書 all mention a supposed Gao seng zhuan 高僧傳 by Yu Xiaojing 虞孝敬, who was a secretary under Prince Xiangdong 相東王 (later Liang Yuandi 梁元帝, r. 552-555), and then entered orders and took the name of Huiming 惠命 or Huimin 惠敏. The Si ku quan shu editors then state that Huijiao 慧皎 took this work as a model. Wright argues that this notice is mistaken. Huijiao’s 慧皎 preface to his own Gao seng zhuan 高僧傳 suggests that he thought himself the first to use this title. There exists a citation from a Gao shi zhuan 高士傳 by Yu Xiaojing, and Wright suggests that the Sui shu editors got confused, created a ghost double of this secular work and listed it as Gao seng zhuan under Buddhist works, and this led to further confusion and misinformation in the later tradition. Yu Xiaojing 虞孝敬 Gao seng zhuan 高僧傳

Wright argues that Huijiao 慧皎 completed this work around the year 530. It has often been interpreted that Huijiao finished his work in 519, the terminal date for the biographies themselves, but a note by Sengguo 僧果 indicates that Huijiao would have only been twenty-two in that year. Wright believes the GSZ is the work of many years, rather than the work of a “precocious youth”. On the other hand, Huijiao sent the completed the biographies, and later the lun and zan, to Wang Manying, and after Wang’s death, his widow sought support in the charity of a prince who died himself in 533, yielding 533 as a terminus ante quem.

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 Wright argues that Huijiao 慧皎 completed this work around the year 530. It has often been interpreted that Huijiao finished his work in 519, the terminal date for the biographies themselves, but a note by Sengguo 僧果 indicates that Huijiao would have only been twenty-two in that year. Wright believes the GSZ is the work of many years, rather than the work of a “precocious youth”. On the other hand, Huijiao sent the completed the biographies, and later the lun and zan, to Wang Manying, and after Wang’s death, his widow sought support in the charity of a prince who died himself in 533, yielding 533 as a terminus ante quem. T2059; 高僧傳