{ "id": "epw3gwx0rn", "slug": "daozun", "title": "Daozun", "updated": "2026-10-15", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.belief", "label": "Philosophy, religion, and mythology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.belief" }, { "id": "society.belief.religion", "label": "Religion and spirituality", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.belief.religion" }, { "id": "society.belief.religion.people", "label": "Religious biographies", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.belief.religion.people" }, { "id": "society.belief.religion.people.non_christian_leaders", "label": "Jewish, Islamic, and Dharmic religious leaders", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.belief.religion.people.non_christian_leaders" }, { "id": "society.belief.religion.people.dharmic_teachers", "label": "Sikh Gurus and Hindu/Dharmic teachers", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.belief.religion.people.dharmic_teachers" }, { "id": "society.belief.religion.people.dharmic_teachers.vinaya-masters", "label": "Vinaya masters", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.belief.religion.people.dharmic_teachers.vinaya-masters" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.belief.religion.people.dharmic_teachers", "label": "China · 500 BC to AD 999: Sikh Gurus and Hindu/Dharmic teachers", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.belief.religion.people.dharmic_teachers", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500", "label": "China · 500 BC to AD 999", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.belief", "label": "Philosophy, religion, and mythology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.belief" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.belief.religion", "label": "Religion and spirituality", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.belief.religion" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.belief.religion.people", "label": "Religious biographies", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.belief.religion.people" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.belief.religion.people.non_christian_leaders", "label": "Jewish, Islamic, and Dharmic religious leaders", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.belief.religion.people.non_christian_leaders" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t500.society.belief.religion.people.dharmic_teachers", "label": "Sikh Gurus and Hindu/Dharmic teachers", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t500.society.belief.religion.people.dharmic_teachers" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Daozun (道遵) is a figure placed in the Nanshan branch of the Tang Vinaya school, founded by Daoxuan, but his dates, teachers, monastery, and writings are all unverified.", "snippet": "Daozun (道遵) is a figure placed in the Nanshan branch of the Tang Vinaya school, founded by Daoxuan, but his dates, teachers, monastery, and writings are all unverified.", "node": "society.belief.religion.people.dharmic_teachers.vinaya-masters", "markdown": "# Daozun\n\n**Daozun** (道遵) is a figure associated with the Chinese Vinaya tradition whose dates, teachers, monastery, and writings are unverified; what can be documented is the Nanshan Vinaya world of the eighth century into which he is placed, and the state of the evidence about him.\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Traditional affiliation | Nanshan branch of the Tang Vinaya school, founded by Daoxuan (596–667)[1](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/4/464) |\n| Standard text of that school | The Four-Part Vinaya (Sifen lü), which became the standard used throughout China[2](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/DLMBS/en/search/search_detail.jsp?comefrom=fulltextthesis&seq=669362) |\n| Documented Nanshan successors | Wen'gang (636–727), Daoan (654–717), and Jianzhen (688–763); Daozun does not appear in this list[2](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/DLMBS/en/search/search_detail.jsp?comefrom=fulltextthesis&seq=669362) |\n| Jianzhen link | Jianzhen, a Yangzhou Vinaya master, crossed to Japan in the Tianbao period and founded the Japanese Risshū; no retrieved source names Daozun as his teacher[1](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/4/464) • [3](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ001/bj089703.htm) |\n| Biographical genre | Daoxuan's first recorded biography was a stele inscription by Li Yong that became Zanning's primary source for the Song gaoseng zhuan entry on Daoxuan[4](https://akjournals.com/view/journals/062/73/3/article-p419.xml) |\n\n## The Nanshan Vinaya world of the eighth century\n\nTang Vinaya exegesis divided into three schools, each built on commentaries to the Four-Part Vinaya (Sifen lü): the Xiangbu school of Fali (569–635), the Nanshan school of Daoxuan (596–667), and the Dongta school of [Huaisu](https://www.edgepedia.org/huaisu-tang-vinaya-master) (625–698 by one account, 634–707 by another). They competed chiefly over jieti (戒体), the \"substance of the precepts\" conferred in ordination; Daoxuan's Jiemo shu proposed a Yogacara-based theory of the substance of the precepts as seeds (zhongzi jieti).[1](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/4/464) • [5](https://doi.org/10.4259/ibk.66.3_1157) The Nanshan branch eventually eclipsed the other two.[1](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/4/464)\n\nDaoxuan's Sifen lü shanfan buque xingshi chao, completed in 626, organized the Four-Part Vinaya so effectively that it became perhaps the most authoritative Vinaya work in China until at least the 11th century, and an important factor in the Four-Part Vinaya becoming the standard used throughout China.[3](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ001/bj089703.htm) • [2](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/DLMBS/en/search/search_detail.jsp?comefrom=fulltextthesis&seq=669362) The Nanshan school's five great commentaries (五大部) were the Hanzhu jieben shu, Xingshi chao, Jiamo shu, Shipini yichao, and Biqiuni chao.[3](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ001/bj089703.htm)\n\n**Propagation in the Jiang-Huai region.** Daoxuan's disciple Daoan obtained an imperial edict from Emperor Zhongzong to propagate the Nanshan Vinaya in the Jiang-Huai region, so that the southeast, the last area still following the Ten Recitations Vinaya (Shisong lü), largely converted to the Nanshan reading of the Four-Part Vinaya.[3](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ001/bj089703.htm) The Jiang-Huai region thus became an area of Nanshan propagation in the early eighth century.\n\n## Jianzhen and the Yangzhou Vinaya milieu\n\nJianzhen (鑒真; Japanese Ganjin; 688–763 by most accounts, 687–763 in one recent study, an unresolved discrepancy) was a native of Jiangyang in Guangling, present-day Yangzhou in Jiangsu, and resided at Dayun Monastery in Yangzhou before his trip to Japan.[6](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/3/335) After six attempts at the crossing, he reached Nara in the Tianbao (天宝) period of the Tang, established an ordination platform at the Tōdaiji, conferred [Bodhisattva](https://www.edgepedia.org/bodhisattva) precepts on the imperial clan according to the Brahmā's Net Sūtra, and performed ordinations according to the \"Vinaya in Four Parts.\"[1](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/4/464) • [7](https://doi.org/10.25501/soas.00014241) Between 742 and 753 he brought Vinaya texts including Daoxuan's Hanzhu jieben shu and Jiamo shu to Japan, founding the Japanese Risshū; by 780 the Xiangbu and Dongta lineages had declined while the Nanshan lineage alone continued unbroken.[3](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ001/bj089703.htm)\n\nThe thesis literature on Daoxuan's successors lists Wen'gang (636–727), Daoan (654–717), and Jianzhen himself, but not Daozun.[2](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/DLMBS/en/search/search_detail.jsp?comefrom=fulltextthesis&seq=669362) Any teacher–disciple link between Daozun and Jianzhen therefore remains unconfirmed.\n\n## Ordination platforms in Daozun's era\n\nOrdination platforms (jietan) were the institutional sites of precept conferral. In 767, under Emperor Daizong (r. 762–779), associates of the Esoteric master [Amoghavajra](https://www.edgepedia.org/amoghavajra) (704–774) and of the Chan figure [Songshan Puji](https://www.edgepedia.org/songshanpuji) (651–739) reconstructed the ordination platform of Huishan Monastery on Mount Song, an episode showing close congruence between Esoteric and Chan groups in precept conferral and monastic ordination.[8](https://journal.equinoxpub.com/BSR/article/view/19839) Any platform activity credited to Daozun would belong to this same mid-eighth-century setting, in which at least one jietan reconstruction took place under a pro-Buddhist court policy, though none is documented for him.\n\n## References\n\n1. [On the Patriarchal Lineages of Vinaya Transmission Starting with Upāli: Narratives and Interpretations in the Vinaya School 律宗 in China and Japan, Religions 14(4):464](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/4/464)\n2. [A Study of the Nanshan Vinaya Tradition and Dàoxuān's Commentary on Conduct and Procedure, Fo Guang University thesis abstract (2012)](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/DLMBS/en/search/search_detail.jsp?comefrom=fulltextthesis&seq=669362)\n3. [中國律學源流, NTU Buddhist Studies fulltext](https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ001/bj089703.htm)\n4. [A Missing Buddhist Biography: Li Yong 李邕 (678–747) and His Stele Inscription for Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667), Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 73(3)](https://akjournals.com/view/journals/062/73/3/article-p419.xml)\n5. [Doctrinal Debate in Tang-dynasty Vinaya Commentaries: The 'Substance of the Precepts' in the Works of Fali, Daoxuan, and Huaisu](https://doi.org/10.4259/ibk.66.3_1157)\n6. [Regional Buddhist Communities in Tang China and Their Social Networks: The Network of Master Fayun (?–766), Religions 14(3):335](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/3/335)\n7. [Precepts and lineage in Chan tradition: cross-cultural perspectives in ninth century East Asia](https://doi.org/10.25501/soas.00014241)\n8. [Esoteric, Chan and Vinaya Ties in Tang Buddhism: The Ordination Platform of the Huishan Monastery on Mount Song in the Religious Policy of Emperor Daizong, Buddhist Studies Review](https://journal.equinoxpub.com/BSR/article/view/19839)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Religion and spirituality › Religious biographies › Jewish, Islamic, and Dharmic religious leaders › Sikh Gurus and Hindu/Dharmic teachers › Vinaya masters*\n\n*Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/daozun", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/daozun.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Daozun\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/daozun. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Daozun](https://www.edgepedia.org/daozun)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/daozun](https://www.edgepedia.org/daozun). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Daozun\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/daozun. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Daozun is a figure placed in the Nanshan branch of the Tang Vinaya school, founded by Daoxuan, but his dates, teachers, monastery, and writings are all unverified." }