The Holy land of the Shaolin

Dao Xuan (596-667) was the founder of the Nanshan branch of the Precepts (Lu) school in China. In 611 he were ordained as a Buddhist Monk and studied the vinaya, or commonly known, rules of the monastic discipline, under Zhijun. In 624 he went to a mountain called Zhongnanshan (终南山) to study and practice and eventually founded his own Buddhist school based on the precepts of The Fourfold Rules of Discipline (chin.: sifen lu shanfan buque xingshi chao 四分律刪繁补阙行事钞).

The Nanshan (南山) school was the only branch of the Precepts school (chin.: Luzong 律宗) to survive, and later it became synonymous with the Precepts school. From 645 Dao Xuan assisted Xuanzang with his translation work. He also authored several books on precepts, as well as a number of historical works. His works it is considered invaluable in the study of Chinese Buddhism.

The Essentials of “The Fourfold Rules of Discipline,” which is the principal text of the Nanshan school, and The Further Anthology of the Propagation of Light, a thirty-volume anthology of essays on Buddhism by various Chinese Buddhists are unique books in the world.

Dao Xuan’s Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks carries on from The Biographies of Eminent Monks and contains the biographies of five hundred Monks historically active from 502 to 645. 

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