View source for Memoirs of Eminent Monks

{{Short description|Compilation of biographies of monks}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
The '''''Memoirs of Eminent Monks''''' ({{Zh|c=高僧傳|p=Gāosēng Zhuàn}}), also known as the Biographies of Eminent Monks, is a compilation of [[biography|biographies]] of [[Monk|monks]] in [[China]] by Hui Jiao 慧皎 of Jiaxiang Temple in [[Kuaiji Mountain]], [[Zhejiang]] {{circa|530}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Zürcher|first1=Erik|title=The Buddhist Conquest of China|date=1959|publisher=Brill Archive|page=6 and Wright, 'Biography and Hagiography', pp. 395–400}}</ref><ref>[http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/travel_records.pdf The Travel Records of Chinese Pilgrims Faxian, Xuanzang, and Yijing]</ref> from the introduction of [[Buddhism]] to China up to the [[Liang Dynasty]]. Hui Jiao explains himself that the title is supposed to draw a contrast with monks who are famous but not eminent - an allusion to the lost work of his contemporary [[Baochang (monk)|Baochang]], ''Míngsēng zhuàn'' 名僧傳 (= Biographies of Famous Monks).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wright |title=Biography and Hagiography |date=1954 |pages=408–12}}</ref>

The manuscript is 14 scrolls in length with the preface given in Scroll 14. It contains 257 major biographies, arranged in ten categories: (1) translators of [[scripture]]/ [[Sutra|sutras]] 譯經 (yijing), (2) expounders of righteousness 義解 (yijie), (3) monks of miraculous spirit 神異 (shenyi), (4) practitioners of meditation 習禪 (xichan), (5) experts in the vinaya 明律 (minglu), (6) those who give up their bodies 遺身 (yishen),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Benn |first1=James |title=Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism |date=2007 |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press}}</ref> (7) chanters of scripture/ sutras 誦經 (songjing), (8) those bringing happiness and fortune 興福(xingfu), (9) masters of scripture/ sutras 經師 (jingshi), and (10) leaders of chanting 唱導(changdao). Hui Jiao also lists 259 minor biographies.<ref name="T50 2059">{{cite web|title=Biographies of Eminent Monks 高僧傳|url=http://www.cbeta.org/result/T50/T50n2059.htm|website=CBETA|publisher=Taishō Tripiṭaka|accessdate=28 December 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102033843/http://www.cbeta.org/result/T50/T50n2059.htm|archivedate=2015-01-02|location=Taiwan|language=Chinese|author=Hui Jiao|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Biographies of Eminent Monks 高僧傳|url=http://ntireader.org/collection.php?colname=gaosengzhuan|website=NTI Buddhist Text Reader|publisher=Nan Tien Institute|accessdate=28 December 2014|archivedate=2014-12-28|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141228010101/http://ntireader.org/collection.php?colname%3Dgaosengzhuan|author=Hui Jiao}}</ref> The text includes the biographies of [[An Shi Gao]], [[Kumārajīva]], [[Faxian]], [[Dao An]], [[Fotudeng]], and others. Hui Jiao used a wide range of other biographies, some of which are still extant, and this makes the way he shaped his stories highly revealing of his historical method and ideals.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yang |title=Narrative and Historicity in the Buddhist Biographies of Early Medieval China: The Case of Kumarajiva |journal=Asia Major |date=2004 |volume=3rd series 17 |issue=2 |pages=1–43 |jstor=41649889 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Theragatha]]
*[[Therigatha]]
*[[Chinese Buddhism]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Kieschnik, John, ''The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography'' (Hawai'i, 1997).
* Shi Huijiao. '[https://www.buddhism.hku.hk/publication-post/biographies-of-eminent-monks/ The Biographies of Eminent Monks]'. Tianshu Yang, translator. Edward A. S. Ross, editor. Hong Kong: Centre of Buddhist Studies, University of Hong Kong, 2022.
* Yang Lu, 'Narrative and Historicity in the Buddhist Biographies of Early Medieval China: The Case of Kumārajīva', ''Asia Major'', 3rd series 17.2 (2004), 1-43.
* Wright, Arthur F., 'Biography and Hagiography: Hui-Chiao's ''Lives of Eminent Monks'', in ''Silver Jubilee Volume'' (Kyoto, 1954), pp.&nbsp;383–432.
* Zürcher, Erik, ''The Buddhist Conquest of China'' (Leiden, 1959; 3rd edn 2007).

{{Buddhism topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Memoirs Of Eminent Monks}}
[[Category:Buddhist monks]]
[[Category:History of Buddhism in China]]
[[Category:Mahayana texts]]
[[Category:Books of Buddhist biography]]
[[Category:Texts about the history of Buddhism]]

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