Fazang

Fazang was born in 643 in the Tang capital, Chang’an, into a family whose ancestors had come from Sogdiana in Central Asia. He studied the Avataṃsaka Sūtra with Zhiyan, the second patriarch of the Huayan school, and was ordained in 670 at a temple founded by the Empress Wu in memory of her mother.

He enjoyed the patronage of the Empress Wu, the only woman to rule China as emperor in her own name, and took part in the new translation of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra completed by Śikṣānanda in 699. Tradition tells that he explained its teaching to the Empress using a golden lion in the palace, an exposition preserved as the Treatise on the Golden Lion, and that he demonstrated the infinite mutual reflection of things with a Buddha image and a lamp set among mirrors.

His many works include a treatise on the five teachings of Buddhism, which ranks them and places Huayan at the summit, a long commentary on the Avataṃsaka, and a commentary on the Awakening of Faith. He is honoured as the third patriarch of Huayan, and its real founder as a system of thought. He died in 712.