Description
The Hundred Records of the Temple of National Purity (Ch. Guoqing
bailu) is a collection of documents concerning the life and activities
of Tiantai Zhiyi (538–597), the founder of the Tiantai tradition and
one of the most creative and influential figures of East Asian
Buddhism. It was compiled and edited by Guanding (561–632),
one of Zhiyi’s disciples who also edited many of Zhiyi’s major
works. The collection, as included in the Taishō canon (T. 1934),
contains one hundred and four sections plus an introduction and
preface, and in addition a chronological outline of Zhiyi’s life and
a postscript appended during the Song period (1185). It is an
extremely valuable source of historical documentation on the life
and times of Zhiyi and provided the primary basis for all subsequent
biographical works, as well as information on other figures and
events of China in the sixth and early seventh centuries.