Role Author Name Sengyou Sengyou | Died 518 AD | |
Sengyou (Chinese: 僧祐; pinyin: Sēngyòu; 445–518 AD) was a Buddhist monk, hailing from Nanjing, then called Jiankang (建康). He became a monk at 14 at which time he studied and eventually taught the Vinaya. He is the author of the “Collected Records concerning the Tripitaka” (出三藏記集 Chu sanzang jìjí, T2145) a catalogue in 15 juan (rolls) of the early Buddhist texts translated into Chinese, which also includes short biographies of leading Indian, Central Asian and Chinese monks involved in translation work. This catalogue is considered to be a valuable and fairly reliable guide to translations done up to that time. It was based on several earlier catalogues, and in turn it formed the basis of succeeding works of this genre. It is suggested that literary work of Sengyou was done with help of Liu Xie (Victor H. Mair, "Buddhism in the Literary Mind and Ornate Rhetoric")