DAO'AN (312–385), also known as Shi Dao'an, Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, and gifted exegete whose organizational abilities and doctrinal acumen helped shape the direction of early Chinese Buddhism. Dao'an was born to a family of literati in what is now Hebei Province in North China. He became a novice at the age of twelve. In 335 he journeyed to Ye (Hebei Province), the new capital of the Later Zhao kingdom, where he studied with Fotudeng (d. 348), the thaumaturge-monk whose magical prowess and success at predicting the outcome of battle had served to recommend Buddhism to the non-Chinese rulers of the kingdom. With the death of Shi Hu, then ruler of the Later Zhao, in 349, Dao'an left Ye and began a peripatetic career in North China that was to last until 365, when he was forced by war to flee south to Xiangyang (Hubei Province). During this period...