KUIJI (632–682), religious name of the first patriarch of the Faxiang school of Chinese Buddhism, also known by the titles Dasheng Ji and Ci'en Dashi. Kuiji was the foremost disciple of the great pilgrim-monk Xuanzang, under whose tutelage he came to play an instrumental role in the second major transmission of Indian Yogācāra Buddhist thought into China.

Born into a family of famous generals, the Yuzhi, Kuiji received a classical Confucian education in preparation for the life of a court official, but decided while still in his teens to enter the Buddhist monastic order instead. In 645 Xuanzang returned from his extended study of Buddhism in India and was commissioned by Taizong, the second Tang emperor, to oversee the translation of the numerous Buddhist texts he had brought back to China. Upon his ordination several years later, Kuiji was assigned by imperial order to Xuanzang's translation team and...