Tao-sheng
Tao-sheng
道生・竺道生 (d. 434) (PY Daosheng; Jpn Doshoor Jiku-dosho)
Also known as Chu Tao-sheng. A disciple of Kumarajiva in China.
According to one account, Tao-sheng was born in 355.
In his youth he became a priest and studied Buddhism under Fa-t'ai, assuming the position of lecturer by age fifteen.
He then studied under Hui-yüan on Mount Lu.
Eventually he went to Ch'ang-an, where he joined Kumara-jiva in his translation work and became one of his major disciples.
In 409 he advocated the doctrine of immediate attainment of Buddhahood.
Moreover, based on his study of Fa-hsien's Chinese version of the Nirvana Sutra, he argued that all people possess the Buddha nature and that even icchantikas, those of incorrigible disbelief, can attain Buddhahood.
The elder priests attacked him for these views and expelled him from the community of priests, and he retired to a mountain in Su-chou.
Later, when Dharmaraksha translated the Nirvana Sutra into Chinese, Tao-sheng's assertions were proven and widely accepted.
In collaboration with Buddhajiva, Tao-sheng translated The Fivefold Rules of Discipline, the vinaya text of the Mahishasaka school, from Sanskrit into Chinese.
