The following brief account of Grand Master Tiāntái’s life comes from Another Biography of the Great Master Zhizhe at Mount Tiāntái Guoqingsi. Great Master Tiāntái was given the posthumous name of Zhiyi. His parents named him Dean, with the family name of Chen. His father’s name was Chen Qizu, and his mother came from the Xu family. He lost his parents when he was seventeen years old, during the turbulent end of the Liang Dynasty. Soon after, he entered the Buddhist monastic life under Fazu at Guoyuansi temple and was awarded the complete monastic precepts from Precept Master Huikuang (543-613 CE). In 560 CE, Zhiyi visited Huisi (515-589 CE) on Mount Dasu, and under him studied the Lotus Sūtra. As a result of intense practice, he was said to have attained awakening through this phrase of the “Medicine King Chapter” of the Lotus Sūtra: “The Buddhas of those worlds praised him, saying simultaneously, ‘Excellent, excellent, good man! All you did was a true endeavor. You made an offering to us according to the true Dharma.’ ” Huisi certified his awakening.

With the recommendation of Huisi, Zhiyi left Mount Dasu, went to Jinling and stayed at Waguansi temple where he lectured to both clergy and laity over a period of eight years on the Title of the Lotus Sūtra, the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, and the Source of the Meditation Gate. However, because of an anti-Buddhist movement by the Northern Zhou dynasty, Zhiyi retired to Mount Tiāntái in 575 CE at the age of 39. He undertook dhūta practice at the Flower Peak of the mountain, and lectured at Xiuchansi Temple. In 585 CE, at the age of 48, Zhiyi returned to Jinling, the capital of the Chen dynasty, at the request of the last emperor and governors of that dynasty.

In 587 CE, he gave lectures on the Lotus Sūtra, which were later compiled as The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra. To avoid the bloodshed caused by the conquest of the Chen dynasty by the Sui dynasty, Zhiyi stayed at Mount Lu and in the town of Changsha. In 591 CE, Prince Guang, later known as Yangdi, invited him to Yangzhou. He granted bodhisattva precepts to the prince, who gave him the honorific name Zhizhe.

Zhiyi established Yuquansi Temple in Jingzhou. He expounded The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra in 593 CE and The Great Calming and Contemplation in 594 CE. He returned to Mount Tiāntái in 595 CE. Two years later, in 597 CE, while he was on the way to see Prince Guang, he became sick and died at the age of 60.