The activities of eminent monk Zhi Daoling in the elite society of scholars of the East Jin Dynasty played a very important role in the transition of Chinese cultural ideological current from that of metaphysics to that of Buddhism. The author has collected and studied materials about Zhi's entire life and arranged them in this article, structured as follows. Centered around the temples where Zhi Daoling lived, his life is divided into 6 periods: 1. from Yuhang Mountain of Wu County to Baima Temple of Jiankang; 2. Zhishan Temple of Wu County, 3. Lingjia Temple of Shanyin County, 4. Wozhoushan Temple and Qiguang Temple of Shichengshan, Tan County, 5. Dongan Temple of Jiankang; 6. Qiguang Temple of Shichengshan, where he died. All the occurrences of every period are chronologically listed and scrutinized.Those of indefinite time and whereabouts are attached to similar events of the time as closely as possible, to avoid omission and to facilitate reference. For every event, the study is conducted in two aspects in general: one is materials [sources], the other is author [textural criticism]. For a few difficult points, there is a section of [doubts]. Sources come mainly from Huijiao's Lives of Eminent Monks - Life of Zhi Daoling and Shishuoxinyu, complemented widely with materials from various histories and biographies, subject-centered collections, classics, poems, anecdotes, and so on. The time, locale, characters and course are synthetically analyzed. This Study limits itself within historical facts, without dabbling ideological history. In particular, it utilizes various materials of the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties of historical geography since the South Dynasty to describe in considerate details the historical changes of the temples and other relics respecting Zhi Daoling's activities.
