Abstract: Daoxuan is mainly praised for his obedience to Buddhist disciplines and his historical writings. However, a careful reading of his works will tell us that Daoxuan held a strong belief in Buddhist epiphany and made great efforts to build a "perfect" Buddhist world. His records of epiphany show that Daoxuan interpreted Buddhist history and figures in a particular way. The stories of Buddhist epiphany not only recorded his personal experience, but also were used to demonstrate the holiness of Buddhism. With their strong mysterious color, they helped Daoxuan construct and preach a more sacred Buddhism as the "center of the universe". Examining the records of epiphany related to Daoxuan, we can also see that he was a Buddhist master above all, and then he was respected as the founder of Vinaya school of Chinese Buddhism and a historian of Buddhism.

Key words: Daoxuan, Buddhist epiphany, sacred explanation