[1] Daoxuan wrote both the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks (Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳 ) and the Standard Design for Buddhist Temple Construction.

Influenced by the apocalyptic Mo-fa or theory of the end of the Dharma, Daoxuan was particularly concerned to expose and denounce suspicious (yiwei 疑偽) or fake (wei 偽) sutras.

[5] The Nèidiǎn Catalog is also notable for being the first bibliographical work to attribute the Heart Sutra to Xuánzàng, who died in 664, the same year as the catalogue was completed.

Scholarly consensus today seems to agree with the Kaiyuan shijiao lu 開元釋教錄, which states that his family hailed from Wuxing 吳興 in present-day Huzhou city, Zhejiang.

He was the son of Qian Shen 錢申, a high official at the Chen court acting as Director at the Ministry of Personnel (shangshu libu 尚書吏部).

At the age of fifteen, as Daoxuan showed a fondness for Buddhist teaching and an aversion to worldly matters, he joined the monastic order.

[13] Under the tutelage of Huiyun 慧頵 (564–637) at Riyan Monastery 日嚴寺, he began his practice and was, according to the Song Biography of Eminent Monks by Zanning, tonsured soon thereafter.