Translation at Luoyang and the biographical record
The Gaoseng zhuan calls him An Qing, courtesy name Shigao, and places his origins in Anxi, the Parthian realm. It describes his arrival during Emperor Huan's reign, acquisition of Chinese and translation work. The biography associates his learning with Abhidharma and meditation texts, bringing doctrinal analysis together with methods of practice.
Royal descent, renunciation and miraculous episodes belong to the religious traditions preserved in his biography. Its compiler also compared sources and rejected chronological contradictions in stories placing An Shigao in the Western Jin or later. The record supports his Later Han setting without requiring every transmitted legend to become a dated event.
References: [1]
Meditation and doctrinal classification
The biography lists works including Anban shouyi jing, Yin chi ru jing and the greater and lesser Twelve Gates texts. Yin chi ru jing organizes bodily and mental experience through aggregates, elements and sense-fields, alongside the four truths and other categories of practice. Its early vocabulary preserves a linguistic layer different from terminology familiar through later translations.
Transmission continued through explanation and commentary. The biography quotes a preface by Kang Senghui describing Chen Hui's interpretations and his own assistance. The commentary on Yin chi ru jing expands short passages item by item. Translation, teaching and written interpretation thus contributed at different stages to the texts' circulation.
Disagreement over the translation corpus
Ancient catalogs and later canonical headings attribute differing numbers of texts to An Shigao. Vocabulary, syntax, parallel passages and catalog history provide evidence for distinguishing translators and layers of compilation.
The Qi chu san guan jing offers a specific disagreement. Paul Harrison attributed all forty-seven texts to An Shigao and connected a group with an old catalog title. In a 2012 study, Su Jinkun examined individual texts and catalog records and argued that the surviving collection includes work by several translators. The question concerns the attribution and assembly of particular texts within the broader translation tradition.