He experienced the difficulty of "Erwu Destroyed the Buddha" in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and his Buddhist views belong to the Northern Sect of Zen. After the founder Bodhidharma was poisoned by those in power, the monks began to migrate to protect the Buddha's Dharma, and changed the previous method of spreading scriptures, believing that "bamboo is easy to sell, and paper is easy to burn; if it is carved on a high mountain, it will remain forever." Therefore, Buddhist scriptures were carved on the stone cliffs during the migration. An Daoyi was the main scholar at this time.
There are 5 engraved scriptures of the Northern Qi Dynasty in Pingyin area, and 3 inscriptions of Andaoyi. The largest and richest engraved scriptures in Pingyin and Northern Qi Dynasties are the Erhongding engraved scriptures halfway up Dahong Mountain in the south of Hongfanchi Town. The other places are Tianchi Mountain, Yuncui Mountain and Black Mountain. Before the discovery of Pingyin engraved scriptures, Northern Dynasty engraved scriptures were found in Xiangtang Mountain and Zhonghuang Mountain in Hebei Province, Biegai Mountain in Henan Province, Taishan Mountain, Culai Mountain, Zoucheng Yushan Mountain, Wenshang Buffalo Mountain, etc. in Shandong Province, but Only the Gangshan and Tieshan engraved scriptures in Zouxian County bear the signature of An Daoyi, but the engraved scriptures are slightly later than Erhongding. The sutras engraved on Erhongding are divided into north and south parts, covering an area of ??more than 600 square meters and containing 1,500 words. Among them, the four characters "Dakong King Buddha" are actually 11.3 meters high and 3 meters wide. The character "Buddha" is 4.25 meters high and more than 3 meters wide. Experts believe that from Oracle Bone Inscriptions to the Northern Qi Dynasty, this "Buddha" is the largest Chinese character. An Daoyi's calligraphy skills were very high, he opened up a new field, and had a great influence at home and abroad: "Qing Dynasty crossed Xi (Xi Zhi) Dan (Wei Dan), Miao Yue Ying Yao". Kang Youwei and Guo Moruo both spoke highly of it. The Japanese Calligraphy Association recommended that the Chinese Calligraphy Association should establish An as the "Sage of Calligraphy" to keep pace with Wang Xizhi's "Sage of Calligraphy". Although there is no conclusive proof, most experts believe that An Daoyi should be from the Dong'a area of ??Pingyin.
Due to the lack of historical records and incomplete historical records, some people speculate that Andaoyi was from Zoucheng or Tai'an. Most experts such as Zhang Weiran from Fudan University concluded that he was in the Dongping area. Most of the scholars' research is based on inferences based on the inscriptions. There are two important inscriptions related to the birthplace of Andao in the stone carvings. One is the independent inscription of Andao in Hongdingshan, Dongping, which describes him as "a native of the countryside"; the other is the Tieshan carving in Zoucheng. In the Sutra, the Tieshan Cliff Carved Sutra is 66.2 meters long from north to south and 16.4 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of ??1,037 square meters, which is broad and magnificent. There is an inscription below the sutra, which lists the names of the sutra owner and the writer of the sutra. In the sixth line, there is the sentence "Dongling Monk An Dao Yisu Sutra". It is inferred that he was from Dongping or Pingyin, based on the record of An Daoyi that he appeared in Hongding Mountain. However, the location of "Guangdaxiangli" cannot be verified, and some experts believe that the theory of Guangdaxiang also means generalization. Or the term used by wandering monks. In addition, due to the lack of precise geographical location of the name "Donngling", experts did not pay attention to it, because many historical records refer to the directions of certain mountains such as Nanling and Xiling.
However, the discovery of ancient inscriptions called "Donngling" at the place where Andaoyi first carried out scripture carving activities proves that "Donngling" is an exact place name and not a false reference. In the third national cultural relics census conducted in Dongping County, Shandong Province, the cultural relics census of the Yuhuang Temple in Liugong Mountain was carried out. In the two inscriptions on the reconstructed Yuhuang Temple, the place name "Liugong Shandong Ridge" was found, which clearly stated The peak east of Liugong Mountain was called "Dongling" in ancient times, which adds new evidence to the "Dongping theory" of the birthplace of An Dao, a famous calligraphy monk in the Northern Dynasties. (Information comes from the October 2012 edition of the first issue of "Seng An Daoyi Research")