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Xuanzang | |
|---|---|
 Painting of Xuanzang. Japan, Kamakura period (14th century). | |
| Personal | |
| Born | 6 April 602 |
| Died | 5 February 664 (aged 61) |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| School | East Asian Yogācāra |
| Senior posting | |
Students | |
| Xuanzang | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 玄奘 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chen Hui[a] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 陳褘 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 陈袆 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chen Yi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 陳禕 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 陈祎 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sanskrit name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sanskrit | ह्वे॒न् साङ् , मोक्षदेवः | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Xuanzang ([ɕɥɛ̌n.tsâŋ], (Hsüen Tsang) Chinese: 玄奘; 6 April 602 – 5 February 664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (陳褘 / 陳禕), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva,[1] was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of his journey to India in 629–645 CE, his efforts to bring over 657 Indian texts to China, and his translations of some of these texts.[2] He was only able to translate 75 distinct sections of a total of 1335 chapters, but his translations included some of the most important Mahayana scriptures.[1]
Xuanzang was born on 6 April 602 in Chenliu, what is now Kaifeng municipality in Henan province of China. As a boy, he took to reading religious books, and studying the ideas therein with his father. Like his elder brother, he became a student of Buddhist studies at Jingtu monastery. Xuanzang was ordained as a śrāmaṇera (novice monk) at the age of thirteen. Due to the political and social unrest caused by the fall of the Sui dynasty, he went to Chengdu in Sichuan, where he was ordained as a bhikṣu (full monk) at the age of twenty.
He later travelled throughout China in search of sacred books of Buddhism. At length, he came to Chang'an, then under the peaceful rule of Emperor Taizong of Tang, where Xuanzang developed the desire to visit India.[3] He knew about Faxian's visit to India and, like him, was concerned about the incomplete and misinterpreted nature of the Buddhist texts that had reached China. He was also concerned about the competing Buddhist theories in variant Chinese translations. He sought original untranslated Sanskrit texts from India to help resolve some of these issues.[2]
At age 27, he began his seventeen-year overland journey to India. He defied his nation's ban on travel abroad, making his way through central Asian cities such as Khotan to India. He visited, among other places, the famed Nalanda University in modern day Bihar, India where he studied with the monk, Śīlabhadra. He departed from India with numerous Sanskrit texts on a caravan of twenty packhorses. His return was welcomed by Emperor Taizong in China, who encouraged him to write a travelogue.[2]
This Chinese travelogue, titled the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, is a notable source about Xuanzang, and also for scholarship on 7th-century India and Central Asia.[4] His travelogue is a mix of the implausible, the hearsay and a firsthand account.[5] Selections from it are used, and disputed,[6] as a terminus ante quem of 645 CE for events, names and texts he mentions. His text in turn provided the inspiration for the novel Journey to the West written by Wu Cheng'en during the Ming dynasty, around nine centuries after Xuanzang's death.[7]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ a b "Xuanzang". Encyclopedia Britannica. 1 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
- ^ a b c Li Rongxi (1996), The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai and Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Berkeley, ISBN 978-1-886439-02-3, pp. xiii-xiv
- ^ Wriggins, Sally (27 November 2003). The Silk Road Journey With Xuanzang. New York: Westview (Penguin). ISBN 978-0813365992.
- ^ Upinder Singh (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education. p. 563. ISBN 9788131716779. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
goschwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Max Deeg (2020), How to Create a Great Monastery: Xuanzang's Foundation Legend of Nālandā in Its Indian Context, Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies, Vol 3, Issue 1, pp. 228–258, Quote: "Xuanzang's Datang Xiyu ji has been and is notoriously used for the reconstruction of South Asian history and the history of Buddhism in India. Very often Xuanzang's information is either dismissed because it does not corroborate or even contradicts the facts in Indian sources, or is used to overwrite these sources."
- ^ Cao Shibang (2006). "Fact versus Fiction: From Record of the Western Regions to Journey to the West". In Wang Chichhung (ed.). Dust in the Wind: Retracing Dharma Master Xuanzang's Western Pilgrimage. Rhythms Monthly. p. 62. ISBN 9789868141988. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
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