Xuanzang

Xuanzang the Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar and pilgrim of the Tang dynasty (602-664) who travelled across Central Asia to India in search of Buddhist scriptures and returned after sixteen years with hundreds of texts, becoming one of the greatest translators in the history of Buddhism and the model for the famous novel Journey to the West.

Early Life and Monastic Training

Xuanzang was born in 602, probably in the region of Luoyang in central China, the youngest of several sons in a family of scholars and officials. Left without parents at an early age, he entered a monastery as a boy and was ordained a monk while still young. He proved an outstanding student, mastering the Buddhist scriptures, the philosophical treatises and the language of the sutras with unusual speed.

As he studied, he became troubled by the contradictions and uncertainties he found in the Chinese translations then available. The texts differed from one another, key doctrines were rendered in inconsistent ways, and the commentaries disagreed. Convinced that only the original Sanskrit sources could settle these questions, he resolved to travel to India, the homeland of Buddhism, and to bring back authoritative copies of the scriptures.

His plan required great courage. The journey was long and dangerous, crossing deserts, mountains and unfamiliar kingdoms, and the imperial government at first refused him permission to leave. According to tradition he set out in secret in 629, travelling west along the routes that carried merchants and monks between China and Central Asia, and he did not return for sixteen years.

The Pilgrimage to India

Crossing the Gobi and the oases of Central Asia, Xuanzang passed through the kingdoms of the Tarim basin and over the mountains into what is now Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. He travelled through regions of great religious and cultural variety, observing the customs of the peoples he met and recording them in detail. At times he was welcomed and supported by rulers; at others he escaped robbery and death by narrow margins.

In India he journeyed widely, visiting monasteries, pilgrimage sites and centres of learning across the north and east of the subcontinent. He studied with famous teachers, debated with scholars of rival schools, and gathered manuscripts wherever he went. His command of Sanskrit and his familiarity with Buddhist doctrine made him a respected participant in the intellectual life of the Indian monasteries.

The high point of his stay was his time at the great monastic university of Nalanda, where he studied for several years under the abbot Silabhadra. He mastered the doctrines of the Yogacara school and became a teacher in his own right, and he is said to have won a celebrated public debate against opponents of his tradition. In 645 he returned to China, carrying hundreds of Sanskrit manuscripts and relics.

Translation and Scholarly Work

Back in the Tang capital Chang'an, Xuanzang was received with honour by the emperor Taizong, who offered him high office. He declined official rank and asked instead for support in translating the scriptures he had brought. With imperial patronage he assembled a team of monks and scholars and organised one of the most productive translation projects in the history of Buddhism.

Over the following years he translated a vast body of texts from Sanskrit into Chinese, including some of the most important sutras and philosophical treatises of the Mahayana tradition. His translations were admired for their accuracy and their consistency, and he developed a system for rendering Sanskrit terms that preserved the sense of the originals more faithfully than the earlier versions had done. His renderings became standard for centuries.

He also composed a detailed account of his travels, known as the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, which describes the lands, peoples, religions and customs he had observed. The book is a treasure of historical geography, and it has been used by archaeologists and historians to locate lost cities and to reconstruct the state of Central Asia and India in the seventh century.

The Records and Their Value

The Records on the Western Regions is far more than a travel diary. It reports the size and wealth of cities, the practices of kings and monks, the produce of the soil, the languages spoken and the condition of the Buddhist communities, and it preserves information about places that have since vanished. Its precision has been repeatedly confirmed by later excavation and research.

For the history of India the work is especially precious, since written records from that period are scarce. Xuanzang's descriptions of Nalanda, of the great monasteries and of the political divisions of the subcontinent are among the most important sources available. Indian historians have relied heavily on his testimony, and some of the most famous archaeological discoveries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were guided by his text.

His account also records the state of Buddhism in the lands through which he passed, noting where the religion flourished and where it had declined. This information is of great value for understanding the spread and the later fortunes of Buddhism across Asia, and it shows Xuanzang to have been an observant and fair-minded witness as well as a devoted monk.

Influence and Legacy

Xuanzang transformed the understanding of Buddhism in China. The texts he translated and the doctrines he introduced shaped the development of Chinese Buddhist thought, and his school of consciousness-only philosophy became one of the most sophisticated traditions of East Asian Buddhism. His translations are still read and studied, and his method set a standard for fidelity in the rendering of sacred texts.

His journey became the subject of legend almost immediately. Over the centuries stories of his travels grew into the great novel Journey to the West, in which the monk, accompanied by fabulous companions such as the Monkey King, undertakes a perilous pilgrimage to fetch the scriptures. Through this tale Xuanzang became one of the most widely known figures of Chinese literature, familiar to readers far beyond the world of scholarship.

He died in 664, honoured as the greatest of Chinese pilgrim-translators. He is remembered as a man of immense learning, courage and devotion, who crossed deserts and mountains in search of truth and who gave his last years to the patient labour of translation. His name links the religious and intellectual worlds of China and India, and his journey remains a symbol of the search for knowledge across cultures.

See also

• Nalanda
• Journey to the West
• Yogacara
• Jianzhen