Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.26

v1.c7.26

The Han, Jin, and the Northern Dynasties, up to Sui and Tang is the period when Chinese and Indian Buddhist interactions peaked. Apart from the eminent Chinese monks – Zhu Fahu, Shi Baoyun, Shi Faxian, Shi Zhiyan, Shi Zhimeng, and others – master Faxian was the earliest one. At the advanced age of 60, he left the country all by himself. On his way, he passed through shifting sands, he crossed natural barriers and he went West without stopping. It is recorded that “He followed his path, forgetting about his own body and yielding to fate he propagated the law”. In the history of Chinese Buddhism, he was the first monk who went all the way to India and studied there a heroic undertaking in search of scriptures. When he finally reached India, he became the first Chinese Buddhist monk to appear at the main Buddhist sites. He also recorded with brush in hand, the situation in India at that time in his *Fo guo ji* (*Record of Buddhist Countries*). He left valuable historical material for the later generations. Jiumo Luoshi (Kumārajīva) was another famous scholar who had studied in India. After returning to China, he dedicated himself to the propagation of Buddhism. Buddhist monks during the Northern Dynasties went one after another to India, either alone or as a group. The eminent monk from Youzhou, Tanwu Jie, led a group of 25 people and went West in the first year of Yongchu of the Liu Song (420 CE). Twenty people died on the way, one after another, and those who were left, visited many places in India. They brought back the belief in Guanyin (Avalokiteśvara) which would later become widespread in China. The *śramaṇa* of the Former Wei, Daoyao, the *śramaṇa* of the Chongli Temple, Huisheng and Songyun from Dunhuang travelled with the support of the court to different countries in northern and central India. During the Northern Qi, a group of 10 monks, *śramaṇas* Baoxian, Daosui, Sengtan, Zhizhou, Sengwei, Fabao, Zhizhao and others went in search of the *dharma* in India for seven years and they made pilgrimages to the holy places. In short, these pioneering eminent monks and groups “who had all passed beyond the hindrance of the desert and crossed dangers or who