Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s5.t10: Biographies of Eminent Monks of the Great Tang Seeking Scriptures in the Western Regions
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s5.t10
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Biographies of Eminent Monks of the Great Tang Seeking Scriptures in the Western Regions
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*Biography of the Great Monk Who Who Journeyed to the West to Seek the Doctrine during the Great Tang* (Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan) was an autobiography written by eminent Tang Buddhist monk Yi-Jing during his travel to India during the latter half of 7^th^ century CE.
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Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan is one of the most important masterpieces of Yi-Jing. With two volumes, the book was completed in the second year of Tianshou (691 CE) in the period of Empress Wu Zetian of Tang Dynasty. At that time, when Yi-Jing came back from India, he stayed in Srivijaya (present-day Sumatra, Indonesia) in South China Sea for a time. During his stay, he wrote *Great Monk’s Biography Who Seek the Doctrine from Tang to India* and *The South Sea Posted Internal Statutes*, and translated a number of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Chinese. Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan records and narrates stories of 57 monks travelling to the South China Sea and India to pursue further studies on Buddhism. This included Yi-Jing and other Chinese as well as Korean, Vietnamese, Afghan, Uzbek and other regions during about 40 years from the 15^th^ year (641 CE) of Zhenguan to the second year of Tianshou of Tang Dynasty. Later, it was attached by *Account of Returning to the South Seas* which records stories of four Chinese monks accompanying Yi-Jing to Srivijaya for a second time in the first year (689 CE) of Yongchang. After completing the books, Yi-Jing sent Chinese monk Dajin back to Chang’an, China with a memorial to the Empress on building temples in the west and his newly written books entitled *Great Monk’s Biography*
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[Figure: Biographies of the Eminent Monks of the great Tang Dynasty Seeking Scriptures in the Western Regions (Da Tang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan)]
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*Who Seek the Doctrine from Tang to India* and *Account of Buddhism Sent from the South Seas* as well as 10 volumes of newly translated sutras.
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Before Yi-Jing, Faxian, an eminent monk of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Xuanzang, an eminent monk of Tang Dynasty had travelled to India for further study on Buddhism, and respectively produced two important works, *Biographies of Faxian* and *Journey to the West During the Great Tang*. The travel of Yi-Jing happened in the second year of Xianheng of Tang Dynasty, over 40 years later than that of Xuanzang. He spent more than 10 years in India and stayed about 10 years successively in the South Seas area. He took the round trips by sea. Since Yi-Jing stayed in India and the South Seas area for quite a long time, his writings have abundant contents and serve as important materials for research on India-China relation in early Tang Dynasty and the history, culture, geography and religion of India and the South Seas area.
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Characteristics of the Book
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*Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan* is a monk's autobiography which also records experiences of more than 50 Chinese monks who travelled to India for further study on Buddhism at that time one by one as well as situations of India and the South Seas in all aspects. Some of information recorded in Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan is not contained in Tang Western Regions. For example, many geographic names not recorded in Tang Western Regions appear in *Great Monk's Biography Who Seek the Doctrine from Tang to India*. Another example, the description of Nalanda Monastery, the most famous temple in India at that time, is not specific in Tang Western Regions while Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan India has a rather specific record not only on the origin of its name but also on its architectural structure, materials used and construction methods, as well as the management system in the Monastery and all other matters. The book covers sole records on many aspects of the Monastery which has particular meanings for understanding the history of Nalanda Monastery.
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From the perspective of historical development of India-China exchanges, there are many highlights in Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan. For example, the route from Chang'an in Tang Dynasty to India, going by Gansu, Xinjiang, Central Asia and other regions now, is the uppermost land route between India and China since the Han Dynasty ie the Silk Road. *Tang Western Regions* and *Stories of Master Xuanzang in Da Ci'en Temple*, a book recording personal experience of Xuanzang, has rather specific records on this route; but Great Monk's Biography Who Seek the Doctrine from Tang to India has not much record on it. However, the latter covers fairly specific records on communication from the South Seas to India and roads, which were newly built in Tang Dynasty and went by Tibet and Nepal and arrived in India. All these information reflects new trends and new situations of India-China exchanges in Early Tang Dynasty and later.
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The changes approximately occurred after the Linde Period of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty. At that time, even though monks travelling west by land and even China's diplomatic envoy to India seldom went to India by the traditional way of Gansu, Xinjiang and Central Asia but instead they selected the newly developed and more convenient and fast way to India by Tibet and Nepal. However, this road did not keep open for a long time only because of political reasons.
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The contacts by sea between China and ancient South Sea regions in ancient times as well as India had begun since Western Han Dynasty. New development occurred in the era of Yi-Jing and most of monks travelled to India for further study on Buddhism by sea. According to records in Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan, more than half of over 50 monks in the book went to and left India by sea. But the communication routes of South Sea recorded in the book were not one way but many routes. These monks might go on board in Guangzhou or Jiaozhi (now in Hanoi, Vietnam) or in Zhanbo (Champa, in Vietnam) or by Srivijaya or Heling (present-day in Indonesia's Java area), or by Langjiashu (South of Burma) or by Nārikira (present-day Andaman Islands) to arrive at Tammralipti (present-day West Bengal, India) in east India, or go southwest from Jietu (present-day Kedah, Malaysia) to Nagappattinam in south India and then travelling to Simhaladvipa (present-day Sri Lanka) or going north to east Indian states by sea or travelling to west India from Simhaladvipa. There were too many routes and travellers were not limited to certain fixed routes.
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From the era of Yi-Jing, more and more sea routes were taken rather than land routes. Chinese monks mostly chose to travel and come back by sea. Besides, Indian monks also came to China by sea. For example, Nati came to Chang'an by sea in the sixth year of Yonghui (655 CE) and Vajrabodh and Amoghavajra came to Guangzhou by sea in the seventh year of Kaiyuan (719 CE). Nati went back to India, bypassing the South Sea. Amoghavajra also went back to India by sea in the 29th year of Kaiyuan (741 CE) and later he came back to China again by sea. Sea route became very important during this period. This was, on the one hand, due to changes in military and political situations in Central Asia which obstructed the land route. On the other, economic development in the south gradually surpassed the north and there were new improvement and development of shipbuilding technology and seamanship promoting the sea route. In addition, advancement of trade and business made metropolises in the South important domestic trade centres and to some to even commercial ports for international trade. Guangzhou was one of the largest foreign trade cities at that time.
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The route by the way of Tibet and Nepal was somewhat related with the rise of Tibetan regime in ancient China and its friendly relationship with Tang Dynasty. Situations of Chinese monks travelling to India through this road recorded in Yi-Jing’s books also reflect this historical fact.
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A route from present-day Yunnan Province to India was also mentioned in Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan. As this route was tough and difficult, only few people selected it and only few records on it were preserved. But this route had been in existence before Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty and was never interrupted as a matter of fact.
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Routes chosen by monks for travel for further studies on Buddhism were actually routes for trade and business. Such is the case with the “Silk Road”, both on land and in sea. According to Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan, "We could find that monks mostly took business ships and went along with businessmen. Of course, since traffic conditions were extremely inconvenient in ancient times, in addition to diplomats who served as envoy abroad, only businessmen and monks would be willing to leave their homes and risk their lives, travelling between China and foreign countries." All information in Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan showed that Chinese monks who travelled to India for further study on Buddhism had once made enormous contributions on cultural interaction between India and China in ancient times.
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After Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan, the earliest record on it was The Kaiyuan Record. Thereafter, it was recorded in catalogue of all Buddhist scriptures in successive dynasties. It was also recorded in volume 46 of Buddhist scriptures in *Old Book of Tang* and volume 59 of Art and Literature in *New Book of Tang*. But it was named as Buddhist Pilgrim Monks in *Old Book of Tang* without the two words “Tang Dynasty”. It was also named as Buddhist Monks or Buddhist Pilgrims in many Buddhist scriptures catalogue. It was recorded in volume 67 in *General Annals* and volume 226 in *Book of General*. In *County Vegetarian Reading Records* written by Chao Gongwu in Southern Song Dynasty, it was recorded as Buddhist Monks. In Account on Triratna Buddha by Feizhuo in the Song Dynasty it was named as Buddhist Pilgrim. Some even named it as Buddhist Pilgrim Monks of Zhou Dynasty. Probably the primitive name of the book was slightly confused before Song Dynasty, but this mainly centralises around the difference of its full name and shortened name. But after Song Dynasty, the name of Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan prevailed. On its volumes, only volume 205 of Art and Literature in History of Song Dynasty compiled by Tuotuo in Yuan Dynasty recorded “three volumes” of the book. This is obviously wrong.
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Its Influence in the World
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During the late 19ᵗʰ century CE, as the basic material for research on exchanges between India and China as well as on religion, history and geography of India and the South Sea, scholars attached importance to Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan and published successively some translation versions of this book in Western languages and some of the books also included research achievement of scholars. There were mainly the following kinds of translation versions.
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In 1894, French scholar Ed. Chavannes translated Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan into French and published in Paris. The name of the book is Mémoire compose à l’époque de 1a grande dynastie T’ang sur les religieux éminents qui allèrent chercher 1a loi dans les pays d’Occident. Its translation version by Ed. Chavannes was supplemented with his comments.
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In 1911, when British scholar S. Beal translated *Stories of Master Xuanzang in Da Ci'en Temple*, he also translated some chapters in Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan into English and published together with the English version with the name of *The Life Of Hiuen Tsiang* by Shaman Hwui Li, with an introduction containing an account of the works of I-Tsing. The book was published in London.
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Ed. Chavannes’ version is better in these two versions of Western languages. Although S. Beal’s version is only selected translation, there are many mistakes. There are some mistakes in Ed. Chavannes’ version but he made large efforts and carried out meticulous study on annotations so his book was of higher level. One of the most obvious mistakes in Ed. Chavannes’ book is that he misunderstood the notes in Yi-Jing’s book as being made by descendants and he believed they were added by scholars in Later Zhou Dynasty (955-960 CE). He did not realise that all “Zhou” in Yi-Jing’s book refers to the times under Empress Wu Zetian’s reign instead of that in Later Zhou Dynasty. Because the translation and annotated time was early, Ed. Chavannes could not utilise some later research results including materials found in archaeological excavations. This limitation was caused by times. In addition, Ed. Chavannes’ version was based on the version in Chinese he could find at that time, not a checked copy so there were often some problems on words.
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But until today, when western scholars need to quote the book of Yi-Jing. If they do not understand Chinese, they still use Ed. Chavannes' or S. Beal's version.
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In 1942, Japanese scholar Adachi Kiroku published a Japanese translation and annotation of the book in Tokyo and supplemented with the original Chinese version at the same time. The title was still Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan. In the preface, he said that the master copy he adopted was the carving copy in Kaiyuan Temple in 18^th year (1148 CE) of Shaoxing in Southern Song Dynasty that is the so-called Piluzang in later ages, which was hidden in the library of Ministry of Imperial Household. It seemed that Adachi Kiroku had made comparisons between this version and Gaolizang, Huangbozang and other versions. However, there were quite a few mistakes in the edition of Kiroku due to separated sentences and phrases, and for the lack of check in record. Many notes in the book were not entirely right.
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In 1961, there was another Japanese version of Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan in series of books *All Scriptures Translated in Japanese* published in Tokyo. The translator was Takata Osamu. But according to the introduction in the book, the translation time of original version by Takata Osamu was in 1940.
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In 1986, Indian scholar Latika Lahiri published a new English version in Delhi with the name of Chinese monks in India. Unfortunately, there were many mistakes too. Lahiri used the Dazheng Buddhist Scriptures version for the English translation which had many errors on words and also caused more mistakes in her translation.
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In 1988, Zhonghua Book Company in Beijing published *Collation and Annotation of Great Monk's Biography Who Seek the Doctrine from Tang to India*, collated and annotated by Wang Bangwei. The new collation and annotation version consists of the original version, record check and notes. Seven carving versions after Song Dynasty and four versions in modern times were used during its collation so it can be called as the refined and thoroughly-checked copy. Besides the collation on full text of Yi-Jing's original version, the collation and annotation version also made specific notes on names, geographical names, historical geography, religion words and so on and attached reductive Sanskrit original when necessary. There were also appendices and indices attached to the book. This version should be the most specific, complete, and useful one for research on Datang Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan (*Great Monk's Biography Who Seek the Doctrine from Tang to India*).
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(*Wang Bangwei*)