Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s5.t10.2

v1.c7.s5.t10.2

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*