Download Xuanzang and the Silk Road - NCTA-Vietnam-China-2011

NCTA China/Vietnam Study Tour, June 2011
Background essay #7, by Larry Kessler
Xuanzang, the Silk Road, and the Transmission of Buddhism
The Silk Road, with an eastern terminus at Xi’an (called Chang’an in ancient times), is one of the
longest and oldest trade routes known to mankind. Along with silk and less glamorous articles of trade,
the great trans-Asian roads carried ideas and religions that were to prove far more significant than silk.
One of the most important and influential of the religions was Buddhism, which was to revolutionize
art and thought not only in China but in Japan and Korea as well. The Lord Buddha had been born in
India in BCE 656, but the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China only started in the 1st century
CE with a semi-legendary or quasi-historical account of an embassy sent to the West by the Chinese
Emperor Ming (58-75 CE). Extensive contacts however started in the 2nd century CE, with the missionary efforts of a great number of Central Asian Buddhist monks to Chinese lands. From the 4th century onward, Chinese pilgrims also started to travel to India, the origin of Buddhism, in order to get
improved access to the original scriptures, with Faxian's pilgrimage to India (395-414), and later
Xuanzang (629-644). The transmission of Buddhism essentially ended around the 7th century with the
rise of Islam in Central Asia.
Xuanzang (602-664) was born into a family in which there had been scholars for generations and received a classical Confucian education in his youth. Under the influence of an older brother, however,
he became interested in the Buddhist scriptures and was soon converted to Buddhism. With his brother
he traveled to Chang'an and then to Sichuan to escape the political turmoil that gripped China at that
time. While in Sichuan, Xuanzang began studying Buddhist philosophy but was soon troubled by numerous discrepancies and contradictions in the texts. Not finding any solution from his Chinese masters, he decided to go to India to study at the fountainhead of Buddhism. According to tradition, before
Xuanzang left Chang’an in 629, he had a vision of the holy Mount Sumeru. He beheld an unending
horizon, symbol of the countless lands he hoped to see. Because the Tang Emperor had forbidden travel in the dangerous western regions, Xuanzang went forth as a fugitive, hiding by day and traveling by
night.
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Along with Marco Polo, Xuanzang would be the most famous traveler on the Silk Road. He has,
however the distinction of having traveled both on the northern and southern Silk roads, which even
Marco Polo did not do. Overall, Xuanzang traveled an astonishing 10,000 miles over three of the highest mountain ranges in Asia, and through regions that are now Kyrgizstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan
and Pakistan on his way to India and back home to China.
Xuanzang set out with his horse and a guide to cross the Gobi desert, a distance of 200 miles. But
his journey almost ended before it began, his guide tried to murder him, he lost his way and he dropped
his water bag so all the water drained out into the sand. Whether by miracle or by the horse’s instinct
for finding water, Xuanzang reached the oasis of Hami, the easternmost of a string of oases at the foot of the Tian Shan mountains. Continuing on his outward journey, Xuanzang also stopped
at Turfan, Kharashahr, Kucha, Aksu, Tashkent, and Samarkand
on the northern Silk Road. At each of these oases he would visit
with kings, replenish his caravan with horses and camels, and
preach Buddhist doctrine to merchants and warriors as well as his
fellow monks on their way to India. Beyond the Iron Gates he
went into Bactria, across the Hindu Kush (mountains) into
Kapisha, Gandhara, and Kashmir in northwest India. From there
he sailed down the Ganges River to Mathura, then on to the holy
land of Buddhism in the eastern reaches of the Ganges, where he
arrived in 633.
In India, Xuanzang visited all the sacred sites connected with the life of the Buddha and studied
with many famous Buddhist masters. The major portion of his time, however, was spent at the Nalanda
monastery, the great Buddhist centre of learning, where he perfected his knowledge of Sanskrit, Buddhist philosophy, and Indian thought. While he was in India, Xuanzang's reputation as a scholar became so great that even the powerful king Harsha, ruler of North India, wanted to meet and honor him.
Thanks largely to that king's patronage, Xuanzang's return trip to China, begun in 643, was greatly facilitated.
When the pilgrim arrived at Chang’an in 645 after an absence of 16 years, the emperor Taizong (b.
599, r. 626-649 CE) was away on a military expedition, so high officials met him and guided him into
the capital. A procession of monks carried his 657 books (in Sanskrit) packed in 520 cases, gold and
sandalwood images, and relics through the city. The streets were filled with vast crowds welcoming
him home. Subsequently he went to Luoyang where the Emperor Taizong asked about the rulers, climate, customs, products and histories of the countries he had visited. First the emperor exhorted him to
be one of his advisors on Asian affairs. “If your Majesty orders me to return to secular life, it would be
like dragging a boat from the water to the land.” After Xuanzang refused, the emperor suggested that
he write a book about the Western Regions, which he completed in 646. With the emperor's support,
Xuanzang set up a large translation bureau in Chang'an, drawing students and collaborators from all
over East Asia. He spent the remainder of his life translating the
Buddhist scriptures that he brought back from India. He was able
to translate only a small portion of this huge volume, about 75
items in 1,335 chapters, but his translations included some of the
most important Mahayana scriptures.
Xuanzang is also remembered for the Big Wild Goose Pagoda,
which he persuaded the Emperor Gaozong to build to house his
scriptures and figurines of the Buddha. The famous structure was
built in 652 and originally had five stories, standing about 175 feet
high. However, this construction of rammed earth with a stone ex-
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terior facade eventually collapsed five decades later. The pagoda was rebuilt in 704 with an additional
five stories, but a massive earthquake in 1556 heavily damaged the pagoda. When restored, it only had
its current seven stories at a height of 210 feet. Externally it looks like a square cone, simple but grand
and it is a masterpiece of Buddhist construction.
The name comes from a legend about a group of monks for whom meat-eating was not a taboo.
One day, they could not find meat to buy. Upon seeing a group of big wild geese flying by, a monk
said to himself: “Today we have no meat. I hope the merciful Bodhisattva will give us some.” At that
very moment, the leading wild goose broke its wings and fell to the ground. All the monks were startled and believed that Bodhisattva (the wild goose) showed his spirit to order them to be more pious.
They established a pagoda where the wild goose fell and stopped eating meat. Hence the name.
There is also a Little Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an, built in 707-709 and smaller than its more famous counterpart, which it resembles in shape, but with no connection to Zuanzang. Originally 15 storeys high, a severe earthquake in 1556 resulted in the destruction of its upper 2
storeys and the settling of the pagoda 8 feet lower than its original height. In one
of its courtyards stands a huge “Magic Bell,” so called because legend has it that
someone could write a note to his or her loved one who is far away on a special
piece of paper, and the sound of the bell would carry the message to its intended
recipient. The temple grounds have been turned into a scenic park with the usual
Chinese landscape elements, and also contain the recently opened (2007) Xian
Municipal Museum, which displays cultural relics from the over 1,000 years the
city served as the capital of 13 dynasties.
Xuanzang's journey along the so-called Silk Road, and the legends that grew up around it, inspired the
16th-century epic Xiyouji or Journey to the West, one of the great classics of Chinese literature. The
Xuanzang of the novel is the reincarnation of a disciple of Gautama
Buddha, and is protected on his journey by three powerful disciples
stories of dramatic escapes. One of them, the monkey, was a popular
favorite and profoundly influenced Chinese culture and contemporary Japanese manga and anime (including the popular Dragon Ball
and Saiyuki series), and became well known in the West by Arthur
Waley's partial translation of Xiyouji, which he titled Monkey, and
later the TV series “Monkey.” Selections of the story that feature
acrobatics and combat are also staples of Peking Opera (most likely,
we will see one of the selections while we are in Beijing).
Suggested Reading
Judy Bonavia, The Silk Road: Xi’an to Kashgar (Hong Kong: Odyssey, 2007)
Arthur Waley, trans., Monkey (Grove Press, 1984)
Sally Wriggins, The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang (Boulder: Westview Press, 2004)