Journeyer to the west
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Most Chinese know of Tang Dynasty(618-907) monk Xuanzang (玄奘) via his depiction in the classic Ming Dynasty(1368-1644) novel “Journey to the west” as a hapless muddler who’s easily duped and perpetually in need of rescue by his disciple, the Monkey King. But that’s a harsh treatment of the man himself―a battling Buddhist monk who trekked from China to India nearly 1,500 years ago― who deserves to be ranked as one of China’s, if not the world’s, greatest ever wanderers.
Some people might be aware that the monk Xuanzang was a translator of Buddhist sutras, and others that he racked up a few miles during his travels on the job. But consider this for a moment: in 19 years, Xuanzang covered an epic 250,000 kilometers across 110 countries and regions. He survived windswept deserts and snow-capped mountains, evaded bandits and murderous attacks, all the while scribbling down observations in his book, “Great Tang Records on the Western Regions” (《大唐西域记》).
At age 26, Xuanzang was already a well-known monk in Chang’an(now Xi’an), the capital of the newly founded Tang Dynasty. Yet having pored over all the Buddhist sutras available and visited a medley of monks nationwide, he still found the existing schools of Buddhism conflicting and confusing. He resolved to return to the source of the sutras themselves, India, in an attempt to straighten out the issues. Aside from his own journals, which focused mostly on geography, we have to rely on Xuanzang’s disciples for details of his exploits. While it may be necessary to take some of their tales with a pinch of salt, there’s no doubting the sincerity and difficulty of his endeavors.
Initially, Xuanzang’s toughest obstacle wasn’t the natural world, but the political one. The Tang Dynasty was only three years old and mired in border disputes with the Eastern TürkG?ktürks. Under pain of death, residents were forbidden to travel abroad without special permission, and Xuanzang’s request to Emperor Taizong fell on deaf ears.
Undeterred, he saddled up and headed west, traveling under cover of darkness and holing up in hidden refuges by day. Even taking these precautions, he was still caught by an official in possession of a wanted poster bearing his description. Luckily, the official was a fellow Buddhist who had more respect for Xuanzang than the edicts of the emperor, and he allowed the monk to continue on his way.
The journey didn’t get any easier. On the western border of the Tang realm, a merchant offered to guide Xuanzang through the treacherous Yumen Pass, only to threaten his life twice for fear the monk would expose him. Archers’ arrows and parching deserts further impeded Xuanzang’s progress before he reached China’s western border.
In Gaochang, a prosperous country located near the site of modern-day Turpan in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xuanzang was invited to dine with King Ju Wentai, who, impressed by the monk’s knowledge and fortitude, saddled him with supplies, servants and tribute gifts to ensure easy passage.
Even with such backing, the group was totally unprepared for the perils of Lingshan Mountain. Xuanzang wrote, “The mountain is frozen in ice even in spring and summer, [and] a disaster known as the ‘furious dragon’ [avalanches] often occurs.”The constant snowstorms made it near impossible to cook, and after seven days only two-thirds of the weary group emerged alive on the other side of the mountain.
When Xuanzang finally made it to India, he sailed down the Ganges River in splendor―only to be captured by bandits, intent on sacrificing a top-notch specimen like Xuanzang to the Hindu goddess Durga. Knowing that he was on the point of death, the monk drifted into what he considered his final meditation. However, in an instance of seemingly miraculous intervention, a sudden storm was taken by the bandits as a divine sign, and they allowed the monk to live.
Over four years had passed since he set out when Xuanzang arrived at his final destination, Nalanda, the center of Buddhism in India. He spent the next four years studying the“Discourse on the Stages of Yogic Practice,” the sutra that had drawn him to India in the first place. His services in ensuing years as a teacher and Buddhist debater were so in demand that two local kings almost went to war over who would have the honor of hosting his lectures.
When Xuanzang set off on his return journey to Chang’an in 643 A.D. loaded with sutras, Buddhist statues and Indian plant seeds, he was unsure if he’d be allowed to return. He wrote a humble, carefully worded letter to Emperor Taizong, confessing the illegality of his travels and praising the emperor’s power to ensure he had been kept from harm. The emperor not only forgave his crime, but dispatched officials to meet him on the western border.
Xuanzang spent the rest of his life translating the sutras he had brought back with him. When he died in 664, a million people from Chang’an and other provinces attended his funeral. Emperor Gaozong, who could see Xuanzang’s tomb from his palace, was so saddened by this constant reminder of the monk’s death that he ordered it to be relocated to Bailuyuan, a mountain to the southeast of Chang’an, where it remains to this day.
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