Final Project: The Lonely Monk on the Silk Road
When the name of Xuan Zang is uttered, what first comes to mind is probably an image of a lonely Chinese monk traveler, a pious pilgrim measuring the deepness of his faith literally with his feet along the ancient Silk Road, overcoming many obstacles in the hope to obtain “true dharma” from the birth land of the Venerable Sakyamuni Buddha, India. Such a romantic image of the pious monk traveler has such a strong quality that it has immersed itself into all pores of history and literature, whether fictional or non-fictional, making him one of the most immediately identifiable Buddhist personalities across cultures.
Historically, Xuan Zang has contributed so much to the Buddhist cause in China personally, that he really deserves all the humble praises and venerations as recorded in his hagiographies. He not only successfully made it to Nalanda, India and safely back, he brought back to China thousands of volumes of original Sanskrit Scriptures covering all the major six disciplines of contemporary Indian Buddhist Studies (Zhao 9). Along with these scriptures were also holy images of the Buddha: these direct “representations” of the “original” dharma carried with them the essence of the Indian Buddhist traditions and greatly enriched the development of Buddhism in China. The immensely detailed and accurate travel notes and diaries that Xuan Zang kept were also considered to be of incredible geographical and military value by the Chinese Tang emperor Taizong. These important records of his journey between the East and the West would later fatefully guide the Western pilgrim scholars such as A. Stein and P. Pelliot in their search for the “dharma” as well.
In short, the journey to the West in search of the “truest” teachings of the historical Buddha is what made Xuan Zang’s career. It was also a journey, as I would argue, historically more valuable as a process rather than a final arrival, for it led Xuan Zang to explore the crossroads of intermingling cultures on the Silk Road in conjunction with Indian as the destination, opening up that mysterious part of the world at that time to us through well-documented archives. This project then, wishes to re-trace the routes to and from India as taken by Xuan Zang and as recorded in his travelogue, Da Tang Xi Yu Ji and hopefully take a new approach at looking at this pilgrimage and the various sites that he passes by on this way to India. This means attempting to localize and contextualize Buddhist practices along the Silk Road, drawing attention on the specific cultural and spiritual needs of the local communities against the “authenticity” of Indian Buddhism (as epitomized by the academic tradition at Nalanda) in a contrasted study. The purpose of this is to better understand the situation of Buddhism in China, how it has been appropriated before and continues to appropriate itself onto the Chinese culture after Xuan Zang’s legacy.
Thus bringing this project to the next discussion, the reception of Indian texts and their philosophy in China after Xuan Zang has brought back and translated them for the Chinese audience. Ironically enough, the highly refined logic of the Indian Buddhist schools as exemplified in the texts that Xuan Zang obtained were not that well received despite the fact that they were far more complete and well translated than the teachings from the texts that came from Central Asia that existed prior to Xuan Zang’s newest additions. Also instead of a rise in popularity in the Fa Xiang School which matured under the availability of authentic Indian texts (holds that not all individuals has the inner ability to reach Buddhahood) to which Xuan Zang belongs, a rise in popularity of Xuan Zang’s charismatic adventure and personality gained momentum in conjunction with the rise of the Mayahana Schools. This charismatic image will later be well epitomized in the sixteen-century novel Journey to the West, where Xuan Zang becomes a highly fictionalized character based on folklores that has disseminated throughout time. Even though Xuan Zang has contributed much to the enrichment of the Buddhist canon and the philosophical developments of various schools of thought, he was rather remembered more as an almost mystical personality. This phenomenon recalls the sinicization of Buddhism when it first arrived to China, that it appropriately modified itself in accordance with the specific spiritual demands and needs of the localities.
Before going on his journey to India, Xuan Zang studied around in China under various monk scholars. He devoured their words and saw that they each followed implicitly the teaching of his own school, and that upon examination, the extant scriptures differed much in arguments and content, and he did not which one to follow (Huili 1911). The popular scriptures at that time, for example the Nirvana Sutra, were either translated poorly, or translated incompletely; Xuan Zang saw an immediate need for new translation based on original texts. Moreover, the Tang was still in its early stages of unified rule, and needed a unifying school of thought as well; the incoherency and inconsistency of contemporary Buddhist schools might have been not that politically attractive to the rulers. Thus, a wish to organize and unify various Buddhist doctrines in this new political climate was maybe another crucial factor that triggered Xuan Zang’s determination for going to the West (Tian 25).
*For a map of Xuan Zang’s itinerary please click here: 02.jpg
Being refused an imperial edict to go to the West, Xuan Zang practically took on the journey illegally. He set out from Chang’an and followed the Gansu corridor to the start of the Silk Road caravan routes at Liangzhou. There he was urged by the governor to turn back but was sheltered and guided by monks to Guazhou. Crossing the Taklamakan Desert, Xuzan Zang was stopped again by an official who tried to convince him not to cross the desert but to go to Dunhuang for eminent teachers instead (Wriggins 14). Xuan Zang complaint about these obstacles, and though Dunhuang housed a substantial library of Buddhist scriptures, it was not India. Throughout his journey along the Silk Road Xuan Zang would come across various Buddhist communities, but his determination for the originals was keen. This invariably reflects an inconsistency of Buddhist scriptural materials spread across the Silk Road, resulting in syncretism and even apocryphal texts as exemplified by the collection at Dunhuang. Passing the Jade Gate of the official Chinese frontier, Xuan Zang follows the Northern Silk Road and arrives at Turfan, where he was received passionately by the King of Turfan, an important patron who provided Xuan Zang with not only necessities but also letters of recommendation to the powerful Khan Western Turks (Wriggins 25). At Kucha, the birthplace of Kumarajiva, the famous early translator of Mahayana Buddhist texts, Xuan Zang notes the prominence of Hinayana practices. Having crossed the Tian Shan mountains, Xuan Zang meets with the Great Khan of the Western Turks, and gets more letters to his vassals in the Gandharan regions (Wriggins 32). Observing the grandiose of the golden Samarkand and the remains of Buddhist King Asoka and Kanishka’s legacies, Xuan Zang is now at the crossroads of Central Asia. Here he notes the co-existence of various foreign and indigenous religious traditions, and again, the prominence of the Hinayana following in Balkh, a place rich with relics (Wriggins 40). When Xuan Zang reached the region near Jalalabad, he was now finally on the terrain of his holy India. Following this Xuan Zang would pursue a pious pilgrimage to all the major and lesser sites of the Buddha’s presence, and replicate crucial images such as the first image of the Buddha in sandalwood in a literal desire to bring home the efficacy of the Buddha image. Traveling from Northern India to the Southern limits of Mathura, Xuan Zang has studies at many places under many teachers in the Indian Buddhist disciplines of Logic, grammar, and Sanskrit. It is at Nalanda where he finally relived his anguish of living in the age of mofa. Studying under the Venerable Silabhadra, Xuan Zang’s doctrinal questions were answered; it is also during this time that he would form the embryo for his own school of thought (Wriggins 145). After a few years of extensive touring in India, Xuan Zang would eventually return to Nalanda where he would decide to return to China in practice of filial piety to the Tang Emperor (Wriggin 147). Xuan Zang’s stay in India ended on a high note when he performed amazingly at the Grand Debates and was received with admiration by the Buddhist King Harsha. Talking about impermanence, not long after his return to China the grandeur of Nalanda would go into oblivion along with the fall of the rule of King Harsha and the growing influence of Hinduism and Islam over Buddhism in India. Xuan Zang perhaps fatefully captured the last shine of the diamond that is Indian Buddhism, and through his efforts at translating and writing, preserved parts of that legacy.
The legacy of the eminent Buddhist pilgrim Xuan Zang include archaeological, art historical, literary and translation contributions, making him a timeless treasure for the entire human civilization. He founded the Idealist school known as Faxiang, a branch that unfortunately only survived after his death for seventy years (Wriggins 193). A crucial characteristic of this school is the belief that not everyone has the ability to obtain Buddhahood, this might have turned many away to the more messianic practices of Tiantai and Huayan (Cheng 158). However, Xuan Zang’s Faxiang would enjoy another revival in late Qing Dynasty, in an attempted renaissance for intellectual religious practices based on logic (Kuang 3). Looking back on the results of his journey, what Xuan Zang thought was his most valuable contribution was not that which lasted. Nevertheless, Xuan Zang’s incredible determination in the search for truth and his benevolent and objective attitudes towards various cultures and practices remain forever inspirational.
References:
Cheng, Suiying. Xuan Zang Yan Jiu. Kaifeng: Henan University Press, 1997.
Fu, Xinyi. Xuan Zang Ping Zhuan. Nanjing: Nangjing University Press, 2006.
Huiili. The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang. London: Kegan Paul, 1911.
Wriggins, Sally H. Xuan Zang: A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996.
Zhao, Puchu. Xuan Zang Zhe Xue Yan Jiu. Shanghai: Xuelin Press, 1986.
Blog at WordPress.com. Theme: Duotone by Automattic.
