The Actual Journey to the West

By staff reporter HUO JIANYING

Xuanzang's lecture theater in Gaochang.	The statue of Xuanzang that stands in front of the Greater Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an, where he spent 19 years translating Buddhist sutras.	The ruins of the Yumen Pass at the entrance to the Western Regions.

The following story is supplementary reading for grade schools in China: A long time ago, there lived a boy monk in a temple on the mountain. His daily tasks were to clean the temple yard early each morning, fetch water and, after his morning scripture class, walk down the rocky road to a distant town behind the temple to buy articles of daily use. Every evening, he and his fellow monks chanted scriptures through till midnight.

After a while, the boy discovered that other young monks were also sent down the mountain on shopping trips, but that their destination was a town a short distance from the temple entrance along a paved road. He asked the abbot: “Why do the other novitiates have an easier job than me?” The abbot smiled but did not answer.

One day, some of the other young monks were sent to shop in the town in front of the temple. The same day at noon, the young monk came back from the town behind the temple along the rugged mountain path, carrying a bag of rice over his shoulder. The abbot took him to the front gate of the temple, and the two waited until sunset for the other young monks to return, carrying bags of salt. The abbot asked them, “You left this morning. The town is nearby and the road is smooth. What took you so long?” One of them answered: “We chatted and stopped here and there along the way to enjoy scenery,” adding, “as usual.” The abbot then turned to the little monk at his side and asked him: “The path behind the temple is rugged, the town distant, and you carried a heavy load. How did you get back so early?” The boy answered: “Each time I go down the mountain, I do my best to return as soon as possible, but I need to watch my step if I am to travel rapidly with such a heavy load. Over the years, I’ve developed the habit of thinking only of my destination and not the road under my feet.” The abbot smiled and said: “A smooth road distracts a person from his mission, but a rough road strengthens his will power.”

A Road in the Distance

The little monk’s story does not end here. It is the prelude to a historical epic whose hero is now a household name, in China and around the world -- Monk Xuanzang (600-664) of the Tang Dynasty.

Monk Xuanzang, named Chen Mingwei, was born into a dynastic official family native to Henan’s Yanshi. At the age of 13, he entered the Jingtu Monastery in Luoyang, and was given the Buddhist name Xuanzang.

Coming as he did from a good family background, Xuanzang had received a well-rounded education before becoming a monk. He was assiduous in his study of Buddhist scriptures, and skilled in their recitation and articulate interpretation. After some years, he left for Chengdu in Sichuan to study with the eminent monks that lived there, and his knowledge of Buddhism scaled new heights. After leaving Sichuan, he traveled alone down the Yangtze River to the Tianhuang Monastery in Hubei’s Jingzhou, where he continued to study Buddhist theory. He subsequently went on lecture tours northwards to Henan, Shandong and Hebei, by which time he was an established Buddhist master, despite his tender years. However, the deeper he delved into Buddhism, the more perplexed he became.

Buddhism was introduced into China from India in the first century, during the early Eastern Han Dynasty. It is said that in AD 67 the Han emperor sent emissaries to India to obtain Buddhist scriptures. On its way the imperial mission met with and joined two Indian monks bringing Buddhist scriptures to China on a white horse. The party traveled eastward along the Old Silk Road to Luoyang in the Central Plains area and lodged the scriptures in a newly built temple, which became known as the White Horse Temple. Today a statue of the white horse that carried the very first Buddhist scriptures to China stands in front of what is believed to be the first Buddhist temple in China. During the next 500 years, Buddhism spread rapidly throughout the Central Plains area. It reached its zenith in the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907), when there were more than 4,000 Buddhist temples housing 240,000 monks across the country.

Xuanzang was perplexed by the paradox that despite the rapid spread of Buddhism in China there were serious limits to its theoretical study. At that time China had only a small cache of Buddhist scriptures, and their Chinese versions were inaccurately translated, misinterpreted and had obvious mistakes. Worse still, some of the original scriptures had been lost. Each Buddhist sect in China had its particular interpretation of Buddhism, and sectarian contentions were rampant. Monk Xuanzang realized that if he wanted to gain true knowledge of Buddhism, he had to go to India. His decision recalls the story from his childhood of the solitary traveler on a rugged road, heedless of the distractions along the way to his ultimate destination.

A Perilous Journey

In 627, 27-year-old Xuanzang left the Yumen Pass, a Tang Dynasty frontier, and headed westward into the desert. The guide he hired to take him into the Western Regions soon abandoned him, and he was once more the solitary traveler. His only companion was an old, bony horse that he had bought cheaply at a frontier market. The two trudged through what was truly a barren wilderness, bereft of any sign of life other than whitened skeletons that acted as landmarks along the way.

Xuanzang traveled through inhospitable deserts and mountainous regions in the uneasy political environment of the early Tang Dynasty. The imperial government exercised strict control over its unstable frontier regions, and all citizens traversing them needed a pass. When Xuanzang applied for a frontier pass he was refused. Undaunted, he stole past the sentries on frontier posts under cover of night, or took round about routes. Upon reaching the last frontier pass, he lost his way, and worse still, spilt his last leather bag of water on the desert sands. In despair, he retraced his steps for about eight kilometers and then, remembering the oath he had made at the time of his departure, “I’ll not head eastward until I get to India,” turned around and continued westward. After traveling for four days without water he collapsed. The cold night desert air brought him round, and his old horse, experienced in desert travel, took him to an oasis where Xuanzang rested for a day and replenished his supplies of food and water. Two days later he emerged from the desert into the Western Regions.

Upon arriving in the Kingdom of Gaochang in the Western Regions, Xuanzang was warmly received by the king, who was a devout Buddhist. The monarch invited Xuanzang to give lectures to his citizens, insisting that he stay despite the monk’s protestations. In the end, Xuanzang was forced to go on hunger strike in order to demonstrate to the king his determination to continue on his journey to India. The king, deeply moved, saw Xuanzang off with gifts of gold, silver, clothes, and horses, together with an entourage of over 50 attendants and guides. He also gave letters he had written to the 24 rulers of other kingdoms along the way, asking them to offer help and assistance to Xuanzang.

The entourage met with a snowstorm while climbing the Tianshan Mountains, and during their seven-day struggle to survive arctic temperatures, 20 of its members died. It was in 628 that Xuanzang and what remained of his entourage finally arrived in India.

Years in India

During his first few years in India, Xuanzang traveled its northern and central parts, visiting famous Buddhist sites and studying Sanskrit. In late 631 he arrived at the Nalanda Monastery, the largest Buddhist temple and the highest Buddhist academy in India that housed over 10,000 monks. Its centenarian abbot Silabhdra had long since ceased taking disciples and giving lectures, but Xuanzang’s incredible journey and dedication to Buddhism so moved him that he made this young Chinese monk his last disciple and acted as his master for 15 months. Xuanzang steadily read his way through the Nalanda Monastery library and studied with Master Silabhdra and other respected monks. Before long he had gained fame and reputation as a Buddhist scholar throughout India. After bidding abbot Silabhdra farewell, he traveled to southern India where he studied a further four years with other renowned Buddhist masters.

In 640, Xuanzang returned to the Nalanda Monastery and prepared to go home. At the end of the year, he went to Kanyakubja at the invitation of King Rajaputra Siladitya and attended a scripture debate held in his honor. Not one of the 6,000 monks and scholars, or kings of 18 Indian kingdoms, that attended the 18-day debate could outwit Xuanzang. News of the event spread his fame further across India. Several kings invited him to become part of their royal retinues, and one offered to build 100 monasteries for him. But Xuanzang demurred. When an Indian monk asked him: “You’ve come such a long way to India, why leave?” Xuanzang answered: “The ruler of my country is virtuous and wise, and his subjects are loyal. In that country, parents love their children, and children are filial towards their parents. There, judges and laws command prestige and dignity, humanism and justice are upheld, and seniors and veterans are respected for their profound knowledge and wisdom equal even to that of divinities……” Tang Dynasty China, the country that he loved and yearned to return to, was foremost in the thoughts of Xuanzang.

Mission Accomplished

In 645, 17 years after his departure, Xuanzang returned to China and an accolade of prestige and honor. His entire journey covered a total 25,000 kilometers. When he arrived at Chang’an, prime minister Fang Xuanling greeted him on behalf of Emperor Taizong. His arrival is thus described in historical records: “Both the religious and secular community rushed to greet him, and businesses closed down throughout the city.”

Emperor Taizong, named Li Shimin, met Xuanzang at his Eastern Capital Luoyang and the two talked for more than 10 hours. Xuanzang declined Taizong’s invitation to serve as an official, preferring to begin the mammoth task of translating and collating Buddhist scriptures and writing his interpretations of them.

Xuanzang brought back with him 657 Mahayana and Hinayana sutras, over 10 Buddhist statues and 150 grains of the Buddha’s ash relic, which were initially kept in the Hongfu Monastery. Xuanzang started working on his translations of scriptures at the temple, and later moved to the Daci’en (Great Benevolence) Monastery in the present-day Greater Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an. There he worked for 19 years, translating 74 sutras that amounted to 13 million characters. His translations were accurate as well as eloquent and lyrical. Many of the transliterations he coined, for example that for India, are still in use today. He also gave lectures on newly translated scriptures to monks from different parts of China, and at the request of Emperor Taizong translated Laozi (Classic of the Way and Virtue) and other Chinese classics into Sanskrit.

Emperor Taizong was so fascinated with Xuanzang’s travel stories that after talking with him, the ruler sent a monk to work as Xuanzang’s aide in recording what he had seen and heard on his journey to India. It was in AD 646 that the Records on the Western Regions of the Great Tang Empire was completed. It was a volume documenting the geography, history, language, culture, folklore, religion, ways of life and production activities of the 138 kingdoms in the Western Regions and India. It included many tales and legends, as well as vivid depictions of such famous sites as the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan and the Wild Goose Pagoda and Nalanda Monastery in India. In a letter to Emperor Taizong, Xuanzang said of the book: “What has been recorded [in the book] is factual…. I have not dared to attempt any fabrication or hyperbole.” Later historical documents and archaeological discoveries verify Xuanzang’s written accounts.

The Chinese classic Journey to the West is based on Xuanzang’s passage to India. Although the novel’s protagonist, Tang Priest Sanzang, has little in common with Monk Xuanzang, they have one unifying propensity: that of heading single m indedly for their goal with no thoughts of turning back.