Tens of thousands of monks and people gathered here, looking forward to waiting for this holy monk who had been "studying abroad" for 17 years. Xuanzang of Tang Dynasty, whose common surname was Chen and whose name was Yi, was known as Sanzang of Tang Dynasty. He was from the Luo

Xuanzang Journey to the West: The Real Journey to the West

Inspiration Civilization exchange and mutual learning promotes human development and progress

A history that has nothing to do with the Tight Hoop Curse and Zhu Bajie.

In the first month of 645 AD (the 19th year of Zhenguan), Xuanzang and his followers took Buddhist scriptures and Buddha statues retrieved from Tianzhu (India) and arrived outside the west gate of Chang'an City . Tens of thousands of monks and people gathered here, looking forward to waiting for this holy monk who had been "studying abroad" for 17 years. This journey to the west took 17 years, and the place where it traveled was 50,000 miles.

Tang Xuanzang , whose common surname is Chen and whose name is Yi, is known as Tang Sanzang , a native of Luozhou's Liu family (now the town of Yanshi, Henan), was a traveler, thinker, and translator in ancient China. In order to study Buddhism in depth, he risked his life to travel west to obtain scriptures, overcame all kinds of difficulties and obstacles along the way, and reached India , the birthplace of Buddhism. Xuanzang traveled, studied and taught in India for a full 13 years. After returning to China, he brought back 657 Buddhist scriptures. In order to prevent the scriptures from being stolen, Xuanzang built Big Wild Goose Pagoda with the help of the King of Tang to save the scriptures.

Xuanzang stayed at Chang'an to translate Buddhist scriptures. He translated a total of 75 classics in his life, making outstanding contributions to Chinese and foreign cultural exchanges .

He continued and developed China's Buddhist diplomacy. On his journey to the west to seek Dharma, Indian countries had already launched friendly exchanges with the Tang Dynasty using Buddhist scriptures as a link. After he returned to China, Japanese and Korean Buddhists went to , Tang to seek the Dharma, found the source of Buddhism from him, and formed friendly relations between China, Japan and other countries. To this day, Chinese Buddhists and Japanese and Korean Buddhists still have close ties.

. For China, Xuanzang introduced the Mahayana and Hinayana sutras from India to China and enriched Chinese Buddhism. Later, Indian calendar, medicine, heavenly calculations, art, etc. were also introduced to China, influencing and enriching Chinese culture.

Xuanzang's wonderful speech in India actually made famous in the Tang Dynasty. Xuanzang also introduced Indian logic, because of Mingxue , revitalizing logic that was declining due to the decline of pre-Qin Mohist and and .

Xuanzang also explained the situation of Chinese culture for Jingri Wang , and introduced the popular "Qin King Breaking the Formation and Music " at that time. After returning to China, he was ordered by Emperor Taizong of Tang to translate the "Tao Te Ching " of 月影院成 and passed it back to Western Regions and India.

Dunhuang murals from the Western Xia period are the earliest existing Xuanzang's Buddhist scriptures in China.

But in fact, Xuanzang was not the first monk to travel west to seek scriptures. Before him, many eminent monks went to the West to seek scriptures.

The earliest record was in the third year of Long'an in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (399). 3 65 years old, and set out from Chang'an with Huijing, Daozheng, Huiying, Huiwei and others, through Hexi Corridor html Then, crossing the Pamir Mountains in the south, taking the current Indus River basin, passing through current Pakistan and entering Afghanistan , then returning to Pakistan, then entering the Ganges basin east, reaching Tianzhu (now India), and crossing the southern part of Nepal to East Tianzhu.

method is in the capital of Magadha for three years, learning Sanskrit , copying scriptures, and later traveling alone to southern India, writing scriptures in Tamaridi in the Ganges Delta for two years. Afterwards, I took a boat to cross Bay of Bengal and arrived at the Lion Kingdom (now Sri Lanka). In the eighth year of Yixi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (412), Faxian returned home from the sea by merchant ship.He died all the way and returned to Laoshan, Guangjun, Qingzhou (now Laoshan, Qingdao, Shandong) in May of the following year. After fifteen years, he traveled to more than thirty countries and brought back a large number of Buddhist scriptures. After returning to China, Faxian began to translate Buddhist scriptures despite his age and hard work on the journey. In the past seven years, he translated six Buddhist scriptures in total and 63 volumes, among which "The Vinaya of Mahasang" became one of the five major Buddhist precepts, which had a profound impact on the Chinese Buddhist in later generations.

Tang Dynasty There are also monks including Huichao , Wukong and others who traveled to the West to seek scriptures, but the most famous one is Xuanzang.

Xuanzang is a descendant of chen . Xuanzang's family, the Chen family in Henan, was a famous family in the Middle Ages in China. Xuanzang's great-grandfather Chen Qin was the prefect of Shangdang (now Changzhi, Shanxi). His grandfather Chen Kang was a doctor of the Imperial College in Northern Qi, and his father Chen Hui served as the magistrate of Jiangling County in the early Sui Dynasty.

Chen Hui resigned from office in the late Sui Dynasty , and devoted himself to the study of Buddhism and Confucianism. Influenced by his father, Xuanzang and his brother developed a strong interest in Buddhism, and later became famous monks in the Tang Dynasty.

Xuanzang became a monk at the age of 13 and officially obtained the qualification of a monk in Chengdu at the age of 20. From then on, he traveled around and visited famous teachers, and his attainments in Buddhism became more and more profound. But during years of study, he felt that the various Buddhist scriptures and treatises he learned were different, and the views his teacher taught were also different.

This is because Buddhism was introduced to China for hundreds of years, Buddhist scriptures have been translated into Chinese by outsiders. The translations are different, the semantics are very different, and there are many differences in understandings. There are often great differences, so there are endless debates.

Xuanzang has also been struggling to find the answer. It happened that a monk named Bo Po came from India at that time. He said that in the Nalanda Temple , a master of Jiexian talked about " Yoga Theory ", which was exactly the answer Xuanzang had been looking for. So Xuanzang made up his mind to go to Nalanda Temple to seek the true scriptures.

What stages did Xuanzang go through to seek Buddhist scriptures in India?

The first phase, the first application for customs was released, but it was not approved, so I had to smuggle westward.

When Xuanzang was preparing to leave the country, it was in the early days of the establishment of the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the Tang Dynasty had not solved the problem of the Western Regions. In order to prevent the literati from being used by the Western Regions countries and to prevent the important intelligence information of the Tang Dynasty from spreading to the Western Regions, the Tang government strictly prohibited literati from going to the Western Regions. People like Xuanzang who have profound knowledge and are from famous families will definitely not be allowed to pass the test.

Xuanzang's application failed, so he had to wait for the opportunity. By the autumn of 627 AD, the Chang'an area suffered from natural disasters . Emperor Taizong of Tang Li Shimin ordered everyone to go out to find food. Xuanzang, who was eager to seek the Dharma, packed his simple luggage, mingled among the victims and left Chang'an City, and began a long and dangerous journey to seek the Dharma west.

Tang Monk's route to the west

Xuanzang mixed into the merchant team and came out of seclusion, but was discovered by soldiers from the border of Liangzhou . The governor of Liangzhou heard that Xuanzang was going west and forced him to return to Chang'an. Fortunately, the local Master Huiwei respected Xuanzang's great wish and asked his younger disciples Hirin and Daozhong to secretly send Xuanzang forward.

They were afraid of being captured by officers and soldiers during the day, so they walked at night. When I arrived at , Guazhou , the horse I rode died again. Moreover, at this time, the Liangzhou governor arrested Xuanzang's official documents arrived, but the officials in Guazhou believed that Xuanzang's great wish was very rare and should not be detained, so they destroyed the official documents and urged Xuanzang to move forward quickly.

After Xuanzang left Guazhou, he found out that there were five beacon towers outside of Yumen Pass . Each beacon tower is 100 miles apart. There is no water grass in the middle. There is only water source next to the beacon tower, but it is guarded by soldiers. If Xuanzang passed by the fortress, he would definitely be captured by soldiers. When Xuanzang was helpless, he met a local Hu tribe people named Shi Pantuo, who was willing to lead the way for him.

Xuanzang was overjoyed, sold his clothes, changed into two horses, and set off with Shi Pantuo overnight. In the middle of the night, they successfully smuggled out of Yumen Pass. While resting, Xuanzang saw Shi Pantuo walking towards him with a knife. Shi Pantuo said that walking again would be a dead end. He didn't want to walk with him, so Xuanzang had to let him leave.

After leaving Yumen Pass, Xuanzang groped in the desert alone. He was hungry and thirsty. He ventured under the beacon tower to get water but was almost shot by the guards. Fortunately, Wang Xiang, the captain of Shoufeng, believed in Buddhism and not only provided Xuanzang with food, but also gave him shortcuts.

Stage 2: Smuggling out of the country, go west through Yumen Pass to Gaochang and go west to Kashimiluo Kingdom .

Xuanzang walked in the desert for many days, and finally walked out of the desert, passed Yiwu to Gaochang . Gaochang King Qu Wentai Dearly believe in Buddhism, he personally went out of the palace to greet him late at night, giving Xuanzang the highest courtesy, and even wanted to force Xuanzang to offer long-term offerings. Xuanzang decided to go west to seek the Dharma, and refused to go on a hunger strike. Qu Wentai had no choice but to give up and become brothers with Xuanzang. He asked him to go back to Gaochang after obtaining the scriptures, and gave him 100 taels of gold, silk, and other items, organized an escort team, wrote twenty-four letters to the countries along the way, and asked for help.

Xuanzang continued to travel west, passed yanqi to Quzhi, and was welcomed. He stayed for more than 60 days. Then he crossed Lingshan to 无公司 , Chi Jianguo, Samojian country and other places. Then he crossed Xingdu Kushishan , traveled Fanyanna , Gandhara , and finally arrived in the Kashimira country. He stayed here for two years, read Buddhist scriptures and studied Buddhism.

Stage 3: Arriving at Nalanda Temple, concentrating on Buddhism for five years, and fighting against three thousand monks.

After leaving the Kingdom of Kashimira, Xuanzang arrived at Hangya, Napudi, Landalu and other places, and finally arrived at Qunnucheng in the fifth year of Zhenguan. There is a Master Jiexian in the temple. He is a great scholar from India. Xuanzang studied with Master Jiexian for five years.

King Jieri of Magadha was a king who believed in Buddhism. When he heard Xuanzang's reputation, he held a grand lecture meeting for Xuanzang in his capital Qunnu City (now Kanaoji in Uttar Pradesh, India). The kings of the eighteen countries of India and more than 3,000 monks arrived.

India, Nalanda Temple ruins

At that time, King Jie Ri invited Xuanzang to give lectures at the meeting and asked everyone to debate. The conference lasted for eighteen days, and everyone admired Xuanzang's wonderful speech, and no one expressed any different opinions.

Finally, King Jieri sent someone to lift Xuanzang's cassock and announced that the lecture was successful.

Stage 4: Obtain the true scriptures and Xuanzang began to return to China.

Xuanzang walked for two years on his way back to China. After finally returning to the border of the Tang Dynasty, he did not dare to return to Chang'an. He was afraid that Emperor Taizong of Tang would pursue his guilt for smuggling. In order to show his attitude, Xuanzang returned to Chang'an from Dunhuang, reported his whereabouts at any time along the way and waited for the court to make a decision.

However, the court did not really "defeat" Xuanzang.

After the Tang Monk returned from the journey to the scriptures, the political situation in the entire Western Regions changed. It was the 19th year of Zhenguan (645 AD), and Emperor Taizong of Tang had long been called "-day Khan ". At this time, Emperor Taizong of Tang needed Xuanzang and even more needed to use Buddhism to manage the Western Regions.

So I was originally a smuggler who smuggled out, but after I came back, I was warmly welcomed by Emperor Taizong of Tang. Xuanzang's "The Record of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty" became a diplomatic event in the Tang Dynasty. As the name suggests, "The Record of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty", the Western Regions are from the Tang Dynasty, which records in detail how many household registrations, how many troops, and how much wealth are in Central Asian countries, which is equivalent to a detailed military and civilian land book.

"Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" Book and Film

"Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" is both a compilation of information about the countries in the Western Regions, and a cultural project of the Tang Dynasty.

After Tang Xuanzang returned to China, he accepted many disciples, such as: Shen Fang, Jia Shang, Puguang , Kuiji , known as the "Four Sages of the Zangmen"; Puguang, Dharma Treasure, Shentai , is called the "Three Great Masters of Abhidharma"; Kuiji, Shentai, and Shunjing are also called " Yinming masters". Among them, the "Hitml3 Biography of Tripitaka Master of the Great Ci'en Temple" compiled by Xuanzang's disciples Huili and others added a lot of mythological color to Xuanzang's experience. It was also from then on that the story of Tang Monk's pursuit of scriptures gradually spread among the people. The familiar "Journey to the West" came from Xuanzang, and it is also due to "Journey to the West" that everyone is familiar with the story of Tang Monk's pursuit of scriptures.