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The Records of the Western Regions, also known by its Chinese name as the Datang Xiyuji or Da Tang Xiyu Ji and by various other translations and Romanized transcriptions, is a narrative of the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang's nineteen-year journey from Tang China through the Western Regions to medieval India and back during the mid-7th century CE.
[9] Xuanzang was tutored in the Yogācāra teachings by Śīlabhadra for several years at Nālandā. Upon his return from India, Xuanzang brought with him a wagon-load of Buddhist texts, including important Yogācāra works such as the Yogācārabhūmi-śastra. [10] In total, Xuanzang had procured 657 Buddhist texts from India. [6]
Xuanzang then describes the surviving monasteries in Sagala with hundreds of Buddhist monks, along with its three colossal stupas, each over 200 feet tall, two built by Ashoka. [39] Xuanzang visited the country of Chinabhukti next, which he states got its name because a region west of the Yellow river was a vassal state of Emperor Kanishka.
Xuanzang initially intended to translate all of these, but on the advice of his students, especially Kuiji, Xuanzang instead chose to combine them into a single text that focused primarily on Dharmapala's commentary. He did so because his teacher Śīlabhadra was a student of Dharmapala, and thus Xuanzang believed Dharmapala's interpretation to ...
Xuanzang's journey was later the subject of legend and eventually fictionalized as the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, a major component of East Asian popular culture from Chinese opera to Japanese television (Monkey Magic). Xuanzang spent over ten years in India traveling and studying under various Buddhist masters. [20]
[3] [9] [10] In the record of his journeys through the kingdoms of India, Xuanzang wrote that Asaṅga was initially a Mahīśāsaka monk, but soon turned toward the Mahāyāna teachings. [11] Asaṅga had a half-brother, Vasubandhu, who was a monk from the Sarvāstivāda school. Vasubandhu is said to have taken up Mahāyāna Buddhism after ...
Xuanzang travelled around India between 630 and 643 CE, [72] visiting Nalanda in 637 and 642, spending a total of around two years at the monastery. [73] He was warmly welcomed in Nalanda where he received the Indian name of Mokshadeva [ 74 ] and studied under the guidance of Shilabhadra , the venerable head of the institution at the time.
The Book of Han has led to discussions on whether Buddhism first arrived to China via maritime or overland transmission; as well as the origins of Buddhism in India or China. Despite secular Chinese histories like the Book of Han dating the introduction of Buddhism in the 1st century, some Buddhist texts and traditions claim earlier dates in ...