Journey to the West

Xuanzang · 629 CE – 645 CE · Earth

Journey to the West — Xuanzang · 629 CE – 645 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Settle his doubts about the Buddhist scriptures by studying in India and bringing back the texts.

Historical context

The Tang dynasty was young when Xuanzang set out: its administration, his biography says, newly arranged, its frontiers not far off, and its subjects forbidden to go abroad. Most basic Buddhist texts already existed in Chinese, but Xuanzang, Tansen Sen writes, distrusted the translations and wanted the originals and India’s teachers. His Record of the Western Regions, edited by the monk Bianji, and the biography begun by his disciple Huili tell the journey; they do not always agree on figures or dates.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Leaving Chang’an against the ban

    629 CE

    Refused leave to go abroad, Xuanzang sets out alone for India to settle his doubts about the scriptures, and from Liangzhou travels by night, in secret, once the frontier officials are told to stop him.

  2. Past the watchtowers and across the desert

    630 CE

    Guided past the Yumen barrier by night, Xuanzang slips by the frontier watchtowers, loses his water in the desert and reaches Yiwu, today’s Hami, from where the king of Gaochang has him brought to Turfan.

  3. Nalanda

    633 CE

    Over the Tian Shan, through the camp of the khan of the Western Turks, Samarkand, Balkh and Bamiyan, Xuanzang reaches the great monastic university of Nalanda and studies there under its head, Shilabhadra, who later has him lecture to the community.

  4. Return with the texts

    645 CE

    Honoured at Harsha’s assembly at Kannauj, Xuanzang takes the northern road home, loses fifty bundles of manuscripts in the Indus, waits at Khotan for the emperor’s answer and reaches Chang’an in 645 with 657 works carried on twenty horses.

Outcome

Studied five years at Nalanda under Shilabhadra, was honoured at Harsha’s assembly at Kannauj and returned to Chang’an in 645 with 657 works, on which he spent the rest of his life translating.

Xuanzang

Tang monk and traveller whose sixteen-year journey to India shaped Chinese Buddhism and inspired Journey to the West.

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Sources

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