History
Xuanzang
Xuanzang was a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, and traveler who lived during the Tang dynasty. He is best known for his extensive 17-year journey to India to study Buddhism and collect scriptures. Xuanzang's travels and writings greatly contributed to the transmission of Buddhist knowledge and scriptures to China, and his pilgrimage remains an important part of Chinese and Buddhist history.
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eBook - ePub- Antonio S. Cua(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Xuanzang (Hsuan-tsang) Bruce W ILLIAMS Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang, c. 602 or 603–664) was known for the record of his travels to India, as well as for numerous influential translations of Indian Buddhist texts. Xuanzang has not left us any explicit, detailed discussion of his philosophical position. Any attempt to reconstruct his philosophical outlook must proceed by culling information from three main areas. First are his Record of the Western Regions (Xiyu ji, T. 2057), completed in 646 C.E., and the three extant biographies written by his contemporaries: (1) Biography of the Dharma Master Xuanzang (Xuanzang fashi xing-zhuang, T. 2052) by Ming Xiang (dates unknown); (2) the biography of Xuanzang that occupies the bulk of fascicle (juan) 4 of Continuation of the Biographies of Eminent Monks (Xu Gaoseng zhuan, T. 2060) by Daoxuan (596–667); and (3) Biography of Tripitaka, the Dharma Master of the Great Ci’en Monastery under the Great Tang (Da Tang da Ci’en sanzang fashi zhuan, T. 2053) by Huili (615–c. 675) and Yancong (fl. 649–688), with a preface by Yancong dated to 688. Ming Xiang’s biography, although undated, predates the other two, since they both utilize it. The biography by Huili and Yancong has been traditionally regarded as Xuanzang’s standard biography. Second are the types of texts Xuanzang translated. Third, according to tradition, is his translation of Thirty Stanzas (Trimsika) by Vasubandhu (c. 420–500) and his editing of ten commentaries to these stanzas, all compiled under the title Discourse on the Accomplishment of Consciousness Only (Cheng weishi lun, T. 1585), or Vijnaptimatrata siddhi. Despite discrepancies among the three biographies, the dates of certain events in Xuanzang’s life can be ascertained reasonably well. Xuanzang, originally surnamed Chen, was the youngest of four children from an elite northern Chinese family; his grandfather, Chen Kang, served at the court of the Northern Qi dynasty (561–577)
eBook - PDFInnovation in Design, Communication and Engineering
Proceedings of the 8th Asian Conference on Innovation, Communication and Engineering (ACICE 2019), October 25-30, 2019, Zhengzhou, P.R. China
- Artde Kin-Tak Lam, Stephen Prior, Siu-Tsen Shen, Sheng-Joue Young, Liang-Wen Ji(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
Xuanzang fol-lowed no strict schedule. Instead, in order to acquire the ultimate truth of Buddhism and to develop a complete cultivation sequence of Buddhism for attaining Buddhahood, Xuanzang traveled or stayed whenever he considered it necessary to do so. He even engaged in debates with monks from different mainstream Buddhist schools and with non-Buddhists in order to refute wrong ideas, highlight correct understandings, defend Mah ā y ā na Buddhism, and inves-tigate thoroughly and pass on the ultimate truth of profound tath ā gatagarbha . Dharma Master Xuanzang was no mere westbound scripture-seeker, scripture-translator, traveler, and explorer. What made him widely recognized and admired in the five Indian kingdoms and beyond was his outstanding excellence in Buddhist principles. Xuanzang was an actualizer of the seeking of Buddhism and an advocate of the Dharma. His life is a real demonstration of “ inheriting and carrying forward the Tath ā gata ’ s lineage. ” REFERENCES A Biography of the Tripitaka Master of the Great Ci ’ en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty . Vol. 1 (CBETA, T50, no. 2053, pp. 222, b23 – 24). A Biography of the Tripitaka Master of the Great Ci ’ en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty . Vol. 1 (CBETA, T50, no. 2053, pp. 224, b16 – 18). 162 A Biography of the Tripitaka Master of the Great Ci ’ en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty . Vol. 4. Trans. D. Lusthaus (CBETA, T50, no. 2053, pp. 244, c1 – 3). Cheng weishi lun . Vol. 3 (CBETA, T31, no. 1585, pp. 12, c18 – 19). Chu, B. S. 1981. An Introduction to the Studies of Xuanzang . 1st ed. Taipei: Shin Wen Feng Print Company. Continuation of the Biographies of Eminent Monks . Vol. 4. Trans. D. Lusthaus (CBETA, T50, no. 2026, pp. 448, b16 – 18). Continuation of the Biographies of Eminent Monks . Vol. 4 (CBETA, T50, no. 2026, pp. 453, a22 – 23). Zhang, X. 1977. A Revised Edition of Records of Western Lands . Shanghai: People ’ s Publishing House. 163
eBook - PDFEngineering Innovation and Design
Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovation, Communication and Engineering (ICICE 2018), November 9-14, 2018, Hangzhou, China
- Artde Kin-Tak Lam, Stephen Prior, Siu-Tsen Shen, Sheng-Joue Young, Liang-Wen Ji, Artde Donald Kin-Tak Lam, Stephen D. Prior(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
(Xiao, 2003) Looking back on Xuanzang’s identity as a trans-lator of Buddhist scriptures, we can conclude the followings: firstly, Sanskrit could not have been a 376 barrier in his language and writing; secondly, his residence in India for seventeen years enabled him to be familiar with regional customs; thirdly, only after he brought back scriptures of the three vehi-cles to China could the historical materials of the Three-Vehicle Bodhi become complete; fourthly, he himself was skilled at elucidating the principle of the Three-Vehicle Bodhi. Lastly, he was further able to exalt the principle of “Consciousness-Only as true pramā . na” to expel wrong views in order to uphold the doctrine of “the Three-Vehicle Bodhi being the only single Buddha vehicle.” This paper argues that Xuanzang is a Buddhist positivist whose translation of sutras and authorship of treatises are based on empirical Buddhist Dharma. Only then can he demonstrate true Buddhist doc-trines with an emphasis on faithfulness, expressive-ness and not to leave out: elegance. In addition, he can clearly pave the way for Buddhists to practice the Buddhahood path in a systematic manner, so as to avoid future generations of Buddhist practi-tioners going astray with no guidance. Xuanzang spent his whole life persisting in translating works with great faith, and eventually achieved this great ambition through his full dedication. REFERENCES Liang, Q.C. 1984. History of Chinese Buddhist Studies (C. Zhongguo fojiao yanjiu shi) , Xin Wen Feng Pub-lishing Company, Taipei. CBETA, T34, no. 1724, p. 862, a21-b10. (Chinese Buddhist). CBETA, T50, no. 2053, p. 256, b25-c3. (Chinese Bud-dhist Electronic Text Association, 2014). CBETA, T31, no. 1600, p. 469, a25–29. (Chinese Bud-dhist Electronic Text Association, 2014). CBETA, T54, no. 2131, p. 1055, a13–18. (Chinese Bud-dhist Electronic Text Association, 2014). Yu, J.W., H.M. Chou, 2017. IEEE ICASI2017 1048–1051. Tsai, L.C. 2007. Journal of True Enlightenment 23–48.
eBook - ePub- Benjamin Penny(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
:In the treatises the substance of the sutras (are claimed) to be of two kinds; the text and the meaning. The text is what is depended on; the meaning is the depender. Thus these two kinds are general names for all the sense-data that can be known…. The key to the two themes of the Hinayana and the Mahayana was something that previous (Chinese) savants could not decide upon, which caused the saints a shared doubt. They simply thought that the deficiency formed an obstacle to knowledge. And then Master Xuanzang returned from the West and brought Sanskrit texts to the east, and enriched the treasure grove of and opened up the erudite treasury of .42However, Zanning followed the form of Buddhist liezhuan (connected biographies/traditions) initiated by his predecessors Huijiao and Daoxuan. Moreover, as the Song Gaoseng zhuan was commissioned by the Song emperor and Zanning had a Confucian education (although it was used to overcome Confucianism),43 these problems were not addressed or did not impinge sufficiently on his awareness when he was writing the biographies.Likewise, in 904 when Ch’oe was writing his biography of Fazang (643–712), the Huayan champion of mind-only theory, this theory was not translated into the writing of the hagiography. Ch’oe realised that the biography he was composing was not structurally identical with those liezhuan or collective biographies written by the great historian Sima Qian who wrote biographies of the Confucian sages. To distinguish his subject, Fazang, from other saints, Ch’oe adopted the perfect number ten that appeared in Fazang’s Huayan sanmei guan on the meanings of the honest mind, as a metaphor for the stages in Fazang’s life.44 Despite this, Ch’oe’s hagiography of Fazang was fundamentally Confucian in outlook, in that Ch’oe adhered to the standard biographical techniques of Sima Qian and referred to the Confucian classics such as the Chunqiu — Spring and Autumn Annals — fortopoi.45
- Albert E. Dien, Keith N. Knapp(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
Buddhism in China. 11 The Shishuo xinyu is filled with accounts of figures like the fourth-century official Yin Hao who, after his political career ended in exile, spent his final years reading sutras and querying local monks on passages he could not understand. 12 Nor were lay Buddhists simply bystanders, con- tent to understand the basics of Buddhist doctrine and describe its history. We should not be misled by the compelling picture presented in monastic history of a Buddhism led entirely by talented, energetic monks; the great works of Buddhist history before the twentieth century were almost all composed by monks who, not surprisingly, placed eminent monks at the center of their stories. While it is true that, compared to monks, laymen composed relatively few commentaries or doctrinal works, they regularly participated in transla- tion projects and often engaged monks in doctrinal debate, perhaps more in this period than at any other time. It should not surprise us that literati played a vital role in Buddhist intellectual life given that most leading monastic exegetes themselves came from a literati background. They continued to crave the company and respect of their secular counterparts, steeped as they were in the same classics—the Book of Poetry, the Zhuangzi etc.—and shared similar literary ideals. 13 The court provided one of the most public and productive forums for discussion between literati, monks, and the imperial family about Buddhist ideas and practices, even when they did not impinge directly on matters of state. In memorials, edicts, letters, and essays, monks, officials, and the emperor debated whether monks should be required to bow before the emperor like everyone else, or whether their unique position placed them beyond secular authority.
eBook - PDF- Alan Cole(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- University of California Press(Publisher)
16 Then, in more general terms, the best reason for including Xinxing in a history of Chan is Xinxing’s radical reconstruction of Chinese Buddhism around himself. Thus, the case of Xinxing is a good example of creating an “absolute master” who supposedly held the totality of Buddhist tradi-tion in his own person. In short, for his followers, Xinxing the man was more important than all other Chinese monks and, equally stunning, more important than all the imported Buddhist literature. And, finally, even though Xinxing insisted on an unbridgeable gulf between himself and his followers, he also preached a seductive ideology in which his followers were consoled in their permanent secondary status by an emphasis on their inherent buddhahood. For these reasons it makes good sense to see in Xinxing an important precedent for the figure of the Chan master that took form in the following centuries. Equally interesting, and again presaging later developments in Chan literature, Xinxing’s mastery of tradition was underscored when, in 15. For discussion of Daoxuan’s entry for Xinxing and his sources, see Jamie Hub-bard, Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood: The Rise and Fall of a Chinese Heresy (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001) , 4–5; for Daoxuan’s biography of Xinxing, see T (no. 2060), 50.559c.18–560b.10. 16. T (no. 2082), 51.788a.29. For a translation, see Donald Gjerston, Miraculous Retribu-tion: A Study and Translation of T’anglin’s Ming pao chi (Berkeley, CA: Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies, 1989) , 157–60. Plans for the Past / 27 the middle of his career, he supposedly renounced his robes and monk status, making clear that his authority was no longer dependent on the legitimizing functions normally provided by offi cial Buddhist struc-tures. When we learn that Xinxing also took up manual labor, his inde-pendence from the offi cial hierarchies of tradition seems reinforced, even as he now appears humble and close to the earth and the peas-ants.
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