In the winter of 643 CE, Xuanzang reached the famous Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan. 80 kilometres from the capital, there was a tomb of dead mice which was worshipped by the local people. Xuanzang’s Great Tang Records on the Western Region narrates a story of how a group of mice saved Khotan during a battle. In 1900, the archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein found a piece of wood in the Hotan Desert, where the Kingdom of Khotan had once stood. It carried an illustration of a mouse with a human body and a crown on its head. Stein believed that this illustration was the mouse king recorded by Xuanzang. The Khotan Kingdom specialised in the trade of carpets, silk, and jade. The people of present-day Hotan still weave carpets using their hands and their jade jewellery and decorations are highly valued.
Xuanzang was warmly received in Khotan but felt anxious. He wished to gain the forgiveness of the Chinese Emperor before reaching China. The monk wrote a letter to Emperor Taizong to admit his mistake of leaving the country without the emperor’s permission. He also described his experiences and the success of his pilgrimage. While waiting in Khotan, Xuanzang tried to gather more Buddhist statues and scriptures. Six months later, he finally received a reply from the emperor. To his surprise, the emperor was not enraged that he left China without permission, and had actually arranged for his journey back to China.
Encouraged by this news, in the summer of 644 CE, Xuanzang left for Chang’an. He crossed the southern edge of Taklamakan Desert where the weather and wind were unpredictable and water was scarce. After a difficult and trying journey through the desert, Xuanzang reached Dunhuang, a territory of the Tang Empire. Emperor Taizong had officers waiting to receive him there.
In 645 CE, Xuanzang arrived back in the land of his birth, very different from the Xuanzang who had left Chang’an 17 years before as a fugitive monk. He returned as an eminent Buddhist scholar and brought back 699 Buddhist scriptures that consisted of:In the winter of 643 CE, Xuanzang reached the famous Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan. 80 kilometres from the capital, there was a tomb of dead mice which was worshipped by the local people. Xuanzang’s Great Tang Records on the Western Region narrates a story of how a group of mice saved Khotan during a battle. In 1900, the archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein found a piece of wood in the Hotan Desert, where the Kingdom of Khotan had once stood. It carried an illustration of a mouse with a human body and a crown on its head. Stein believed that this illustration was the mouse king recorded by Xuanzang. The Khotan Kingdom specialised in the trade of carpets, silk, and jade. The people of present-day Hotan still weave carpets using their hands and their jade jewellery and decorations are highly valued.
Xuanzang was warmly received in Khotan but felt anxious. He wished to gain the forgiveness of the Chinese Emperor before reaching China. The monk wrote a letter to Emperor Taizong to admit his mistake of leaving the country without the emperor’s permission. He also described his experiences and the success of his pilgrimage. While waiting in Khotan, Xuanzang tried to gather more Buddhist statues and scriptures. Six months later, he finally received a reply from the emperor. To his surprise, the emperor was not enraged that he left China without permission, and had actually arranged for his journey back to China.
Encouraged by this news, in the summer of 644 CE, Xuanzang left for Chang’an. He crossed the southern edge of Taklamakan Desert where the weather and wind were unpredictable and water was scarce. After a difficult and trying journey through the desert, Xuanzang reached Dunhuang, a territory of the Tang Empire. Emperor Taizong had officers waiting to receive him there.
In 645 CE, Xuanzang arrived back in the land of his birth, very different from the Xuanzang who had left Chang’an 17 years before as a fugitive monk. He returned as an eminent Buddhist scholar and brought back 699 Buddhist scriptures that consisted of:
He also brought with him seven invaluable Buddhist sculptures, over 100 Sarira relics, and exotic plants and flowers.
The following day, the Prime Minister of the Tang Empire presided over a grand ceremony to welcome the eminent scholar who had brought back spiritual knowledge for the Tang Empire and the future generations of Chinese Buddhists. However, Xuanzang did not attend the ceremony. Instead, he stayed alone in his room because he saw the celebration as contrary to the Buddhist values according to which he lived his life.
An illustration of Xuanzang’s return to China in Dunhuang Mural in Cave No. 103
Not long after his return, he was summoned by Emperor Taizong. The emperor was not particularly interested in Buddhism, but he was impressed by Xuanzang’s knowledge of the Western Region, the accounts of his journey, and his knowledge of the customs of the countries in Central and South Asia. Emperor Taizong subsequently called him the “Jewel of the Empire” and offered him the honour of a position as his court advisor on the Western lands. However, Xuanzang politely refused this and instead chose to focus his efforts on translating the Sanskrit scriptures he had brought from his journey.
In 648 CE, Emperor Taizong built the Temple of Great Compassionate Blessing for his mother, and Xuanzang was chosen to be its abbot. The temple was the largest in Chang’an. Unfortunately, his tenure was not without incident. One of his disciples had an affair with an imperial princess and when it became known, the disciple was executed. This incident was a blow for Xuanzang.
Fortunately, Emperor Taizong still had great faith in Buddhism and Xuanzang. In 649 CE, the monarch fell seriously ill and realising that his end was near, he asked for Xuanzang to wait on him. After Emperor Taizong’s passing, Xuanzang devoted even more time and effort on his translation work, sleeping for only a few hours a day. It seemed that the emperor’s passing had reminded him of his own mortality and the limited time he had to complete his work for the benefit of future generations.
The statue of Xuanzang in front of Wild Goose Pagoda
Fortunately for Xuanzang, the newly enthroned Emperor Gaozong also had great respect for Xuanzang. In 652 CE, Xuanzang managed to convince the new emperor to build the Wild Goose Pagoda in the complex of the Temple of the Great Compassionate Blessing to house scriptures and other Dharma texts. Xuanzang supervised the building of Wild Goose Pagoda in the Great Compassionate Blessing Temple complex based on stupa designs he had seen in India.
Upon the completion of the pagoda, Xuanzang received the sad news that his teacher, Silabhadra had passed away. Xuanzang recalled the kindness and the advice of his teacher, and that made him even more determined to translate as many of the scriptures as possible. With the support of Emperor Gaozong, many eminent monks from various temples and government officials were engaged to help him. His work was not without challenges and difficulties. The emperor’s unwavering support for Xuanzang and for Buddhism made some officials anxious that the emperor was neglecting the development of the empire. Xuanzang became the target of criticism and was caught in a difficult position.
He tried to make the most of his relationship with the imperial court. In 656 CE, he sent a request to the court that the precedence of Taoism over Buddhism be abolished. Unfortunately, Emperor Gaozong was not pleased and rejected this suggestion outright.
Another statue of Xuanzang at Wild Goose Pagoda
Faxiang School of Buddhism
Xuanzang established the Faxiang School of Buddhism based on the scriptures of the Stages of the Yogic Practice. He was assisted by his disciples in establishing its foundation and writing the commentary for this school of Buddhism.
One of them in particular, Kuiji (632 – 682 CE), would later become known as the first patriarch of the Faxiang School of Buddhism. In addition to Kuiji, Xuanzang also had several other disciples, including Woncheuk from Korea and Dosho from Japan. These two disciples would play an important role in spreading Faxiang Buddhist doctrines in Korea and Japan. Dosho would later return to Japan and establish the Hosso school of Buddhism that was based the Stages of the Yogic Practice. The Hosso School would became very influential in Japan during the 7th and 8th centuries.
The Translation of Buddhist Scriptures
According to Der Huey from Beijing University, Xuanzang’s efforts in translating the Buddhist scriptures can be divided into three periods:
645–650: Xuanzang was focused on the translation of the Stages of the Yogic Practice
651-660: Xuanzang was focused on the translation of Abhidharmakosa-sastra
661-664: Xuanzang was focused on the translation of Mahaprajna Paramita sutra
Upon completing the Great Tang Records on the Western Region, Xuanzang again devoted his time to scriptural translation and assigned a number of monks to help him in these efforts. Sleeping for less than four hours a day, he was unequivocally focused on this work. His accurate and careful translations of these scriptures were an important factor in the growth of Buddhism in China, and in facilitating better understanding of Buddhism across the world.
In 648 CE, Xuanzang presented Emperor Taizong with the translation of the scriptures of the Stages of the Yogic Practice. Upon reading the translation of these scriptures, the emperor became interested in Buddhism.
In the autumn of 659 CE, the 60-year-old Xuanzang arrived at the Yuhua Temple in Shaanxi Province, a palace that Emperor Gaozong had transformed into a temple. This was where Xuanzang would spend the last days of his life and it was here that he carried out the translation of the largest collection of scriptures, the Mahaprajna Paramita Sutra.
The translation of the Mahaprajna Paramita Sutra was completed in four years. From the time of his return from India, Xuanzang performed the incredible feat of translating 47 sutras in 1335 volumes.
Later Life and Death
A 9th century illustration of Xuanzang in the Dunhuang Caves
In 657 CE, Xuanzang accompanied Emperor Gaozong to Luoyang. It was the first time he had returned since childhood. Most of his relatives, with the exception of an elderly sister, had passed away. With the help of locals, he was able to locate the tombs of his parents, which had been neglected for a long time. He asked for leave from the emperor to take care of his parents’ tombs and to remain for a time in the place where he had first embarked on his journey to a life devoted to Buddhism. When he was 57 years old, the long hours of work started to catch up with him and affect his health. Xuanzang became ill and would never recover. Meetings in the imperial court and his other obligations worsened his condition.
Upon completing the translation of the Mahaprajna Paramita Sutra, Xuanzang felt that his life’s work was done and informed his disciples that his time was near. He praised the Buddha for blessing him with the visions in the Shadow Cave, and on the 8th day of the first lunar month in 664 CE, one of his disciples dreamt that one of the colossal pagodas had collapsed. The next day, Xuanzang collapsed and had to be carried to his room. He told his disciples that he wanted his body to be wrapped in the simplest way and put in a quiet place after his death. He also wished for his body to be buried in the White Deer Plain in the east of Chang’an.
Xuanzang passed away on February 5, 664 CE at Yuhua Temple. He was buried on April 14. However, his funeral ceremony was neither simple nor quiet. Historical records state that over one million people, royals and commoners, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, participated in his funeral procession. To honour Xuanzang’s memory, Emperor Gaozong cancelled all audiences for three days following his death.
Xuanzang was originally buried in the White Deer Plain as he had wished. However, five years after his death, the emperor had Xuanzang’s remains moved to Fanchuan, south of Chang’an in the present-day Shaanxi Province. At some point, his tomb was opened and his remains were sent to Buddhist institutions all over China as holy relics.
Xuanzang Dagoba in the Xingjiao Temple, Shanxi Province where Xuanzang’s remains used to be buried, is today a popular pilgrimage site for Buddhists to visit. Some of his remains have become important relics and objects of veneration. They are secured in these locations:
In the Temple of Great Compassionate Blessing, some of his relics are enshrined in a golden pagoda adorned with precious jewels.
Part of Xuanzang’s skull is also rumoured to be stored in Wenshu Monastery in Chengdu, Sichuan.
In 1942, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army brought part of his remains from Nanjing to Japan. The remains are now secured in Yakushi-ji in Nara, Japan.
In 1957, the Chinese government gave a small piece of Xuanzang’s bone relic to India as a gift. Today, the relic is preserved in the newly rebuilt Nalanda University. The skull was originally located in the Temple of Great Compassion until 195
Xuanzang Memorial Hall in the new Nalanda University complex in India
Prior to Xuanzang’s journey to the West, the history of ancient India was largely unrecorded. Xuanzang’s book, the Great Tang Records on the Western Region, contains the detailed records of the social customs, geographical and political aspects of the countries in South and Central Asia. It is still considered a significant history book even today.
Later explorers and archaeologists such as Alexander Cunningham used it as a reference during their archaeological excavations. In 1861, Cunningham found the ruins of Nalanda Monastery, which by then was covered by forest and was subsequently reawakened due to interest in its role in India’s religious heritage.
The interior of Xuanzang Memorial Hall in the new Nalanda University complex
Some believe that Xuanzang’s influence on the history of India is second to none and that without his book, it would have been impossible to fully understand the history of the subcontinent. However, Xuanzang’s greatest legacy is his courage, perseverance and passion that continue to inspire many people today to embrace a spiritual path in life.
Books on Xuanzang
Xuanzang’s life story and his journey to the West continue to inspire many people over 1,300 years after his death.
The Real Tripitaka (p. 11 – 130) by Arthur Waleys (1952) contains information about Xuanzang.
In the Footsteps of the Buddha (Sur les Traces du Boudda) (1929), a book by Rene Grousset contains the biography of Xuanzang. The book discusses the life of Chinese pilgrims in the time of the Tang Dynasty.
The biography of Xuanzang by the monk, Huili. This book would later be translated by Samuel Beal. The book was also translated by Thomas Watters and edited by Rhys Davids and SW Bushell in 1905.
The story of Xuanzang also inspired the writing of a fictional account, Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en from the Ming Dynasty.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the playwright Wu Changling wrote a play about Xuanzang’s journey to the west in search of Buddhist scriptures.