Great Tang Records on the Western Regions

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Great Tang Records on the Western Regions
Hanyu Pinyin
Dà Táng Xīyù Jì
Wade–GilesTa4 T'ang2 Hsi1-yü4 Chi4

The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions is a narrative of Xuanzang's nineteen-year journey from Chang'an in central China to the Western Regions of Chinese historiography. The Buddhist scholar traveled through the Silk Road regions of what is today Xinjiang in northwest China, as well as neighboring areas in Central Asia and south China. Beyond these Chinese locations, Xuanzang also travelled around the perimeter of India, as far south as Kanchipuram.[1] Xuanzang's travels demarcate not only an important place in cross-cultural studies of China and India, but also cross-cultural studies throughout the globe.[1] The text is set up as both an account of Xuanzang's religious pilgrimage as well as his report of the surrounding towns and provinces of Tang China.[1]

The book was compiled in 646, describing travels undertaken between 626 and 645.[2] Bianji, a disciple of Xuanzang, spent more than one year editing the book through Xuanzang's dictation.

Background

While trade relations between India and China had been ongoing since 1st century CE and had been strengthened through the

the Indian empire of Kannauj.[4]

Xuanzang's travels were motivated by his deep interest in Buddhist lore. While he was not legally authorized by the Tang court to leave China, he managed to journey to India and record his meetings with kings of various Indian kingdoms. Of particular note is emperor Harsha, whom Xuanzang managed to convince to send an emissary to Emperor Taizong of Tang. These diplomatic relations allowed Xuanzang to return to China without facing legal repercussions, instead granting him an audience with Taizong, who ultimately commissioned Xuanzang to write a record of his journeys to be entered into the official Tang records.[4]

Overview

The book contains more than 120,000

Chinese characters and is divided into twelve volumes, which describe the geography, land and maritime transportation, climate, local products, people, language, history, politics, economic life, religion, culture, and customs in 110 countries, regions and city-states from Xinjiang to Persia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka
, among other regions.

Importance

The text is of a great value to modern historians and archaeologists.

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c "The Travel Records of Chinese Pilgrims Faxian, Xuanzang, and Yijing" (PDF). Columbia University.
  2. ^
    University of Hawaii Press
    .
  3. JSTOR 44144424
    .
  4. ^ .
  5. ^ New Bamiyan Buddha find amid destruction Archived May 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  6. JSTOR 20078877
    .

Sources

Translations

Further reading

  • Bhat, R. B., & Wu, C. (2014). Xuan Zhang's mission to the West with Monkey King. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2014.
  • Jain, Sandhya, & Jain, Meenakshi (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books.

External links