Chapter 2 Chapter 1 A Solitary Monk in Thousands of Rivers and Mountains——From Xuanzang

That was more than 1300 years ago.An eminent monk determined to travel westward to search for Buddhist scriptures began a journey of thousands of miles to India.His surname is Chen, his real name is Yi [yiyi], and he was born in the Gou [gougou] family in Luozhou, Henan Province (now Yanshi County, Henan Province). People call him Master Xuanzang.At that time, Buddhism was very popular in the Tang Dynasty, but Buddhist theories differed from place to place, especially in the early Tang Dynasty, the popular theories of the Buddha-nature in "Sho Lun" and "Di Lun" could not be unified.Xuanzang decided to go to India, the birthplace of Buddhism, to seek the scriptures in order to resolve the differences in the theory of Buddha nature.In August 627 AD, he set out from Chang'an, went west out of Yumen, waded through quicksand, crossed Congling Mountains, and crossed snow-capped mountains.Along the way, he practiced and learned, and after about four years, he arrived at the Nalanda Temple in the city of Magadha, the highest institution of Buddhism in India at that time.There, Xuanzang paid homage to the 90-year-old Master Jiexian as his teacher, and studied Buddhist scriptures such as "Yogi's Land Treatise", which lasted 15 months and studied very diligently.In order to study other Buddhist scriptures collected in the monastery, he stayed in Nalanda Monastery for nearly five years.Later, he traveled all over India to visit teachers and learn from them. When he returned to Nalanda Temple in 641 AD, he was already a master who had studied Buddhist scriptures deeply.He was invited to preside over the lectures of the monastery, and he gave lectures on "Mahayana" and "Consciousness-Only Choice" in Hindi to the monks in the monastery.The breadth of his knowledge has greatly surpassed that of his teacher, Master Jiexian, and he became the highest authority of the Indian Mahayana Department at that time.In the first month of 645 A.D., Xuanzang declined the repeated entreaties of the Indian king and scholars, and resolutely returned to the east and returned to his motherland.It took him 17 years to go to India. Except for the travel time on the way, the remaining 11 years were spent in study, which was quite a long time.After returning to China, he wrote 12 volumes of "Da Tang Western Regions", which recorded his experiences in Central Asia and India.This book became the most important primary source for the study of the ancient historical geography of Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.At the same time, with the strong support of the imperial court, he presided over the translation of Buddhist scriptures in a planned and systematic manner. From March 645 to January 664, in 19 years, he translated a total of 75 scriptures and treatises, 1335 volumes, and more than 13 million copies. It played an important role in promoting the development of Buddhism and wrote a glorious page in the history of Sino-Indian cultural exchanges.

The story of Xuanzang's journey westward to study has been passed down from generation to generation, inspiring and motivating many people.The stories and classical novels of "Tang Monk Learning Buddhist Sutras" handed down from generation to generation in our country are based on Xuanzang's trip to India.It can be said that his trip to seek the Dharma is a distant harbinger of my country's overseas education.After that, cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries gradually developed. In the Ming Dynasty, there was also the feat of Zheng He's seven voyages to the West.However, strictly speaking, overseas education in the true sense began in the late Qing Dynasty.