| spouse = | parents = | children = }}}}{{Chinese |pic = Buddhist Monastic Traditions of Southern Asia.jpg|caption=Excerpt of a scroll from Yijing’s Buddhist Monastic Traditions of Southern Asia. Tenri, Nara, Japan

w=I-chingI Ching |l=|altname=Buddhist title

w2=San-tsang Fa-shih I-ching |l2=Tripitaka Dharma-Master Yijing|altname3=Zhang Wenming

w3=Chang WÃªn-ming}}(File:YiJingMap2.jpg|thumb|right|Yijing’s travel map of the 7th century.){{family name hatnote|Zhang|lang=Chinese}}Yijing (635â€“713{{nbsp}}CE), formerly romanized as {{nowrap|I-ching}} or {{nowrap|I-tsing}},{{citation |editor-last=Schoff |editor-first=Wilfred Harvey |title=(:s:Periplus of the Erythraean Sea|Periplus of the Erythraean Sea) |date=1912 |page=(:s:Periplus of the Erythraean Sea/Notes#213|213) |publisher=Commercial Museum |location=Philadelphia }}. born Zhang Wenming, was a Tang-era Chinese Buddhist monk famed as a traveller and translator. His account of his travels is an important source for the history of the medieval kingdoms along the sea route between China and India, especially Srivijaya in Indonesia. He also gave accounts of the Gupta Period. A student of the Buddhist university at NÄlandÄ (now in Bihar, India), he was also responsible for the translation of many Buddhist texts from Sanskrit and Pali into Chinese.

Journey

To Srivijaya and NÄlandÄ

Yijing was born {{nowrap|Zhang Wenming}}. He became a monk at age 14 and was an admirer of Faxian, a famed monk who traveled to India in the 4th and 5th centuries CE. Provided funding by an otherwise unknown benefactor named Fong, he decided to visit the renowned Buddhist university of NÄlandÄ, in Bihar, India, to further study Buddhism. Traveling by a boat out of Guangzhou, he arrived in Srivijaya (today’s Palembang of Sumatra) after 22 days, where he spent the next six months learning Sanskrit grammar and the Malay language. He went on to record visits to the nations of Malayu and Kiteh (Kedah). In 673 after ten days of additional travel reached the “naked kingdom” (south west of Shu). Yijing recorded his impression of the “Kunlun peoples”, using an ancient Chinese word for Malay peoples. “Kunlun people have curly hair, dark bodies, bare feet and wear sarongs.” He then arrived at the East coast of India, where he met a senior monk and stayed a year to study Sanskrit. Both later followed a group of merchants and visited 30 other principalities. Halfway to NÄlandÄ, Yijing fell sick and was unable to walk. Gradually he was left behind by the group. He walked to NÄlandÄ where he stayed for 11 years.{{fact|date=March 2023}}I-tsing also seems to have stated that an Emperor by the name of “Che-li-ki-to” built a Buddhist monastery in Bengal 500 years ago, Che-li-ki-to is identified with Sri Gupta, however I-tsing’s account is largely wrong, as it goes against the dates proposed for Sri Gupta. However, he should not be taken literally as he was just “stating the tradition told to him by older men”,BOOK, R.S. Tripathi,archive.org/details/historyofancient0000rstr, History of Ancient India, 1999-01-01, Motilal Banarsidass,India, Internet Archive, 978-81-208-0018-2, thus making him unreliable.BOOK, R.S. Tripathi,archive.org/details/historyofancient0000rstr, History of Ancient India, 1999-01-01, Motilal Banarsidass,India, Internet Archive, 978-81-208-0018-2, BOOK, Filliozat, Jean,archive.org/details/politicalhistory0000unse_e4k8, Political history of India from the earliest times to the 7th centuary [sic] A.D, 1957, Calcutta, S. Gupta (India) Ltd, Internet Archive, Many modern scholars reject his account of the Buddhist monastery as well.BOOK, R.S. Tripathi,archive.org/details/historyofancient0000rstr, History of Ancient India, 1999-01-01, Motilal Banarsidass,India, Internet Archive, 978-81-208-0018-2, BOOK, Filliozat, Jean,archive.org/details/politicalhistory0000unse_e4k8, Political history of India from the earliest times to the 7th centuary [sic] A.D, 1957, Calcutta, S. Gupta (India) Ltd, Internet Archive,

Returning to Srivijaya

In 687, Yijing stopped in the kingdom of Srivijaya on his way back to Tang China. At that time, Palembang was a centre of Buddhism where foreign scholars gathered, and Yijing stayed there for two years to translate original Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. In the year 689 he returned to Guangzhou to obtain ink and papers{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}} (note: Srivijaya then had no paper and ink{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}) and returned again to Srivijaya the same year.{{fact|date=March 2023}}

Return to China

In 695, he completed all translation works and finally returned to China at Luoyang and received a grand welcome back by Empress Wu Zetian. His total journey took 25 years. He brought back some 400 Buddhist texts translated into Chinese.WEB,www.buddhist-canon.com/history/T540204c.htm, å—æµ·å¯„æ¸å…§æ³•å‚³ Account of Buddhism sent from the South Seas, 8 July 2006, 23 December 2008,www.buddhist-canon.com/history/T540204c.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20081223162818www.buddhist-canon.com/history/T540204c.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20081223162818www.buddhist-canon.com/history/T540204c.htm, dead, WEB,www.buddhist-canon.com/history/T510006c.htm, å¤§å”è¥¿åŸŸæ±‚æ³•é«˜åƒ§å‚³ Buddhist Monk’s Pilgrimage of the Tang Dynasty, 8 July 2006, 23 December 2008,www.buddhist-canon.com/history/T510006c.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20081223162559www.buddhist-canon.com/history/T510006c.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20081223162559www.buddhist-canon.com/history/T510006c.htm, dead, The Account of Buddhism sent from the South Seas and Buddhist Monk’s Pilgrimage of the Tang Dynasty are two of Yijing’s best travel diaries, describing his adventurous journey to Srivijaya and India, reporting on the society of India, the lifestyles of various local peoples, and more.

Distribution of Buddhist traditions

In the great majority of areas in India, Yijing writes that there were followers of both “vehicles” (Skt. Yana), with some Buddhists practicing according to the “Hinayana” and others practicing according to the Mahayana.Yijing. Takakusu, J. (tr.) A Record of the Buddhist Religion As Practiced in India and the Malay Archipelago. 1896. p. xxv However, he describes Northern India and most of the islands of the South Seas (i.e. Sumatra, Java, etc.) as principally “HÄ«nayÄna.” In contrast, the Buddhists in China and Malayu are described as principally following the MahÄyÄna.Yijing. Takakusu, J. (tr.) A Record of the Buddhist Religion As Practiced in India and the Malay Archipelago. 1896. p. xxvYijing wrote about relationship between the various “vehicles” and the early Buddhist schools in India. He wrote, “There exist in the West numerous subdivisions of the schools which have different origins, but there are only four principal schools of continuous tradition.” These schools are namely the MahÄsÄá¹ƒghika, Sthavira, Mulasarvastivada, and Saá¹ƒmitÄ«ya nikÄyas.Walser, Joseph (2005) Nagarjuna in Context: Mahayana Buddhism and Early Indian Culture: pp. 41 Explaining their doctrinal affiliations, he then writes, “Which of the four schools should be grouped with the MahÄyÄna or with the HÄ«nayÄna is not determined.” That is to say, there was no simple correspondence between a monastic sect and whether its members learned “HÄ«nayÄna” or “MahÄyÄna” teachings.Walser, Joseph (2005) Nagarjuna in Context: Mahayana Buddhism and Early Indian Culture: pp. 41-42

Buddhism in Srivijaya

File:Yi Jing Srivijaya 1.jpg|right|thumb|The depiction of I-Tsing (Yi Jing) 7th century pilgrim that visited Srivijaya. Displayed in Kedatuan Sriwijaya temporary exhibition, November 2017, in the National Museum of Indonesia National Museum of IndonesiaYijing praised the high level of Buddhist scholarship in Srivijaya (modern-day Sumatra) and advised Chinese monks to study there prior to making the journey to Nalanda in India.Yijing’s visits to Srivijaya gave him the opportunity to meet with others who had come from other neighboring islands. According to him, the Javanese kingdom of Ho-ling (Kalingga Kingdom) was due east of the city of Bhoga at a distance that could be spanned by a four or five days’ journey by sea. He also wrote that Buddhism was flourishing throughout the islands of Southeast Asia. “Many of the kings and chieftains in the islands of the Southern Sea admire and believe in Buddhism, and their hearts are set on accumulating good actions.”

Translations into Chinese

Yijing translated more than 60 texts into Chinese, including:

MÅ«lasarvÄstivÄda Vinaya ()
Golden Light Sutra () in 703
Diamond Sutra (, T. 239) in 703
SÅ«tra of the Original Vows of the Medicine Buddha of Lapis Lazuli Radiance and the Seven Past Buddhas (, T. 451), in 707
Avadanas () in 710

References

Citations

Sources

Dutt S, Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India, with the translation of passages (given by Latika Lahiri to S. Dutt, see note 2 p. 311) from Yijing’s book: Buddhist Pilgrim Monks of Tang Dynasty as an appendix. London, 1952
I-Tsing, A Record of the Buddhist Religion : As Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671-695), Translated by J. Takakusu, Clarendon press 1896. Reprint. New Delhi, AES, 2005, {{ISBN|81-206-1622-7}}. Internet Archive
I-Tsing, Chinese Monks in India, Biography of Eminent Monks Who Went to the Western World in Search of the Law During the Great tang Dynasty, Translated by Latika Lahiri, Delhi, etc.: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986
Sen, T. (2006). www.fom.sg/tours/ChinesePilgrims.pdf" title="web.archive.org/web/20140713172856www.fom.sg/tours/ChinesePilgrims.pdf">The Travel Records of Chinese Pilgrims Faxian, Xuanzang, and Yijing, Education About Asia 11 (3), 24-33
Weerawardane, Prasani (2009). microsite.nl.sg/PDFs/BiblioAsia/BIBA_0502Jul09.pdfpage=14" title="web.archive.org/web/20140713174328microsite.nl.sg/PDFs/BiblioAsia/BIBA_0502Jul09.pdfpage=14">Journey to the West: Dusty Roads, Stormy Seas and Transcendence, biblioasia 5 (2), 14-18
Yijing, Rongxi, Li, transl. (2000). A Record of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Seas(pdf available on the page), Berkeley CA: Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai. {{ISBN|1-886439-09-5}}.

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Yijing (monk)

Journey

To Srivijaya and NÄlandÄ

Returning to Srivijaya

Return to China

Distribution of Buddhist traditions

Buddhism in Srivijaya

Translations into Chinese

See also

References

Citations

Sources

External links

To Srivijaya and NÄlandÄ