Messengers of light: Chinese Buddhist pilgrims in India

·期刊原文
Messengers of light: Chinese Buddhist pilgrims in India
(includes related article)(The Pilgrim's Way)
Paul Magnin
UNESCO Courier
May 1995
pp.24-27
COPYRIGHT 1995 UNESCO (France)

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Chinese monks embarked on a long and arduous journey when they
sought instruction at the wellsprings of Buddhism When Chinese
Buddhist pilgrims set out for India on the "Western journey" - the
title many of them gave to the record they kept of their travels -
they could choose between three overland routes and a sea-route. Two
of the overland routes passed through central Asia and corresponded
to what since the nineteenth century has been widely known as the
Silk Road, a portmanteau term used to describe the east-west trade
routes that traversed the region. After crossing part of the arid
Gobi Desert, the pilgrims had to choose between a northern and a
southern route in order to avoid crossing the vast basin formed by
the swampy regions of Lobnor, the Tarim Basin and the Taklamakan
desert, which was notorious for its shifting sands. The northern
route skirted the Celestial Mountains (Tianshan) whose highest peaks
were some 7,000 metres above sea level. This route took the pilgrims
through staging-points and oases as far as Kashgar, which controlled
access to the routes leading westwards to Ferghana and thence to
Samarkand or the southwest. After leaving Kashgar, the pilgrims had
to cross the Pamir mountains, the steep passes of the Karakoram
range, Gilgit and the high valley of the Indus, before crossing the
Burzil pass (over 4,000 metres high) on the road to what is now
Srinagar, or skirting the Indus gorges and the Kagan valley to the
city now known as Islamabad. Next they travelled through Kashmir
into northern India and the central basin of the Ganges where most
of the great Buddhist sites associated with the life of the Buddha
and the first Buddhist communities are situated. For the sake of
simplicity, let us follow each of the major routes through central
Asia by retracing the steps of a famous Chinese pilgrim: Huanzang
for the northern route, Faxian for the southern route, and Yijing
for the sea route. Judging by their respective travel diaries, the
principal mission of the three monks was to collect all the written
and oral traditions, canonical or legendary, which could add to
their knowledge of the Buddha's teachings and Buddhist religious
practices, with a view to their use in China. This primary concern
did not prevent them from observing the geography, the customs and
behaviour of the many kingdoms through which they passed. Wishing to
serve Buddha with the greatest possible detachment, they also became
historians, geographers and sociologists. Faxian's fifteen-year
journey Faxian (334-420) made a journey that marked the high point
of the first wave of Chinese pilgrims in India. He left China in 399
and returned in 414. At this time Chinese Buddhists were searching
for their identity. No longer satisfied with the incomplete and
ambiguous texts which often came into their hands during the first
centuries of the spreading of the "new religion", they felt a
growing need to set out in search of texts that formed part of the
Buddhist canon recognized by monks living in the land of the
Buddha's birthplace. Familiar with all the mysteries of the Buddhist
doctrine, Faxian discovered that the texts belonging to the monks
and faithful scholars had been scattered and mutilated as a result
of quarrels between the small kingdoms of central Asia, the
inevitable route which ideas circulating between the West and China
had to take. Most of Faxian's journal, entitled Foguo ji ("An
account of Buddhist Kingdoms"), described Buddhist rituals and
ethics as he saw them. He also interpreted the basic notions of
Buddhist teaching. Most of all Faxian wished to obtain a complete
set of the Buddhist rules of discipline, or vinayas, which were
sorely missing in China when he began his journey. Thanks to the
efforts of Faxian and other foreign pilgrims and monks who arrived
in China around the same time as he returned there, at the beginning
of the fifth century Chinese monks had access to vinayas of all the
main schools of Indian Buddhism, to the founding sutras - the Lotus,
Vimalakirti and Nirvana sutras - and also to the Amitabha Sutra, the
fundamental scripture of the Pure Land Buddhist faith, and the
Perfection of Wisdom sutra, from which the whole of Chinese Buddhism
would draw inspiration. Huanzang, the prodigal monk Huanzang
(596-664), who went to India in 629 by the route running north of
the Taklamakan desert, is the best-known of all Chinese pilgrims.
His fame is not only due to his great record of his travels, which
has been translated into several Western languages, but also to Wu
Cheng'en's novel, published around 1570 in the Ming Dynasty under
the title Hiyou Ji ("Journey to the West"), which recounted the
imaginary adventures of Huanzang and his strange companion, the
monkey king Sun Wukong. A native of Henan province, Huanzang took
the vows at a monastery in Luoyang when he was thirteen years old.
Famed for his erudition, he was extremely aware of the ambiguities
and contradictions in the Buddhist texts used in the monasteries. To
solve the problems involved in understanding these texts, he decided
to go to India. In 629, without a travel permit from the Emperor, he
left Chang'an by stealth and set out on the longest route that a
pilgrim had hitherto taken. Between 635 and 641, Huanzang travelled
through India, visiting all the great Buddhist sanctuaries and
teaching the doctrine of Mahayana (or "Great Vehicle") Buddhism. In
643, he decided to return to China by way of the Pamir mountains and
the route running south of the Taklamakan desert. In 645 he arrived
at the gates of Chang'an, the T'ang capital, where he received a
tumultuous welcome from the population. With him was a twenty-horse
caravan laden with texts, relics and icons destined to enlighten the
minds of his contemporaries and to increase their faith. Not only
did Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty forgive Huanzang for having
left the country without a travel permit, he assigned him a team of
collaborators, including the prime minister and several high
officials, with instructions to translate the mass of Sanskrit
Buddhist texts the pilgrim had brought back. The emperor appointed
him Grand Master of the Temple of Benevolence (Ci'en si), which was
inaugurated in 648, and organized a magnificent ceremony at court to
celebrate the event. It was on Huanzang's advice that the famous
Pagoda of the Wild Goose was built in 652 to house all the Buddhist
texts. An influential figure in the history of Chinese Buddhism (he
was responsible for around a quarter of all the translations of
Sanskrit texts into Chinese), Huanzang was also the author of an
important book, "Memoirs on the western regions during the period of
the great Tang dynasty", which presented a wealth of detailed and
precise data about the regions he had visited - their physical and
human geography, their customs and economic life, and the situation
of the Buddhist communities there. Huanzang also bequeathed to the
Chinese the manuscript of a fine metaphysical and epistemological
treatise, Yogacaryabhumisastra ("The Lands of the Yoga Masters").
Yijing's passage to India The third great Chinese pilgrim to India
was Yijing (635-713), who travelled there by boat. His journal is
interesting for other reasons than those of his eminent predecessors
in that he described the practical rules and institutions of
Buddhist communities not only in India (although he went no further
westward than Benares), but above all in southeast Asia, part of
which was under the domination of the Sailendra dynasty based at
Srivijaya. It was this dynasty which produced the magnificent
sculptures of Borobudur in Java. Yijing recorded all his
observations in his Nanhai jigui neifa zhuan ("Account of Buddhism,
sent from the South Seas"). This book and his "Memoirs" (see box
below) should not make us forget that Yijing is also credited with
the translation of more than fifty texts and that he introduced to
the Chinese the longest and most detailed of the codes of
discipline, the vinaya of the Mulasarvastivadin. Yijing seems to
have wanted to clear away any ambiguities that may have surrounded
the pilgrims' intentions. "We are not looking for personal
gratification," he wrote, "nor are we asking Heaven for posthumous
glory. We have sworn to sacrifice this body exposed to dangers in
order to search for the victorious doctrine. We all hope to satisfy
our passion for spreading the Light." Indifferent to honours and
high living though they were, pilgrims still needed basic
provisions. They took with them objects and food products that could
be exchanged en route. Many received substantial allowances from
generous donors. Once equipped, they had to be prepared to face up
to many natural hazards, difficult situations arising from revolts
and wars between the different regions and kingdoms through which
they traveled, as well as sickness, which claimed the lives of many
of them and to which the youngest were not always the most immune.
All these difficulties and risks were well known. The pressures on
potential pilgrims were so great that some gave up at the last
minute before setting out, while others dropped out before reaching
their destination. Places of worship and study Chinese pilgrims
stayed in India for a long period because they had so much to do and
so many sites to visit as they followed in the Buddha's footsteps.
Four holy places held particularly strong claims to their
veneration. They visited the Buddha's birthplace, in the Lumbini
Park at Kapilavastu, where the celebration of his birth took place
on the eighth day of the fourth month. Kapilavastu was also
associated with the memory of the departure of the future Buddha
when he stealthily left his family in order to seek the Way, an
event celebrated on the eighth day of the second month. The third
celebration was held on the 15th of the first month to venerate
"Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Truth" in the Deer Park,
Mgrdava, northwest of Benares and now called Sarnath. It was there
that the Buddha, shortly after his Enlightenment at Uruvela under
the Bodhi tree, presented the essence of his experience of the Four
Noble Truths to the five companions who had followed him in his life
as a wandering ascetic. The fourth event, celebrated on the 15th of
the second month, marked the Buddha's entry into complete
extinction, parinirvana, in the woods of Sala. Many Chinese monks
also visited Nalanda, the chief centre for training in monastic life
and the study of Buddhist texts. Yijing gave the Chinese a detailed
description of it and suggested that they should build an imitation.
When they reached these sites associated with so many historical and
sacred events, the pilgrims performed all kinds of rituals to
express their veneration. Yijing's own conduct was an example of
what the pilgrims achieved as they followed in the Buddha's
footsteps. One highly important aspect of the pilgrimage of Chinese
monks to India that should not be forgotten is their quest for
instruction by the best teachers, who could help them to achieve
perfect understanding of the texts of the different schools of
Buddhism. In order to derive as much benefit as possible from this
teaching, many of the pilgrims studied Sanskrit so successfully that
they won the acclaim of the Indian monks. After they had been in
India for a time, many Chinese pilgrims were invited to preach and
expound the great Buddhist texts in the local language. Kings,
princes and the superiors of large monasteries organized important
ceremonies at which the pilgrims preached. RELATED ARTICLE: PILGRIMS
IN PERIL In the time that elapsed between Faxian and Huanzang, there
were pilgrims who passed through the purple barrier (the Great Wall)
and walked on alone; others cross the great sea and travelled
companionless. Not one of them failed to devote all his thoughts to
the sacred vestiges of the Buddha or to prostrate himself to pay the
ritual honours. All were intent on returning to express their
gratitude to their father, their mother, the Tathagata (the Buddha)
and their master in the law by spreading hope. However the triumphal
Way was hedged with difficulties; the holy places were faraway and
vast. For the dozens who grew and flourished, and for several who
dared, there was hardly one who bore fruits and gave real results.
And there were few who completed their task! The real cause was the
immensities of the rocky deserts [leading to] the Land of the
Elephant (Buddha and India), the great rivers and the brilliance of
the sun which spits out its ardour; or the mass of water of the
waves raised by the makara, a gigantic fish; the enormous gulfs and
the waves which rise and swell up to the sky. Walking along beyond
the Iron Gates [a narrow path bordered by steep cliffs between
Samarkand and Balkh], they travelled among ten thousand mountains
and fell over precipices; navigating alone beyond the Copper Columns
[erected by the Chinese General Ma Yuan in the year 42 at the border
of China and the former Tonkin], they crossed the thousand rivers
[an illusion to what are now Thailand and Cambodia] and some lost
their lives. Others had no food for several days or ceased to drink
for several mornings. This is what it means to deny the principle of
one's existence, to discard good health because of pain and
weariness. This is why those who left were more than fifty in
number; only a handful of men survived. YIJING Da Tang xiyu qiufa
gaoseng zhuan (689-692, "Memoirs written at the time of the Great
Tang Dynasty on eminent religious men who went in search of the Law
in the countries of the West"). PAUL MAGNIN, of France, is a
research director at his country's National Centre for Scientific
Research (CNRS) in Paris. He is a specialist in Chinese Buddhism and
the history of Chinese thought and has published many studies and
articles in these fields.