When it comes to the opening of the land Silk Road, we all think of Zhang Qian, the "Bowanghou" of the Western Han Dynasty; when it comes to the Maritime Silk Road, it must be Zheng He, the great navigator of the Ming Dynasty. Zhang Qianliang enabled the western region to explore "one road," an "ancient Silk Road" connecting Eurasia and leading the prosperity of Asia and Europe; Zheng He's seven voyages to the West to expand "one belt" and a "Silk Road floating on the sea," and they have made indelible contributions to the realization of the grand concept and blueprint of the "Belt and Road" today.
Zhang Qian and Zheng He were both great explorers and cultural envoys in the history of China and the world, but we forget one of the great monks of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Faxian. Fa Xian (334 –420), a native of Shanxi, was a high monk of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, a famous monk in the history of Chinese Buddhism, and an outstanding figure in Buddhist innovation. He was the first master in Chinese history to travel from Land to Tianzhu and then from Sea to China to seek the Dharma, and he was also an outstanding traveler and translator. In 399, the 65-year-old Fa Xian set out from Chang'an (the ruins of present-day Han Chang'an City) and traveled to Tianzhu through the Western Regions to seek the true precepts of the Dharma, traveling to more than 30 countries such as India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, which lasted for 13 years, introduced a large number of Sanskrit classics and Buddhist culture to China, and wrote the "Record of the Buddha Kingdom", which had a great impact on Chinese history and culture.
Fa Xian's original surname was Gong, his three older brothers died in childhood, after he was born, his parents were also worried that he would die prematurely, and at the age of three, he shaved baofeng Temple, became a small shami (little monk), and concentrated on studying Buddhist scriptures. At this time, the land of China has been divided into two regions, north and south. The Western Jin Dynasty died in the fourth year of Jianxing (316), and the following year Emperor Yuan of Jin ascended the throne for the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The grassland ethnic minorities entered the Central Plains, and the northern regimes changed in turn, and all of them revered buddhism through Later Zhao, Former Qin, Later Qin, and Northern Liang. In the south, the northern dignitaries, literati, and rich merchants and tycoons who "crossed the south in their clothes" spread the advanced science and technology, culture, and Buddhism from the Central Plains to the south in order to escape the chaos of war and migration to the south. "Four hundred and eighty temples of the Southern Dynasty", for a while, the number of monks increased dramatically, the temples were lined up, the temples in the north and south of the earth were lined up, Buddhism prevailed, and Buddhism was greatly developed. However, there are very few orthodox Dharmas and precepts, and the monks and monks are confused and uneven, especially due to the lack of precepts and scriptures, which makes it impossible for the vast number of Buddhists to follow and act arbitrarily, especially the upper-class monks are attached to the royal family, have a large number of good land and beautiful houses, and are extremely poor and luxurious, and do no evil.
When Dharmakaya was 20 years old, he received bhikkhu ordination (a ritual performed by monks as adults). Since then, he has been strong in his faith in Buddhism, unswerving, and at a young age, he has become a deeply thoughtful and extremely devout Buddhist. And strict requirements for themselves, sometimes have the reputation of "clear and sensitive, ritual rectification". While studying the Dharma, he often lamented the mutilation of the Vinaya and vowed to seek it. In the third year (399) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the 65-year-old Fa Xian had spent 62 spring and autumn seasons in the Buddhist world. After many years of experience in studying the Fa, he deeply found that many of the Buddhist scriptures translated from several times were missing and fallacious, and the current Dharma had deviated from the times and could not catch up with the needs of the great development of Buddhism. In order to solve this chaotic situation, he decided to travel west to Tianzhu (ancient India) to seek the true dharma and precepts (sutras, laws, and commentaries) in order to maintain the "truth" of Buddhism and correct the shortcomings of the times. In the spring of that year, Fa Xian, together with Hui Jing, Dao Zhen, Hui Ying, and Hui Wei, got up from Chang'an and marched all the way west, embarking on a long and arduous expedition. The following year, they arrived in Zhangye (present-day Ganzhou District, Zhangye City, Gansu), met Five people, Zhiyan, Huijian, Shengshao, Baoyun, and Monk Jing, and formed a "touring group" of ten people.
Fa Xian and the other five people came first, followed by Zhi Yan, Baoyun and others. The climate of the Bailongdui Desert is dry, and there are sometimes hot winds and sand, and the travelers are mostly engulfed by quicksand, and the heat is knocked down. The Book of the Kingdom of Buddhas says: "There are no birds on the top, no beasts on the bottom, looking at the extremes, and where they desire to attain a degree, they do not know what to do, and only the dead bones of the dead are used as the standard ears." They ventured forward, lasted 17 days and nights, walked 1500 miles, and finally crossed the dangerous "Sand River". After arriving at the Kingdom of Shan (i.e. the Ancient Kingdom of Loulan). Then travel west to the kingdom of Tsurugi (茑夷国, in present-day Yanqi, Xinjiang). After more than two months in the Country of Tui, Baoyun and others arrived. Zhi Yan, Hui Jian, and Hui Wei returned to Gaochang (Turpan, Xinjiang) to raise funds. Monk Shao followed the monks of the Western Regions to Kubin (in present-day Kashmir). The remaining seven of the Fa Xian, with the patronage of the Former Qin imperial family Gongsun Gong, crossed the Taklamma Desert and headed southwest. "There are no residents in the road, the sand is difficult, and the suffering experienced is better than the people." The seven men walked for 35 days, crossing the Taklamakan Desert, breaking the frightening legend that "you can't go in and out", arriving at Khotan ( present-day Hetian , Xinjiang ) , the center of Buddhism in the western region , watching the Buddhist "walking" ceremony, and three months later continuing to advance, crossing the Onion Ridge and crossing the Xintou River to the Dana Kingdom.
Faxian and Huiying, Baoyun, Sangjing, and others traveled through the kingdoms of Suhe and Gandhara to the kingdom of Phra Sa (present-day Peshawar, Pakistan). Hui Jing was ill after arriving in that exhausted country, and Dao accompanied him to recuperate. Huida went alone to the Kingdom of Fulousha to meet with The Fa Xian. The Buddha's Kingdom was the center of Buddhism in Northern Tianzhu, and Huida, Baoyun, and Monk Jing returned to China after visiting the Buddha's shrine, and Hui Ying died of illness at the Buddha's Bowl Temple. Fa Xian went alone to Naruko to meet Huijing and Daozhen, at this time, only three of the 11 people who had traveled at the beginning were left, assisting each other to join each other in the southern part of the Xiaoxue Mountains (i.e., the Sunaman Mountains in Afghanistan, the "Great Snow Mountains" or the Himalayas). The small snowy mountain was covered with snow all year round, the three climbed to the top of the mountain, suddenly the cold wind suddenly rose, Hui Jing was attacked by the cold current, frozen to death, Faxian and Dao rectification grief into strength, rushed forward, the two over the small snowy mountain, reached Luo Yiguo. Then he passed through the kingdom of Bhagavatam, then crossed the Xintou River and reached the kingdom of Vishnu. Then walk through the country of Motouluo, cross the Puna River, and enter the territory of Zhongtianzhu. The Fa Xian and the Dao spent more than four years traveling to Zhongtianzhu and touring the relics of Buddhism. In the third year of Jin Yuanxing (404), Faxian and Daozhen came to the birthplace of Buddhism, the "Gyi Huan Jingshe of the Acropolis of the State House of Tsusara". Legend has it that Buddha Shakyamuni lived here for a long time, and Dharmakaya also visited the birthplace of Shakyamuni, the "Acropolis of Kavila". The monks here deeply admired the spirit of seeking the Dharma of the high-ranking monks in Middle-earth. In the first year of Jin Yixi (405), dharma manifested to the DharmaKnu Kingdom of Balen Fuyi, where Buddhism was extremely prosperous, studied Sanskrit, copied the sutras, and collected six Buddhist classics, including the Mahabharata Sutra, the Sabha Dharma, the Za Abhidharma, the Fang-like Mud Sutra, the Sutra, and the Maha Sangha Abhidharma, and lived for a total of three years. Dao Zhen admired the Shamen Law of Balen Fuyi and the majesty of the monks, and stayed here and did not return to China. Fa Xian's ambitions were high, and he was bent on bringing the True Sutra of the Precepts back to the motherland, and he continued to travel alone.
He spent two years traveling around Southern and Eastern Tianzhu and writing sutra paintings (Buddha) in the Tamali Empire (Timruk, India) in the Ganges Delta. In The Eyes of Fa Xian, everything is so novel, and Prince Mokosa's "sacrificing his life to feed the tiger" and the corpse king "cutting meat and trading pigeons" made Fa Xian deeply moved. Dharmakaya traveled throughout the north, west, middle, East Indies and the Ganges River valley, stayed for five years, studied Sanskrit, studied Buddhist scriptures, and searched for Buddhist relics in the Holy Land, which was highly praised by local people and monks. The Book of the Kingdom of Buddhas says: "The monks sighed: Strangely, the people of the frontier land are able to seek the Dharma to this point." Self-predicate: I and other teachers, and the upper lineage, have not seen the Han Daoists come here also. At the end of the fifth year (409) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Faxian left Tama Pear and took a shangship across the Bay of Bengal to the Lion Country (present-day Sri Lanka). In the Fearless Mountain Jingshe of the Royal City, he obtained four classics: "Misha Selu", "Chang Ah Han", "Za Ah Han", and "Zao Zang". At this point, it had been 12 years since Fa Xian had entered a different city. He was always thinking about his distant homeland, and he always wanted to bring the precepts of the True Scriptures back to the eastern lands. The "tour group" of 11 people, either staying, returning, or dying, today they are left alone, hanging on each other, and infinite sorrow rises in their hearts.
From this point of view, From Chang'an (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi), Faxian and his party crossed the Yellow River, crossed the Wusheling Mountains, passed through the Hexi Corridor and the desert west of Dunhuang to the State of Tui (near present-day Yanqi, Xinjiang), crossed the present-day Taklamakan Desert to Khotan (present-day Hotan, Xinjiang), crossed the Green Ridge in the south, took the Indus River Valley, entered Afghanistan through Pakistan, returned to Pakistan, and then entered the Ganges River Valley in the east, reached the border of Tianzhu (present-day India), crossed southern Nepal, reached the eastern Tianzhu, and reached Bada, the capital of the State of Mokti (i.e., Magadha). Fuyi (present-day Patna) stayed for 3 years to study the Brahmanical Buddhist laws. The monks who traveled with him either died or stayed in Tianzhu. He returned by sea and traveled from the famous seaport of Tamaliti (present-day Demluk, southwest of Calcutta) to lion country (present-day Sri Lanka) by merchant ship, where he stayed for 2 years and continued to obtain the sutra. At this time, Fa Xian was already more than 70 years old, and at such an advanced age, he had climbed over the mountains and snowy mountains and crossed the vast desert like when he came, and he must have been more fierce and less lucky. Your own life is not important, what is important is that the true precepts of the Scriptures that you seek are difficult to bring back to the motherland, so where should you go? Where is the road back? He could only seek other ways to return to China, and he was determined to take the sea route by merchant ship and bring back to the motherland these Buddhist scriptures that he had painstakingly sought.
In August of the seventh year (411) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Faxian carried the scripture scrolls and returned to the east by shang. Soon after the trip, when a storm was encountered, the fellow merchants thought that this buddhist monk had angered the sea god, and the Dharma Xian was almost thrown into the sea by others as a pagan, but fortunately, a Middle-earth merchant spoke out in righteousness to save his life. After 105 days of arduous voyages, he arrived in Yebati (present-day Sumatra or Java) at the end of December 412, where Fa xian lived for five months, and scholars have studied the place from Los Angeles in Central America to Yecapulco in Mexico. That is to say, Faxian first arrived in the Americas as early as 412, becoming the first Chinese pioneer to reach the Americas. It was 1080 years before the 15th-century Italian navigator Columbus arrived in the Americas.
After continuing the northern voyage, in the eighth year of Yixi (412), he reached Changqing Prefecture (長廣郡, in present-day Laoshan, Qingdao, Shandong Peninsula), and when Taishou Li Ling heard that Fa Xian had returned from overseas, he personally rushed to the sea to greet him. With the support of Li Ling Taishou, the local people raised funds for Fa Xian to build a stone Buddhist temple, which is now the famous "Chaohai Temple" in Laoshan. The current Chaohai Faculty was rebuilt in the ancient style, and the corridor of its main hall still hangs a portrait of Fa Xian and a map of Fa Xian's westward journey. There are four ancient ginkgo trees in the courtyard, which are said to have been planted by Fa Xian in the past. After the Fa Xian, he traveled by land from the Shandong Peninsula, passing through Pengcheng (present-day Xuzhou) in Jiangsu Province, and also participated in the design and construction of Longhua Temple. Later generations recorded that Faxian "held the Tianzhu Ershi stone, which is still in the Southern Continent and The Eastern Foundation, and its stone is still smooth and lovely." Xuzhou Longhua Temple in the "Great Dictionary of Buddhist Studies" said that "it is actually the first Buddhist temple in China." After passing through Jingkou (Zhenjiang, Jiangsu), Yu Yixi reached Jiankang (present-day Nanjing) in the ninth year of Yixi (413). At that time, Master Huiyuan, the most famous Buddhist activist of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the founder of the Pure Land Sect, held a grand welcoming ceremony for Master Fa Xian. During these seven years, Faxian lived intensively and painstakingly translated Buddhist scriptures, including the Mahāyāna Vinaya, the Shōshū Bhikshu Horde, the Shōshū Bhikshuni Shōnen, the Shōshū Bhikshuni Shōnen shān His translation of the Mahāyāna Vinaya, also known as the Mass Law, is one of the five major Buddhist precepts and has had an extremely profound impact on later generations of Chinese Buddhism. While grasping the translation of the scriptures, Faxian also wrote his own experiences and stories that took 13 years to travel west to learn the scriptures into an immortal world famous work, "The Record of the Buddha's Kingdom".
When he finished the Book of the Kingdom of Buddha, he knew that his life had come to an end and prayed to the Buddha for the last time. For a monk, the purpose of life is to attain Buddhahood. Since stepping into the Buddha's door, Dharmakaya has always followed in the footsteps of the Buddha, without a moment's slackness. In the second year of Yuan Xi (420), a generation of masters Fa Xian died quietly in the Xin Temple in Jiangling, Jingzhou, at the age of 86. The Chronicle of the Kingdom of Buddha, also known as the Tale of the Fa Xianxing, the Fa Xian, the Chronicle of the Journey of Tianzhu, and the Chronicle of the Journey of the Buddha. It occupies an important place in the world's academic history. The Book of the Buddha's Kingdom is not only a masterpiece of biographical literature, but also an important historical document and an extremely important historical material for the study of the history of the Western Regions and India at that time. When Fa Xian traveled west to India, it was the golden age of Indian history, the "Qianduo Dynasty" (320 ~480), during the reign of the Chao ri king, but there is no systematic documentary record in the ancient history of the "Gandhara Dynasty", and the history of the Chao Ri king can only be supplemented by the "Buddha's Kingdom".
The ancient kingdoms of Shanshan, Khotan, and Guizi in The Western Regions of China have been annihilated for a long time, and no biographies have survived, and it is precisely the real situation in these areas recorded in the "Book of the Buddha Kingdom" that can make up for the deficiencies in the history books. The Book of the Kingdom of Buddha also provides a detailed account of the Buddhist monuments and monastic lives in India, which was later cited by Buddhists as a buddhist text. "Ciyuan" Yun: "The Book of the Buddha's Kingdom is the earliest and detailed record of maritime traffic in China. "It is a huge production in the history of China's transportation in the South China Sea." China's maritime trade with India, Persia, and other countries began as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, but there is no specific account of sea breezes and ships in the history books. The detailed description and systematic record of trade winds and ships in the Book of Buddha's Kingdom has become the earliest precious book in China to record sea voyages. "The Book of the Buddha" is a masterpiece of geography, history, society, and religion, and has extremely high scientific value. When Buddhism was first introduced from India to China, it was a critical moment and a turning point in the era of Dharma, when it was sent in by others, but now it is to seek it yourself, and a fundamental change has taken place.
Fa Xian traveled west to seek the Fa at the age of 65, which lasted for 13 years, traveled to more than 30 countries, experienced hardships and dangers, and was unswerving, completing the feat of long-distance land and sea travel through the Asian continent and returning to China through the Nanyang Sea Route, returning to the motherland at the age of 79. In the past 13 years, Faxian has trekked through mountains and rivers, passed through deserts, crossed the Gobi, turned over snowy mountains, waded through meadows, sailed the sea, experienced thousands of difficulties and obstacles, and suffered hardships and fatigues. As he later said: "Looking at what he has experienced, he does not feel the sweat of his heart!" Fang obtained many Sanskrit texts such as the Fang-like Mud Sutra, the Mahabharata Sutra, the Sabadharma, the Za-Abhidharma, the Mahabhita, the Misha-Sassehrit, the Chang Ahan, and the Miscellaneous Collection. And all of them translated into Chinese, which has made outstanding contributions to the history of Chinese Buddhism and can be said to be unprecedented. Liang Qichao said: "The Fa Xian crossed the snowy mountains and entered the Tianzhu Temple, and the Buddhist scriptures were various, and the "Records of the Buddha's Kingdom" was written, and the Chinese people to India were the first. Sri Lanka historian Nicholas Sharer said: "People know that the first name of Chinese who visited Indonesia was Faxian. Ji Xian Lin Yun: "The reason why Fa Xian is above everyone else is because he is the first person who truly arrived at Tianzhu with solid and reliable evidence." ”
Faxian is the leader of the "Belt and Road". Because from ancient times to the present, only one person who sacrificed himself to seek the Fa has returned from the sea by land, and since then, there has been no second person. Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty had the merit of "chiseling" the western region, but there was no record of navigation. Tang Xuanzang traveled west to seek the Fa, and there was no record of navigation, and the time was 230 years later than fa xian. Xuanzang once said: "In the past, the Wisdom and Strictness of the Fa, and the people of the moment, all of them can seek the Fa and lead the people to live, and I should follow them." This shows the revered position of the Fa xian in Xuanzang's heart. Although the Ming Dynasty navigator Zheng He made seven voyages to the West, he did not take the land Silk Road. In contrast, Faxian not only has records of traveling through the Taklamakan Desert, crossing the Green Mountains, and traveling through Central Asia, West Asia, and Tianzhu countries, but also an explorer who opened up the "Maritime Silk Road" channel. "The Book of the Buddha's Kingdom" is the earliest ocean route guide book in Chinese history, and Faxian pointed out the course for Zheng He to go to the Western Ocean, and Faxian was the pioneer of the silk road on the sea. For 1600 years, the Fa Xian has not been forgotten. His book "The Tale of the Buddha's Kingdom" has been passed down from generation to generation and has been translated into English, French, Japanese, Indian and other national versions, leaving a valuable cultural heritage for Sino-foreign cultural exchanges. Today, we must carry forward the spirit of unswervingly, sacrificing ourselves to seek the law, being indomitable, being humble and eager to learn, and cherishing nostalgia for our homeland, which is of great practical significance for carrying forward China's excellent traditional culture, developing and prospering cultural exchanges in countries along the "Belt and Road," and building a community with a shared future for mankind.
(Wang Yanfeng, Yang Xiuchuan)