Before starting the journey back to his hometown, Indian monarchs such as King Jieri and King Kumara gave Xuanzang generous treatment, hoping that he could stay in his country to preach and spread the Dharma. But Xuanzang politely declined in order to return to his hometown to preach.
For safety reasons, and to save the master from the fatigue of the journey, the monarchs of India offered to arrange for a ship to return home. But Xuanzang still remembered the promise made to his sworn brother, Gaochang King Lu Wentai, and he insisted on returning to Dongtu by land.
Firm in heart
Signs of the decline of Buddhism in India and elsewhere made Xuanzang determined to return to the East
There is another deep-seated reason why Xuanzang insisted on returning to the eastern soil, that is, he foresaw the decline of Nalanda Temple and the chaos in India. In the dream, Manjushri dreamed that India would be in turmoil in more than a decade. The wise king of the ring will eventually disappear, and Nalanda Temple will become a cowshed and overgrown with weeds.
Although it was a religious prophecy, it was impossible not to worry about the decay of Buddhism in India that he had seen along the way. In addition, in Gaochang and Dongtu, there are still a large number of good men and women waiting for him to enlighten and educate, so he made up his mind to return to the Tang Dynasty.
On the way back, Xuanzang rode on the elephant given by the King of the Ring Sun
In fact, it is precisely because of a strong sense of the end of the Dharma that the Dharma is feared that the Dharma will be completely lost. Therefore, the high monks of the Tang Dynasty and Silla diligently went to the Western Regions to seek the Dharma. Monks from the Western Regions were also spreading Buddhism eastward and further eastward to the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago. Through the efforts of the monks of the Hu and Han ethnic groups, the Tang Empire became the new center of Buddhism in Asia.
Seeing that Xuanzang had made up his mind, the king of the ring provided him with a large amount of gold and silver, and specially selected 1 elephant for Xuanzang to ride back to the court. Xuanzang then set off with Buddha bone relics, gold and silver Buddha statues and more than 600 Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures. After his departure, Nalanda Monastery would also lose its effective protection with the decline of the Ring Sun Dynasty, and was eventually destroyed by Turkic Muslim warlords who went south in the 12th century. In order to protect the temple, the monks there were reduced to ashes along with millions of scripture scrolls. Xuanzang's dream can be described as a prophecy.
Xuanzang's round-trip route map
Return to Central Asia
Resume in India allowed Xuanzang to enjoy celebrity treatment on the return trip
Compared with secretly leaving the country when he came, Xuanzang's return trip can be described as infinitely beautiful. Together with the other princes, he traveled north, accompanied by monks and merchants.
However, when Xuanzang was crossing the Indus River in the kingdom of Tancha Shila (present-day Taxila, Punjab, Pakistan), there was a sudden storm and waves, causing the boat to capsize. The keeper of the scriptures fell into the water in a panic, and Xuanzang also lost the fifty clips of the Brahmana and some real flowers in India. This is the prototype of the last difficulty in the later novel "Journey to the West". The king of Tansha Shiluo told Xuanzang that if the Gentiles wanted to bring the exotic flowers and plants of India to a foreign land, the river would stop them. This may be due to the high winds and waves of the Indus River, so it is said by the locals to be experienced. In this statement, there is also a Buddhist philosophical implication that everything should not be excessively forced.
The last difficulty in "Journey to the West" is based on Xuanzang's experience
Fortunately, Tansha Shira is also a Mahayana Buddhist country that believes in Mahayana Buddhism, has a harmonious climate, and is rich in flowers and plants. Xuanzang sorted out the scriptures here for the time being, and then crossed the Hindu Kush Mountains for the second time, and then went to the Tarim Basin through the Tocharian homeland again.
When crossing the Tocharian Stan, Xuanzang once again observed the local customs. For example, in the country of Samadhara in the Hindu Kush Mountains, judging from the name of the country and detailed records, they are the remnants of the White Xiongnu in ancient Central Asia and the Western Regions. And consistent with the records of "Wei Shu Xirong Biography" and "Luoyang Jialan Ji", the White Hun women like to wear wooden horn-shaped crowns. As the size of the family changes, the woman increases or decreases the number of horns. This kind of record with a great sense of picture can echo with other documents, and also reflects Xuanzang's carefulness and erudition. These accurate accounts are equally important for ethnological research.
The white Huns on the frescoes of ancient Central Asia have high horns and crowns
Xuanzang returned to China via the Pamir Plateau, and also observed that the local area had the role of a watershed. For example, the rivers west of the Pamirs flow to the west or southwest, while the rivers east of the plateau want to flow to the east. Similar to Fa Xian's account, the natural geography here is still typical of alpine meadow vegetation, with snow in spring and summer, and wind blowing around the clock.
After losing his mount elephant and enduring the attack of thieves, Xuanzang finally arrived at the stone town of the precipitous mountain castle of the Supantuo Kingdom (the ruins of the stone town on the north side of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County). There, he listened to the locals tell the story of the founding of the kingdom of Supantuo. It is said that the matrilineal ancestors of the royal family here are from the Han region, and the father is the sun god. When the princess of Han was married to Persia, she passed through this stone town, where she had a tryst with the sun god and became pregnant. In the end, the group could not communicate with the Persians and Han Chinese, so they established the state on the spot......
The ruins of today's Tashkurgan Stone Town
Although it is located in the inaccessible Pamirs, this myth has a very distinct Indo-Greek color. The unmarried princess and the god of heaven gave birth to a child, and the half-god hero who gave birth to a hero made great achievements in the world, which is a common motif in ancient Indo-European mythology. Many of the demigod heroes of Greek mythology were often born in this way.
Xuanzang himself also saw that the appearance of the locals was not completely Hu Xiangfan. Although he wore nomadic robes, the monarch wore a square crown in the style of the Central Plains. This myth embodies the mixed cultural and ethnic characteristics of the Western Regions since ancient times. The people of the mountains also kept the bodies of the former kings in the stone tombs in the mountains, and the corpses came to life under the protection of the low temperature and dry climate, as if they had just died. They regularly offered flowers, bathed and changed clothes for the former kings, and this record echoes the large number of ancient mummies unearthed in the Tarim Basin.
The image of the envoy of the Supantuo Kingdom during the Northern and Southern Dynasties
Walking down the Pamir Plateau along the mountain path, Xuanzang successively passed by the country of Yusha in the Kashgar region and the country of Chojujia in the Yecheng region. In the lofty mountains and mountains south of the country of Zhujujia, there are dense cave temples. There are some arhats in the grottoes who have entered and perished, and they have devoted themselves to penance. They don't care about prosperity or death, they don't know winter and summer, and they need nearby monks to clean their hair and nails. Xuanzang passed through this place, and there were three Arhats in the cave who meditated all day long.
Xuanzang continued on the road and came to the state of Khotan, which was located in the Hotan region. Hearing of his arrival, the king rode with the crown prince to meet him and welcomed the master into the kingdom. The king of Khotan also asked the crown prince to stay with Master Xuanzang, and then rode back to the capital and arranged a welcome ceremony. Under the rule of the royal family of Yuchi, Khotan was very prosperous at that time, and more than half of the territory was ravaged by wind and sand, but the other half of the country was rich and fragrant orchards and oasis fertile fields. The two tributaries of the Khotanese River face each other like a jade belt, consolidating the security of the city. The dense water conservancy system that extends makes the city life here rich and comfortable. However, unlike the red hair and green eyes of the Tocharian inhabitants, Xuanzang found that the appearance of the Khotanese people was more in line with the aesthetics of the Central Plains, with obvious characteristics of mixing East and West. This echoes Fa Xian's account, which is also a long-term mixture of Qiang-Tibetan and Indo-European ethnic groups. On the local ancient battlefield, you can also find the historical relics left by the sword and sword shadow when the Qiang and Tibetan ethnic groups clashed with the Indo-Europeans from the west.
Dunhuang murals on the scene of the capital of Khotan
As the host of this land, the king of Khotan, Yu Chi Qumi, was very personable. At the same time, he is brave and good at fighting, and he is like a hegemon who protects the territory and the people. Ordinary people have simple customs, etiquette, demeanor, and gentleness and studiousness, and have a large number of literature and classics. Because Buddhism here is mainly Mahayana Buddhism, it is very friendly to the monks seeking Dharma in the Central Plains.
Economically, Khotanese has developed handicrafts and can weave exquisite fabrics such as rice and felt. As today, the rivers of Khotan brought white and black jade. As a result of studying the languages of various Indian countries and paying attention to the scripts of various countries along the way, Xuanzang found that the Khotanese script was born from the Indian Brahmi alphabet, but the language was Scythian, which was different from the Tocharian language in Qiuci, Yanqi and other places. This is an accurate record of the characteristics of Khotanese culture.
Ancient Khotanese manuscripts
Based on the developed tradition of the textile industry, there has been a legend in Khotan: there was no sericulture in the country, and I heard that there was already sericulture silk weaving in the small country in the east. So he sent the "Eastern Kingdom" to seek sericulture seeds, but was rejected by the monarch of the Eastern Kingdom, and strictly ordered to guard the sericulture seeds. Khotan had nothing to do, so he was humble and courteous and courted the eastern kingdom. For the sake of good-neighborliness and friendship, the monarch of the Eastern Kingdom agreed to this family business. When the king of Khotan sent an envoy to greet his relatives, he instructed the greeter to tell the princess of the eastern kingdom that there was no sericulture silk production in Khotan, and asked the princess to bring her own sericulture seeds to complete the marriage, so that she could make her own silk clothes in the future. When the princess left the eastern kingdom, she hid the silkworm seeds in the hat on her head, and when she left the country, the border guards searched all the belongings she was carrying, but she did not dare to check the princess's hat, and finally let the mulberry trees and silkworm seeds be brought into Khotan.
This legend of the princess of the Eastern Kingdom implies that there is a well-developed textile industry and silk reeling industry here, which is famous throughout the Western Regions. His contemporaries, Wang Yande, and a little later travelers, both recorded that wild silkworms in eastern Xinjiang could also produce silk. It was the wild silkworms and local weavers that supported the textile industry born in the Western Regions. The story recorded by Xuanzang actually reflects the situation in which the local authorities in Eastern Xinjiang or the Hexi Corridor introduced sericulture technology to Khotan.
A woodblock painting depicting the legend of the princess of the Eastern Kingdom
Xuanzang recorded that there was also a rat king with a golden crown in Khotan, who was widely worshipped. According to local legend, before the war between Khotan and the Xiongnu, the rats promised to help the Khotanese defeat the Xiongnu. They tore apart the Xiongnu's military equipment overnight, making it impossible to use force, thus helping Khotan to achieve victory. In fact, this should correspond to the understanding that rats can spread plague on a large scale or harass the lives of herders, and are an insignificant but difficult enemy for the nomads who invade the oases. After the war, the Khotanese people not only built a shrine for the rats, but also dismounted and worshiped when they passed by the rats' dens. The Khotanese rats that Xuanzang saw were as big as hedgehogs, and there was a rat king with gold and silver miscellaneous hair in the group. From time to time, the Khotanese would sacrifice them with bows, arrows, flowers and other offerings. If the rat king did not accept the tribute, the Khotanese would find it strange.
In the "Northern History" and "The Book of Sui: The Biography of the Western Regions", there is a record of the king of Khotan wearing a "golden rat crown". Moreover, the classic image of the ancestor and protector of the Khotanese royal family, King Bishamen, is also holding a treasure rat in his left hand. Therefore, the god rat has a very deep relationship with the Khotanese culture. It wasn't until 1900 that Stein discovered a woodblock print of Dandan Urik near Khotan, which depicted the image of the rat king wearing a golden crown, which was an echo of the legend. This proves that ancient beliefs outside of Buddhism go hand in hand with a thriving Buddhist culture.
The long-term mixed race makes the appearance of the Khotanese more in line with the oriental aesthetics
At the same time, Xuanzang learned the news of the national breakdown from the exiles in Gaochang. Originally, Gaochang was located in the fortress between the Tang Dynasty and the Western Regions. Although there were quite a few Han Chinese, they were politically dependent on the Western Turks. On the one hand, it blocked the direct contact between the Tang Dynasty and the Western Regions, and also intercepted the tributes from the countries of the Western Regions to the Tang Dynasty, and even prevented the Tang Dynasty from establishing direct contact with the Yanqi Kingdom, which caused a catastrophe for Gaochang. Under the pressure of the Tang army, the king of Gaochang, who believed in Buddhism but was ambitious in the world, died of fear.
Thinking of the deep love of the year and the help of the officials and people of Gaochang to him, Xuanzang suddenly felt sad. But the impermanence of the world, the rise and fall of small countries and the destruction of homes are all too common events on the Silk Road. Those captured peoples would take their bloodlines far away and pass them on from generation to generation to descendants who knew nothing about their ancestors.
The mummy of a general of the Gao Chang Kingdom
Due to the king's gracious retention, and the fact that he did not obtain the official permission of the Tang Dynasty to seek the law in the west, Xuanzang wrote a piece of music to Tang Taizong in Khotan. It mainly states the original intention of going abroad, and tests whether the Tang Dynasty court forgives the sin of going out of the customs without permission. If he has a private interest in him, or if he has no interest in the Dharma, then he has to find a new place to stay. At the same time, he also lectured day and night on the Yogi Dharma, Abhidharma Miscellaneous, Kusha, and Mahayana to the monks in Khotan, and took the opportunity to send people to Qiuzi and Shule to copy the scriptures that were accidentally lost while crossing the river.
In addition, Xuanzang brought back exotic flower seeds, Buddha statues, scriptures and other items from India that have been damaged and lost, and most of the supplies have been lost. Therefore, it was decided to rest on the spot, repair or relocate these items in time. This series of actions once again implies that although Xuanzang is a monk who has seen through the red dust, he is also a bold and careful person who is good at grasping the benefits and losses.
Khotan became the most important stop on Xuanzang's eastward return road
Legacy for posterity
After some temptation, Xuanzang was finally able to set foot in the territory of the Tang Dynasty again
Seven or eight months later, the envoy of the Tang Dynasty came to Khotan and ordered Xuanzang to return to Tang soil. Now that the imperial court is no longer pursuing the illegal exit, it is time to return to the homeland after a long absence. He accepted the goods given by the king of Khotan, and finally set out on the road back to his homeland. From Khotan to the east, Xuanzang passed by the old lands of Jingjue, Jimo, Loulan and other city-states that flourished in the Han Dynasty. Due to the decrease in the volume of water in the Tarim River and the expansion of the Taklamakan Desert, the magnificent city in ancient times was empty due to lack of water and drought. When the Fa Xian of the Northern and Southern Dynasties passed through Shanshan, there were still remnants in the Shanshan area. But by Xuanzang, these city-states on the South Silk Road were already "full of cities and broken people", and pedestrians could only use the bones as signposts to move forward.
Passing by the hometown of Shanshan in the Han Dynasty, it is the homeland of the Tang Dynasty that Xuanzang has lost for a long time. Before arriving in Shazhou, he met the answering personnel sent by the Dunhuang court and bid farewell to the Khotanese escort horse team. Based on the worship of the mage, these pious envoys did not accept the rewards given by the Tang Dynasty, and disappeared into the wind and sand of history after saying goodbye.
The once prosperous Loulan was completely barren in the Xuanzang era
In 645 AD, Xuanzang returned to the Central Plains and was welcomed by Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and a legendary history came to an end. With the surrender of Gaochang by the Tang Dynasty, the Western Regions world, which once belonged to the Han Dynasty, was once again presented in front of the Central Plains.
In the era of Xuanzang's return to the east, the Tang Dynasty was ambitiously beginning to pass through the Western Regions. Therefore, the "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" and the "Biography of the Three Tibetan Masters of Great Mercy and Grace" both record in detail the geographical location, race, products, army and cultural outlook of the countries in the Western Regions, providing reference for the Tang Dynasty to operate the Western Regions.
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