Itsing
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Itsing (635–713 CE) (इत्सिंग), formerly romanized as I-ching or I-tsing,[1] was a Tang-era Chinese Buddhist monk famed as a traveller and translator.
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His contribution
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. A student of the Buddhist university at Nālandā (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 Nālandā
Yijing was born Zhang Wenming. He became a monk at age 14 and was an admirer of Faxian and Xuanzang, both famed monks of his childhood. Provided funding by an otherwise unknown benefactor named Fong, he decided to visit the renowned Buddhist university of Nālandā, in Bihar, India, to further study Buddhism. Traveling by a Persian 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), and 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 Nālandā, Yijing fell sick and was unable to walk; gradually he was left behind by the group. He walked to Nālandā where he stayed for 11 years.
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 (note: Srivijaya then had no paper and ink) and returned again to Srivijaya the same year.
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. 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.
Yijing in Nalanda
Inspired by the journeys of Faxian and Xuanzang, the pilgrim, Yijing (also known as I-tsing), after studying Sanskrit in Srivijaya, arrived in India in 673 CE. He stayed there for fourteen years, ten of which he spent at the Nalanda Mahavihara.[2] When he returned to China in 695, he had with him 400 Sanskrit texts which were subsequently translated.[3]
Unlike his predecessor, Xuanzang, who also describes the geography and culture of 7th-century India, Yijing's account primarily concentrates on the practice of Buddhism in the land of its origin and detailed descriptions of the customs, rules, and regulations of the monks at the monastery. In his chronicle, Yijing notes that revenues from 200 villages (as opposed to 100 in Xuanzang's time) had been assigned toward the maintenance of Nalanda.[4] He described there being eight halls with as many as 300 apartments.[5] According to him, daily life at Nalanda included a series of rites that were followed by all. Each morning, a bell was rung signalling the bathing hour which led to hundreds or thousands of monks proceeding from their viharas towards a number of great pools of water in and around the campus where all of them took their bath. This was followed by another gong which signalled the ritual ablution of the image of the Buddha. The chaityavandana was conducted in the evenings which included a "three-part service", the chanting of a prescribed set of hymns, shlokas, and selections from scriptures. While it was usually performed at a central location, Yijing states that the sheer number of residents at Nalanda made large daily assemblies difficult. This resulted in an adapted ritual which involved a priest, accompanied by lay servants and children carrying incense and flowers, travelling from one hall to the next chanting the service. The ritual was completed by twilight.[6]
About India
Harihar Panda[7] writes ... The earliest Chinese writers (e.g. Chang-k'ien and his successors) employ the term Shentu and Hsien-tsu (Sindhu) which is soon replaced by T'ien Chu succeeded by Intu. During the period of Xuanzang and I-tsing such names as Si-fang (the west), Wu-tien (the five countries of India), A-ti-ya-t'i-sha (Aryadesha), Po-lo-menkuo or Fan-Kuo (Brahmarashtra) and Indra Vardhana were also other connotations of India.
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References
- ↑ Schoff, Wilfred Harvey, ed. (1912), Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Philadelphia: Commercial Museum, p. 213.
- ↑ Scharfe, Hartmut (2002). Education in Ancient India. Handbook of Oriental Studies. 16. Brill. ISBN 9789004125568.p. 144.
- ↑ Buswell Jr., Robert E.; Lopez Jr., Donald S. (2013). The Princeton dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400848058. Entry for Nālandā.
- ↑ Scharfe 2002, p. 151.
- ↑ Monroe, Paul (2000). Paul Monroe's encyclopaedia of history of education, Volume 1. Genesis Publishing. ISBN 978-8177550917.p. 167.
- ↑ Dutt, Sukumar (1962). Buddhist Monks And Monasteries of India: Their History And Contribution To Indian Culture. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd (Reprinted 1988). ISBN 978-81-208-0498-2.pp. 128–130.
- ↑ Prof. H.C. Raychaudhuri, as a Historian by Harihar Panda, 2007,p. 138