Faxian

Chinese Buddhist pilgrim and translator

• Born: c. 337
• Birthplace: Wuyang, Shanxi Province, China
• Died: 422
• Place of death: China

Faxian journeyed from China to India to obtain a more complete version of the Buddhist monastic rules and participated in the translation of the Sanskrit texts into Chinese.

Early Life

Not much is known about the early life of Faxian (fah-shyahn). He was born c. 337 in Wuyang in Shanxi Province. His original name was Gong. He was admitted to the Buddhist orders at the age of three and received the name Faxian (“Manifestation of the Law”).

Life’s Work

In 399 c.e. the Buddhist Faxian decided to journey to India. His reason for making the journey was his concern that “not all the canon of the Monastic Rules was obtainable in China.” He was not to return to China until 414. On his return he composed Fo Guo Ji, also known as Faxian Zhuan (fourth century c.e.; Fo Koue Ki, 1836; also known as The Travels of Fa-hsien), a journal of his travels. He also took on the task of translating the monastic rules and other works that he had brought back with him.

Faxian set out from Changan (now Xi’an) in 399 with fellow pilgrims, most notably Dao Zheng (Tao-ching). Along the way he was also joined by others, including Zheyan (Che-yen) and Baoyun (Pao-yun). These travelers separated and rejoined at various points in the journey. Some returned early. Others died. Dao Zheng traveled all the way to India and decided to remain there.

The group journeyed to Dunhuang (Tunhuang) and then passed on to Khotan, staying there for three months to see the Image Procession. From Khotan, Faxian arrived in Khalcha (modern-day Kashgar) just in time for the Great Five Year Procession (Pañcavarsa) in which the king bestowed offerings on the monks. Next Faxian crossed the Pamirs, stopping in Darada, Udyana, Suvastu, Gandhara, Taxila, Purusapura, Hilo, and Nagarahara. Many of these sites were the setting for the Jātakas (fifth-fourth centuries b.c.e.; translated into English as Buddhist Birth-Stories, 1925), stories about the former lives of the Buddha. For example Suvastu was where the jātaka of the hawk and dove is said to have taken place. Near Taxila was the setting of the Tiger jātaka. Near Darada, Faxian saw an 80-foot (24-meter) statue of Maitreya, the future Buddha. Buddhist relics were also found in these towns, including the Buddha’s alms bowl in Purusapura and his skull in Hilo. The region around Nagarahara is well known for a cave where the shadow of the Buddha or the projection of his image had been preserved. Crossing the Safed Koh (Lesser Snow Mountains) he entered into north-central India.

Faxian called this region the Middle Kingdom, with Pataliputra (modern-day Patna) as its capital. He paints an idyllic picture of the region. Here he visited the major sites connected with the life of Śākyamuni Buddha. He first came to Śrāvasti, south of which city was the Jetavana Vihāra. The Buddha is said to have spent a longer time here than anywhere else. Faxian then passed on to Kapilavastu, where he saw the ruins of the palace of King Śuddhodana Gautama, the king into whose family the Buddha was born. Not far was Lumbinī, the birthplace of the Buddha. Also he traveled to Kuśinagara, where the Buddha entered parinirvāna. Most important, Faxian visited Gayā, which he described as desolate. Here he saw the Bodhi tree and the various stupas commemorating events leading up to and following the Buddha’s enlightenment. He also noted three monasteries in the area. After Gayā he went to Vārāṇasī (Benares) and visited nearby Deer Park, where the Buddha delivered his first sermon. In addition to these sites related to the Buddha, Faxian stayed in Pataliputra, the capital of King Aśoka.

Faxian was disappointed that there were no written copies of the monastic rules in northern India, since these rules were handed down orally. He had to travel to central India to locate written texts. There he found copies in Sanskrit of the rules of the Mahāsāṇghika and the Sarvāstivāda, the Saṃyuktabhidharma Śāstra, the Nirvāna and Vaipulyaparinirvāṇa sutras and the commentaries of the Mahāsāṇghika. Faxian then went to Tāmralipti on the east coast of India, where he spent two years copying more manuscripts and making drawings of images of the Buddha.

Sailing from Tāmralipti (modern-day Tamluk) he arrived in Sri Lanka. He spent two years on the island, where he saw the tree that was said to have been grafted from the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gayā. He also visited the Abhayagiri and Mahāvihāra monasteries. He observed the procession displaying one of the Buddha’s teeth and the funeral of an arhat (a Buddhist who has obtained enlightenment). Here Faxian obtained copies in Sanskrit of the rules of the Mahiśāsikas, the Dīrghāgama, the Saṃyuktāgama and the Sannipata.

Faxian then decided to sail back home. On the voyage a typhoon arose and damaged the ship; he feared that his books would be thrown overboard. He prayed to Guan Yin (Kuan Yin), and thirteen days later the ship reached an island where it could be repaired. After ninety days they arrived in Yavadvipa (modern-day Sumatra), where Faxian boarded another ship bound for China. Due to rains, the ship drastically went off course. A trip that should have taken fifty days stretched out to seventy days. Supplies ran low. Finally they adjusted their course to the northwest and landed in northern China at Laoshan on the Shandong Peninsula in 413 c.e.

Faxian had intended to return to Chang-an to translate the writings that he had brought back with him, but he ended up in Jiankang (modern-day Nanjing). Here in 414 c.e. he wrote up his journal, The Travels of Fa-hsien. A postscript records how Faxian produced an expanded edition of the work at the insistence of monks in Jiankang who heard a reading of the journal.

Also in Jiankang, Faxian and the monk Buddhabhadra (359-429 c.e.) set about the task of translating the writings brought back from India. Buddhabhadra, who was said to be a descendant of the Buddha, had been invited to China by Zheyan, one of Faxian’s fellow pilgrims who had stayed on in Kashmir to study. In 411 c.e., Buddhabhadra arrived in China and at the invitation of Emperor Liu Yu settled in Jiankang at the Daochang si (Tao-ch’ang ssu) temple. Baoyun, who accompanied Faxian up to Puruṣapura, aided Buddhabhadra in translating. By 418 c.e., the team had translated the rules of the Mahāsāṇghika and the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, as well as the Saṃyuktabhidharma Śāstra and the Bhikśuṇī Prātimokśa (c. third-fourth century c.e.). Later, Guṇabhadra translated the Saṃyuktāgama and Buddhajiva translated the rules of the Mahiśāsikas, which were completed by Zheyan and Baoyun. These translations made a great impression on Chinese Buddhism.

In addition to Faxian’s translation work, his journal is an invaluable source of information on the Buddhist countries of his time. He dutifully recorded all the monasteries of each region, the number of monks in each monastery, and whether the monks were Hīnayāna or Mahāyāna. He also noted all the stupas that he saw, relating the stories behind each stupa. Buddhist ceremonies also attracted Faxian’s attention. He gave detailed descriptions of the image processions in Khotan and Pataliputra, the Great Five Year Procession in Khalcha, and the procession for the Buddha’s tooth in Sri Lanka.

Faxian also showed interest in matters non-Buddhist. He occasionally noted the clothes worn by people in different regions. He also took notice of the vegetation. In Khalcha, for example, he recorded that the only crop that would grow there is wheat and that from this point onward he did not see plants that are found in China except for the bamboo, pomegranate, and sugar cane. Faxian also painted an idyllic picture of the Middle Kingdom, where the climate is temperate, and there were no taxes, currency, capital punishment, killing of animals, or alcohol. People did not eat onion or garlic. However he did record the presence of candalas, “who are known as ‘evil men’ and are segragated from the others. When they enter towns or markets they strike a piece of wood to announce their presence, so that others may know that they are coming and avoid them.”

For the most part the text is written in a matter-of-fact style. Only occasionally does one find touches of emotion appearing. For example, a weeping Faxian lamented the death of one of his companions in the Safed Koh: “You have failed in your purpose. Yet such is fate!” He also wept when, having been away for so many years, he saw a Chinese fan as one of the offerings (probably by a Chinese merchant) at the Abhayagiri Monastery in Śrī Lanka.

Significance

Faxian’s journal is an invaluable source of information on the Buddhist regions of his time. Since the nineteenth century, the text along with the writings of Xuanzang (Hsuan-tsang) has served as a guide for identifying Buddhist ruins. The translations of Sanskrit works into Chinese played a major role in the development of Buddhism in China. In translating the various versions of monastic rules, Faxian accomplished what he had set out to do on his journey to India. The translation of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra in particular attracted a great amount of attention. While the doctrine of śūnyatā (emptiness) dominated Chinese Buddhist thought at this time, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra proclaimed that there is an element underlying the phenomenal world. Furthermore, in contrast to the rigid class structure in China, it maintained that all people could attain enlightenment.

Bibliography

Faxian. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms. Translated and annotated by James Legge. 1886. Reprint. New York: Dover, 1991. The introduction provides what little information we know about the life of Faxian as well as some historical background. Detailed notes in the translation along with the Chinese text.

Faxian. A Record of the Buddhist Countries. Translated by Li Yung-hsi. Peking: The Chinese Buddhist Association, 1957. This volume was published to commemorate the 2,500th anniversary of the Buddha’s attainment of Nirvana. As with that of Legge mentioned above, the introduction tells of Faxian’s life. Some notes in the translation. Map.

Tsukamoto, Zenryu. A History of Early Chinese Buddhism. Translated by Leon Hurvitz. 2 vols. New York: Kodansha International, 1985. At the end of volume 1, Tsukamoto provides the best available account in English of the translation activities of Faxian and Buddhabhadra. This book also provides comprehensive background of Buddhism in China at the time of Faxian’s journey. Bibliography and indexes.

Tulku, Tarthang, and Elizabeth Cook eds. Holy Places of the Buddha. Berkeley, Calif.: Dharma Publishing, 1994. This book employs the accounts of Faxian and Xuanzang, among others, in examining the remains of Buddhist sites. Maps, bibliography and indexes.