Dà Táng gù sānzàng Xuánzàng fǎshī xíngzhuàng 大唐故三藏玄奘法師行狀
Conduct-Record of the Late Tripiṭaka-Master Xuánzàng of the Great Táng
composed by 冥詳 (Míngxiáng, fl. mid–late 7th c., 撰)
About the work
A short single-juan xíngzhuàng 行狀 (“conduct record” — the formal Confucian funerary genre listing the principal events of a deceased subject’s life as a basis for an official biography) of the great Táng pilgrim and translator 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 602–664), composed shortly after his death in 664 by the monk 冥詳 (Míngxiáng). Preserved in the Taishō (T50 no. 2052). The work is the earliest extant biographical document on Xuánzàng, predating both the Dà cí’ēnsì sānzàng fǎshī zhuàn of 慧立 and 彥悰 (KR6r0043) and the entry in the Xù gāosēng zhuàn of 道宣 (KR6r0061).
Abstract
The xíngzhuàng genre is a formal funerary document listing the deceased’s birthplace, ancestry, principal offices, achievements, and death — typically composed for the use of subsequent biographers. 冥詳’s xíngzhuàng of 玄奘 supplies precisely such a record: birth in Luòzhōu 洛州 in 602, family of the Chén 陳 surname, early entry into the saṃgha, Xuánzàng’s celebrated journey to India (629–645), the seventeen years of pilgrimage, the return with manuscripts and relics, the imperial reception under Tàizōng, the long Cháng’ān years of translation activity (645–664), and the death at Yùhuá-gōng 玉華宮 in 664.
The composition window is bracketed by Xuánzàng’s death (664) and the production of the more elaborate Cí’ēnsì zhuàn of 慧立 / 彥悰 in the 680s; a date bracket of 664–670 is the safe range, with most scholars favouring the years immediately after Xuánzàng’s death. The work is short — only a few thousand characters — but it is the direct primary biographical source for 玄奘 and a foundational document for all subsequent biographies.
冥詳 is otherwise little documented; he was clearly a disciple or younger associate of Xuánzàng’s translation bureau at Dà Cí’ēnsì 大慈恩寺.
Translations and research
- Sally Hovey Wriggins, Xuanzang: A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road (Boulder: Westview, 1996; rev. ed. The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang, 2004) — accessible English biography drawing on KR6r0042 and KR6r0043.
- Li Rongxi (trans.), A Biography of the Tripiṭaka Master of the Great Ci’en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty (Berkeley: Numata, 1995) — translates KR6r0043 and discusses KR6r0042 in the introduction.
- Ji Xianlin et al., critical Chinese editions of Xuánzàng’s biographical materials.
Links
- CBETA: T50n2052