DàTáng xīyù jì 大唐西域記
The Great Tang Records of the Western Regions
dictated by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 602–664, 譯) and written by 辯機 (Biànjī, ca. 619–649?, 撰)
About the work
A 12-juan early-Tang Buddhist geographical-ethnographical compendium, dictated by Xuánzàng 玄奘 to his disciple Biànjī 辯機 on imperial command shortly after Xuánzàng’s return to Cháng’ān in Zhēnguān 貞觀 19 = 645 from his 17-year (627–645) overland pilgrimage to India. The work was completed and presented to Táng Tàizōng 太宗 in Zhēnguān 20 = 646. The imperial preface is by Tàizōng himself; the closing imperial-eulogium (“Postscript at the end of the eastward-flowing Buddhist teaching, with our soldiers’ heroic deeds and our scholars’ courageous voyages”) is by Biànjī. Transmitted in Taishō 51 as T2087.
Abstract
The work covers 138 named Indian, Central-Asian, and Trans-Pamir kingdoms and Buddhist sites, in geographical order following Xuánzàng’s outbound itinerary (overland through Central Asia to north India, j. 1–4) and his subsequent travels within India (j. 5–11) and his return route (j. 12). For each kingdom Xuánzàng records:
- Its geographical extent (perimeter in lǐ), climate, product, ethnic and political identity;
- Its language and script (Xuánzàng was unusually attentive to linguistic detail);
- Its religious composition (the relative numbers of Buddhist monasteries vs. Hindu temples vs. other religions, with specific monastic populations and vihāra counts);
- Its principal Buddhist holy sites (relic-stūpas, dharma-event sites, monastery-locations, miracle-spots), each with the canonical narrative attached;
- Its history, where notable.
The work is unrivalled in its documentary specificity and remains the principal single source for the historical geography of pre-Islamic Central Asia and Buddhist India. Nineteenth-century European archaeologists, beginning with Alexander Cunningham, used the Xī-yù jì directly as a field guide to the rediscovery of the principal Indian Buddhist sites — the work’s geographical accuracy was such that Cunningham was able, on its directions, to identify the site of Bodhgayā, the Mahābodhi temple, Sāñchī, Sārnāth, the Nālandā monastic complex, and many others.
The text is at once religious-pilgrimage memoir and geographical-ethnographical-administrative treatise — a combination that distinguishes it from the simpler narrative-pilgrimage-memoir genre of its predecessor KR6r0119 Gāosēng Fǎxiǎn zhuàn. The administrative-geographical orientation reflects the work’s commissioned status: it was prepared specifically as a state-administrative reference for Tàizōng’s expanding interests in the Western Regions and the Indian frontier.
The text is paired with the biographical-narrative companion volume 《大唐大慈恩寺三藏法師傳》 DàTáng dàcí’ēnsì sānzàng fǎshī zhuàn (T2053, by Huìlì 慧立 and Yàncōng 彥悰, completed ca. 688) — the Xīyù jì gives the what was there, the Cí’ēnsì zhuàn gives the what happened to Xuánzàng there.
Translations and research
- Samuel Beal, Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World (London: Trübner, 1884; 2 vols.) — the classic first complete English translation.
- Thomas Watters, On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India 629–645 A.D. (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1904–1905; 2 vols.) — the standard scholarly English translation, more philologically careful than Beal.
- Li Rongxi, The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (Berkeley: Numata Center, 1996) — the modern critical English translation.
- 季羨林 et al., 《大唐西域記校注》 (Běijīng: Zhōnghuá shū-jú, 1985) — the standard modern Chinese critical edition, with extensive commentary integrating archaeological findings.
- 水谷真成, 《大唐西域記》 (Tōkyō, 1971) — the standard modern Japanese translation.
- Stanislas Julien, Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales (Paris, 1857–1858; 2 vols.) — the classic 19th-century French translation, used by Cunningham et al. in the field.
- Étienne Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien (Louvain, 1958) — uses the Xī-yù jì extensively.
- Max Deeg, Miscellanea Nepalica: Early Chinese Reports on Nepal (Lumbini International Research Institute, 2016) — recent treatment of the Xī-yù jì’s Nepal materials.
Other points of interest
The closing biographical-postscript on Biànjī gives a famous tragic note: shortly after the completion of the Xīyù jì, Biànjī (then in his late twenties) was implicated in a sexual scandal involving the imperial princess Gāoyáng 高陽 (Tàizōng’s daughter), and was executed by waist-beheading on Tàizōng’s order in 649 — the year before Tàizōng’s own death. Xuánzàng himself outlived his disciple by 15 years and continued the canonical translation work that ultimately yielded the 74 translated texts that constitute the foundation of the Wéishí / Yogācāra school in Chinese Buddhism.
The work is treated by Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual — the principal early-medieval Chinese-language source on the Indian subcontinent.
Links
- CBETA: T51n2087
- Wikipedia: Great Tang Records on the Western Regions