Xuanzang, common name Chen, famous sage, legal name Xuanzang (AD 602-664). A native of Gushi County, Luozhou, Henan Province (now Yanshi, Henan Province), he was honored as "Master Tang Sanzang" and known as Tang Sanzang in the world. He was known as Master Sanzang because of his mastery and translation of Buddhist classics, laws and doctrines. He is also known as the master of kindness in Xi Renji for translating classics. He is the founder of the legalist school in China, and he wrote The Theory of Perception, which is the theoretical basis of legalist school, and was later carried forward by disciple Kui Ji. Known as the first of the four Buddhist translators in China, the total number of Buddhist scriptures translated by him far exceeds that translated by Kumarajiva (344-4 13), Zhen Zhen (499-569) and Bukong (705-774).
When Xuanzang was young, his family was poor and his parents died young. Master Shi Congjie (common name Chen Su, date of birth and death unknown) became a monk in Jingtu Temple in Luoyang since childhood, teaching Buddhism and Taoism and reading Confucian and Taoist classics. He entered the Buddhist temple at the age of ten. He became a monk at the age of thirteen, and his legal name was Xuanzang. At the age of twenty-one, he was ordained in Dinghui Temple in Chengdu, which officially became the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures studied by monks at that time, with different interpretations of the teachings. Dissatisfied with my shallow knowledge, I have a strong desire to go to India to learn from the scriptures, hoping to research the original Sanskrit classics to solve my doubts.
Xuanzang set out in the first year of Zhenguan (AD 627) and made a long March alone in the desert. After many adventures, he was determined to seek the Dharma without looking back, fearless and frustrated. In the fifth year of Zhenguan (AD 63 1 year), he arrived in Capricorn and studied at Narendra Temple, the highest institution in India at that time. He stopped studying the land of yogis by the sage theorist. It can be said that the yoga school is the main topic of Xuanzang's study abroad career, and it is also the core of his Buddhist thought, that is, the view that everything in the universe is the realization of mental knowledge is not a real "knowledge-only" view.
In the 16th year of Zhenguan (A.D. 642), King Jeri held a public debate meeting in Ducheng Group Women's Town, invited Xuanzang as the main speaker, and put forward a paper praising Mahayana teaching method, which was hung outside the venue, and no one questioned it within 18 days. This is the famous "Group Women's City Debate Competition" in the history of Buddhism. At this point, the holy monks in the Tang Dynasty had a great influence on Wuyin, and were called "Mahayana Heaven" by Mahayana Buddhists in India (that is, people who really understand Buddhism), while Mahayana Buddhists regarded them as "people who relieved their troubles and got rid of the shackles of life and death". The following year, Xuanzang officially resigned from Wang Donggui in Zhenguan in September (AD 645) and returned to Chang 'an. Emperor Taizong ordered Liang Guogong, Fang (AD 579-AD 648) and other civil and military officials to greet him grandly. People stood on both sides of the street to welcome him, and the whole country rejoiced.
It lasted 17 years and traveled more than 50,000 miles. In addition to the Buddha statues and relics, Xuanzang * * * invited 520 volumes and 657 original Buddhist scriptures and Sanskrit, which was greatly praised by Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong and was named "Monk Monk". Emperor Taizong twice advised him to return to secularism and abandon Taoism to assist politics, but Xuanzang resolutely refused because he was "determined to become a monk." Therefore, Emperor Taizong set up a well-organized Chang 'an Buddhist Scripture Translation Institute (National Buddhist Scripture Translation Institute) for him, and recruited outstanding monks and nuns from all over the country to help him translate Buddhist Scriptures. Xuanzang translated scriptures in Hongfu Temple, Jionji and Yuhua Palace. In the past nineteen years, these Buddhist classics not only directly promoted the religious and cultural exchanges between China and India, but also indirectly had a far-reaching impact on the cultural trends of thought in South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other countries.
On the principle of translating classics, Xuanzang adheres to the mission of "being loyal to the original" and pursues accuracy and "being easy to understand", which can make Chinese people understand, satisfy both refined and popular tastes, and is easy to spread. In the process of translation between Chinese and Sanskrit, he constantly pondered and innovated, and put forward the principle of "five kinds of non-translation" (also known as "five kinds of non-translation"), pointing out that transliteration (retaining the original sound) is not suitable for Buddhist terms in five cases, that is, (1) contains many words, such as "arhat" and "Bhagavan". (2) Secrecy: Like a spell, it is the secret language of the Buddhas and cannot be translated literally. (3) Dignity: If "Prajna" is true, kind and beautiful, it should not be translated into "wisdom" of the world. (4) Follow the ancient times without translating: For example, "Duoluo Imam has three benefits and three bodhis" means "supreme meaning", and translators before Xuanzang used transliteration, so they followed the ancient times without translating. (5) There is no turning point here: For example, "Yan Fushu" does not exist in China, so the original sound remains unchanged. The above five non-translation conventions have always been adopted by later translators. Ji Xianlin, a famous Buddhist master, thinks that Xuanzang's translation style is neither literal translation nor free translation, but the combination of literal translation and new style, which opens a new era in the translation history of China.
Xuanzang died on February 5, the first year of Linde, Tang Gaozong (AD 664). Tang Gaozong was so sad that he couldn't handle state affairs for three days, chasing Xuanzang's "big sleep". Xuanzang was a famous Buddhist scholar, translator and traveler in ancient China. The theories he spread include the profound subtlety of Prajna and Yoga, and the meticulous GAI of "knowing only" and "knowing the essence", which created a new atmosphere in thinking rules and teaching norms, and had a far-reaching influence on China's Buddhist thought. Because he translated a lot of Buddhist classics, it not only became the basis of spreading Buddhism, but also enriched the vocabulary and connotation of China literature. While inheriting the traditional terminology translation methods, they also put forward innovative translation theory principles and methods to transform them. Therefore, later scholars took Xuanzang as the boundary, and called the classics translated by Xuanzang before "old translation" and Xuanzang after "new translation".
As a result of master Xuanzang's translation and integration of Confucian classics of only knowledge, only knowledge gradually formed a highly speculative sect, namely "the Sect of Fa Xiang" (also known as "the Sect of Zhi Zhi"). Although this sect gradually withered after the mid-Tang Dynasty, in the early years of the Republic of China, under the advocacy of Master Taixu and Ouyang, the research and practice of epistemology were rekindled. As for what Xuanzang saw and heard when he traveled west to Wan Li and went to India to learn from the scriptures, his disciples recorded and wrote The Tale of the Western Regions of Datang, which is an indispensable precious historical document for studying the historical geography, social customs and cultural trends of ancient western regions, India, Central Asia and South Asia. He has made great contributions to the excavation of modern archaeological remains and won the attention of European, American and Japanese academic circles.