The year of the Rooster is almost here,
which means we must say goodbye to 2016's
Year of the Monkey.
To send it off in style, we are going to be spending
the rest of this month looking at the characters
from a story that features the world’s most famous monkey
Journey to the West.
So let’s start our January to the West
(see what I did there? Ahhh puns…)
by looking at the story’s real life inspiration, Xuanzang!
Xuanzang was born in 602 AD during the Tang Dynasty
and like I said his pilgrimage served as inspiration
for the Chinese classic Journey to the west
as well as the main character of the same name.
In the book he was born to a recently appointed government official
and a woman of immense beauty.
While his mother was still pregnant with Xuanzang,
they were travelling to the father's new job
when bandits not only murdered and stole his father’s identity
but also kidnapped and raped his mother.
When Xuanzang was born, his mother was told by the gods
said he would grow up to become a man that would be known throughout the world.
In order to protect him, she wrapped him in a piece of clothing,
wrote a note in her own blood telling his origin story
and sent him floating down the river on a plank of wood
Moses style.
By comparison, the real Xuanzang had a much less interesting childhood.
He was the youngest of four children
and grew up in a highly educated household.
His father died when he was 9 years old,
and he was converted into becoming a Buddhist monk by his brother.
Journey to the West’s Xuanzang
was found floating down the river by Buddhist monks
and was raised in their ways.
He later learned that in a previous life he was the golden cicada,
a favourite disciple of Buddha
who accidentally fell asleep during a sermon
and was reincarnated as a human as punishment.
In the Book Xuanzang takes on the journey
to retrieve the holy scriptures from India for two reasons,
number one being that he was doing the work of the goddess Guanyin,
who sought to bring enlightenment to the people of the East,
the second reason is help the emperor Taizong
who escaped hell by making a vow that he would create
a society to save the lost souls of China.
In contrast to the book, the real emperor Taizong
forbade his Journey to India in order to preserve national security
Xuanzang, after years of studying Buddhist texts in China
found that they were full of contradictions,
and decided to ignore the emperor’s command
and secretly set off to study true Buddhism
from its source in India.
So in reality he was actually more of a badass
than the books would have you believe.
In Journey to the West, he was mostly helpless in the face of danger,
thus Guanyin supplies him with three protectors,
Zhubaji the pig,
Shuwajing the sand demon
and the world famous Sun Wukong the monkey.
We will look at them so more in the next episodes,
so make sure to come back soon!
Together they travelled to India battling, gods, demons and bandits
who believed that eating the monks flesh
would grant them immortality,
all the while completing the 81 trials needed to achieve enlightenment
and bring back the Holy Scriptures to China.
There were no monsters for the real Xuanzang
but the journey was not an easy one.
His pilgrimage lasted about 16 years
and saw him travelling through the unrelenting heat of the Gobi desert,
evading thieves,
sneaking past border guards as well as being detained by King Qu Wentai.
During his captivity, Xuanzang went on a hunger strike
until the king finally granted him permission to leave.
The King also provided him with official documentation
allowing his passage through to India
on the condition that he would return after three years.
Upon his long awaited arrival to the Nalanda Monastery in India,
Xuanzang studied Sanskrit and began his studies of true Buddhist Texts.
He became incredibly knowledgeable of Brahmana philosophy
and combined Sarvastivada and Yogacara doctrines together
to create help create a more functional form of Mahayanism.
Don’t know what that means? ........Yeah. neither did I!
Basically it means that he stood from a philosophical perspective
that combines aspects of physicality with that of the spiritual pursuit.
In short the dude studied a hell of a lot of doctrines,
and I don’t have enough time here to cover everything in detail.
We will just leave it that he super smart,
as he once in one sitting
defeated 500 hundred religious scholars in spiritual debate.
So yeah. The dude knew his stuff.
Once he returned to China, he distributed relics,
manuscripts and other souvenirs that he brought back from India
and began about his lifelong mission of preaching the good word
and translating scriptures into Chinese.
His knowledge was so highly regarded
that he was offered an official position within the imperial court
but ultimately refused so that he could focus
all his efforts on his work.
He dutifully continued his work until his death in 664.
From there his teachings and translations of scriptures
particularly that of the Heart sutra
helped promote Buddhism throughout Asia,
but what is most interesting was that another text that he put together
had more influence than he could have ever had guessed.
It was a comprehensive list that recorded
all of the kingdoms and customs he encountered through his Journey called
the Great Tang Records of the Western Regions
which propelled him into the public consciousness.
These stories were told throughout China
and became favourite folklore within thousands of villages.
The legends ultimately culminated into the Ming Dynasty novel called the Journey to the West
which eventually became one of
China’s most famous and beloved stories.
It has seen countless adaptations and reimaginings throughout history
and has captured the imagination
of millions of people throughout the world.
It is ironic to think that his journey has become
more culturally important to China than his actual teachings.
To the point where most people, particularly in the West
didn’t even know Xuanzang was a real man.
Either way you look at it,
his story is awesome and he was an amazingly dedicated man!
So with that thought, stay tuned for the next episode
where we continue our look at Journey to the West
by learning about the Great Sage Equal of Heaven, Sun WuKong!
Once again thank you so much for watching another one of my videos,
don’t forget to like comment and definitely subscribe,
If liked this video and would like to learn more weird stories from Chinese History
why not check out this one on Chinese Zombies,
or this one on the history of Baijiu.
Once again, thank you so much for watching.
I’m WooKong, ..... and good bye!