Xuanzang

7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar (602–664)

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Lived 602–664, aged 62China

China AcademicsAcademic

Wikipedia
67 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in China
#203
Academics
Era
602–664
Aged 62

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

A 7th-century Chinese monk who walked to India and back — seventeen years, defying a travel ban, crossing deserts and kingdoms — to retrieve Buddhist texts that China had never seen whole or true.

Biography

About

Born in 602 near Luoyang, Xuanzang became a novice monk at thirteen and fled south with his brother during the Sui collapse, ordained fully at twenty. Troubled by the fragmentary Buddhist scriptures circulating in China and the contradictions among competing translations, he resolved at twenty-seven to go to the source. In 629 he slipped past the empire's border restrictions and made his way through Central Asia to India, studying for years at Nalanda under the monk Śīlabhadra. He returned in 645 with 657 Sanskrit texts loaded on twenty horses; Emperor Taizong welcomed him home and commissione…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Xuanzang

Xuanzang

saidundated

On examination, we find that the names of India (T’ien-chu) are various and perplexing as to their authority.

— Xuanzang (Yuan Chwang) (Vol. I. 69). quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited.

Xuanzang

saidundated

The ordinary people … are upright and honourable... They are faithful to their oaths and promises... In their behavior there is much gentleness and sweetness.

— Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang/Yuan Chwang in the 7th century commenting on the people of India. Quoted from Lal, K. S. (1999). Theory and

Xuanzang

saidundated

They are pure of themselves, and not from compulsion.

— Quoted from Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage

Xuanzang

saidundated

They do not practice deceit, and they keep their sworn obligations. . . . They will not take anything wrongfully, and they yield more than fairness requires.

— Quoted from Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage

Xuanzang

saidundated