Faxian
? · Chang'an (Xi'an)
fl. c. 337–422 CE; exact dates uncertain
Faxian (fl. c. 337–422 CE) was the earliest of the great Chinese monk-pilgrims to India whose record survives. Born in Pingyang (modern Linfen, Shanxi), he set out from Chang'an in 399 in his sixties, seeking complete texts of the monastic code, and over some fourteen years traveled overland across Central Asia into India, on to Sri Lanka, and home by sea. His 'Record of Buddhist Kingdoms' (Foguoji) is a foundational primary source for the history and geography of Buddhist Asia. His pilgrimage is well documented; his precise birth and death years are not.
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Chang'an (Xi'an)
What they did here
DOCUMENTED: already over sixty, he set out from the capital in 399 CE in search of complete Vinaya texts.
About Chang'an (Xi'an)
Chang'an, modern Xi'an in Shaanxi province, China, was the capital of the Sui and Tang dynasties and one of the great Buddhist translation and study centres of medieval East Asia. The translator Kumārajīva was brought there in 401 to head an imperial translation bureau; the pilgrim Xuanzang returned there from India to translate the texts he had gathered; and Kūkai studied esoteric Buddhism in the city before founding the Japanese Shingon school.
Works
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