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.
Did you know?
He walked to India across a desert marked only by the bones of the dead — then sailed home in his seventies, twice nearly lost at sea
The Chinese monk Faxian set out from Chang'an in 399 CE, already past sixty, crossing the Taklamakan desert and Himalayan passes on foot to reach India and Sri Lanka in search of Buddhist scriptures. He returned some thirteen years later entirely by sea — surviving one violent storm that left his leaking ship adrift until it reached an island (probably Java), and a second that blew him far off course to the Shandong coast of northern China, where he landed safely, an old man, with the texts intact.
How we know
Faxian left Chang'an in 399 CE (aged over sixty; born c.337) and reached the Chinese coast in 412 CE, about a 13-year journey. His own 'Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms' describes the desert crossing guided by 'the rotting bones of dead men.' The sea return was struck by two violent storms; the first ship reached Ye-po-ti (probably Java), the second was driven to Shandong.
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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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