3 The Silk Road

Zhang Qian leaving emperor Han Wudi, for his expedition to Central Asia from 138 to 126 BC, Mogao Caves mural, Dunhuang, 618–

712.

• Zhang Qian ( 張騫; Wade-Giles Chang-k'ien) was an imperial envoy to the outside world in the 2nd century BC, during the time of the Han Dynasty. He was the first official diplomat to bring back reliable information about Central Asia to the Chinese imperial court, then under Emperor Wu of Han, and played an important pioneering role in the Chinese colonization and conquest of the region now known as Xinjiang.

• Today Zhang Quian's travels are associated with the major route of transcontinental trade, the Silk Road. In essence, his missions opened up to China the many kingdoms and products of an unknown and new part of the world. Zhang Qian's accounts of his explorations of Central Asia are detailed in the Early Han historical chronicles ("Records of the Grand Historian" or "Shiji"), compiled by Sima Qian in the 1st century BC . Today Zhang Qian is considered a national hero for the key role he played in opening China to the world of commercial trade.

The Introduction of Buddhism and Its Booming

Standing Buddha, Gandhara, 1st century.

Notably, the Buddhist faith and the Greco-Buddhist culture started to travel eastward along the Silk Road, penetrating in China from around the 1st century BC.

• The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China started in the 1st century CE with a semi-legendary account of an embassy sent to the West by the Chinese Emperor Ming (58 – 75 CE [Christian Era]).

• Extensive contacts however started in the 2nd century CE, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan empire into the Chinese territory of the Tarim Basin, with the missionnary efforts of a great number of Central Asian Buddhist monks to Chinese lands. The first missionaries and translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were either Parthian, Kushan, Sogdian or Kuchean. White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China, was founded in 68 CE.

• From the 4th century onward, Chinese pilgrims also started to travel to India, the origin of Buddhism, by themselves in order to get improved access to the original scriptures, with Fa-hsien's pilgrimage to India (395–414), and later Xuan Zang (629–644).

• The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism essentially ended around the 7th century with the rise of Islam in Central Asia.

A portrait of Xuanzang

• During his travels he studied with many famous Buddhist masters, especially at the famous center of Buddhist learning at Nālanda University. When he returned, he brought with him some 657 Sanskrit texts. With the emperor's support, he set up a large translation bureau in Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), drawing students and collaborators from all over East Asia. He is credited with the translation of some 1,330 fascicles of scriptures into Chinese. His strongest personal interest in Buddhism was in the field of Yogācāra (瑜伽行派 ) or Consciousness-only (唯識 ).

• The force of his own study, translation and commentary of the texts of these traditions initiated the development of the Faxiang school ( 法相宗 ) in East Asia. Although the school itself did not thrive for a long time, its theories regarding perception, consciousness, karma, rebirth, etc. found their way into the doctrines of other more successful schools. Xuanzang's closest and most eminent student was Kuiji ( 窺基 ) who became recognized as the first patriarch of the Faxiang school. Hsuan Tsang's logic, as described by Kuiji, was often misunderstood by scholars of Chinese Buddhism because they lack the necessary background in Indian logic.[2]

• Xuanzang was known for his extensive but careful translations of Indian Buddhist texts to Chinese, and subsequent recoveries of lost Indian Buddhist texts from translated Chinese copies. He is credited with writing or compiling the Cheng Weishi Lun as a commentary on these texts. His translation of the Heart Sutra became and remains standard. He also founded the short-lived but influential Faxiang school of Buddhism. Additionally, he was known for recording the events of the reign of the northern Indian emperor, Harsha.

Q: How could Zhang Qian communicate with “the westerners”?

• In his first travel to the west, according to his reports, he visited directly many countries in the west.

• The reports of Zhang Qian's travels is quoted extensively in the 1st century BC Chinese historic chronicles "Records of the Great Historian" (Shiji) by Sima Qian. Zhang Qian visited directly the kingdom of Dayuan in Ferghana, the territories of the Yuezhi in Transoxonia, the Bactrian country of Daxia with it remnants of Greco-Bactrian rule, and Kangju (康居). He also made reports on neighbouring countries that he did not visit, such as Anxi (Parthia), Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), Shendu (India) and the Wusun.

• In his second travel to the west, he leads a team of three hundred people, with countless cattle, sheep and gold and silk products.

• How could they communicate with those people in the west?

• In Tang Dynasty, when Xuan Zang returned to Chang’an, he indulged himself in translating those Buddhist scriptures.

• The translating activity is a large-scale one, involving a staff of over six hundred people, mostly Buddhist monks.

• In Song Dynasty, a translating court was established in 982 CE, during Taizong’s reign (cf. Yuelu Academy founded in 976 CE) (高晓芳 2007).

• How were the translators trained and educated? • Surely, foreign language education is involved in the

government’s foreign affairs, for they need officials or interpreters who know foreign languages, though there might not be some formal educations for FLT as they do for the Chinese language.