Wukong (;

EFEO The French School of the Far East (, ; also translated as The French School of Asian StudiesPreferred translation by EFEO staff. SeEFEO official website), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of ...

: Ou-k'ong; 730 to after 790 CE) was a Chinese Buddhist monk, translator, and writer during the medieval

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

. His earlier religious name was Fajie () (Sanskrit: Dharmadhātu = 'Realm of the Dharma’.) His family name was Ju ( and his personal name was Che Fengzhao. He was descended from the 拓跋 (

Tuoba The Tuoba (Chinese language, Chinese) or Tabgatch (, ''Tabγač''), also known by #Names, other names, was an influential Xianbei clan in early imperial China. During the Sixteen Kingdoms after the fall of Han and the Three Kingdoms, the Tuoba e ...

) clan of the

Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were an ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. The Xianbei were likely not of a single ethnicity, but rather a multiling ...

- the

Northern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei ( zh, c=北魏, p=Běi Wèi), Tuoba Wei ( zh, c=拓跋魏, p=Tuòbá Wèi), Yuan Wei ( zh, c=元魏, p=Yuán Wèi) and Later Wei ( zh, t=後魏, p=Hòu Wèi), was an Dynasties of China, impe ...

dynasty which ruled China from 365 to 534 CE.

To Central Asia and India

In 750 CE an embassy from the Kingdom of Jibin/Kāpīśi () in the north-east of modern Afghanistan, and adjoining Pakistan, arrived in the Chang'an asking for an alliance with China. Emperor Xuanzong (ruled 712 to 756) sent an official, Zhang Taoguang, with about forty men including Che Fengzhao (later Wukong) to go to Jibin and Wukong accompanied them from the capital,

Chang'an Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...

, in 751. The party followed the route taken by a Chinese army under General

Gao Xianzhi Gao Xianzhi or Go Seonji (died January 24, 756) was a Tang dynasty general of Goguryeo descent. He was known as a great commander during his lifetime. He is best known for taking part in a number of military expeditions to conquer the Western Regi ...

in 747 from Kashgar. The route, as described in the biography of Wukong, is of great geographical and historical interest. From

Kashgar Kashgar () or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is a city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the country's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For over 2,000 years, Kashgar ...

(Sulei) they crossed the

Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...

(Congshan, literally, 'Onion Mountains') to

Shighnan Shighnan, also Shignan, Shugnan, Shughnan, and Khughnan (, , Pashto: , Shughni: ), is an historic region whose name today may also refer to a town and a district in Badakhshan Province in the mountainous northeast of Afghanistan and also a dist ...

('the kingdom of the five Chini'), on to

Wakhan Wakhan, or "the Wakhan" (also spelt Vakhan; Persian and , ''Vâxân'' and ''Wāxān'' respectively; , ''Vaxon''), is a rugged, mountainous part of the Pamir, Hindu Kush and Karakoram regions of Afghanistan. Wakhan District is a district in ...

(Humi) and Yasin (Juwei), then through two small unidentified states (Helan and Lansuo) to Gilgit (Yehe) and then Uddiyana in the

Swat valley Swat District (), also known as the Swat Valley, is a district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Known for its stunning natural beauty, the district is a popular tourist destination. With a population of 2,687,384 per th ...

(Wuzhangna or Wuchang) through two more unidentified kingdoms and the unidentified "Indus city" (Sindu) near the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

(Sindu). On 15 March 753 they finally reached

Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

(Qiantuoluo), which is said to have been the eastern capital of Jibin. The king lived here in the winter to avoid the cold, and during the summer in Jibin itself to avoid the heat. After arriving in Gandhara, Wukong became very sick and so he stayed in the kingdom and did not return to China with the ambassador.

Jibin and India

After the return of the ambassador, he consecrated his life to the Buddha and was ordained in

Jibin Jibin (, Old Chinese: Eastern Han Chinese: *''kɨas-pin'') is the name of an ancient state in central Asia, in the area of Gandhara and the Kabul river, but the exact location of which is unknown. Location There are several possibilities for th ...

in 757. This is when he was given his religious name of Dharmadhātu in Sanskrit or Fajie in Chinese. He stayed in Gandhara for four years. For two years he studied and practised the

Vinaya The Vinaya (Pali and Sanskrit: विनय) refers to numerous monastic rules and ethical precepts for fully ordained monks and nuns of Buddhist Sanghas (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). These sets of ethical rules and guidelines devel ...

of the

Mulasarvastivada The Mūlasarvāstivāda (; ) was one of the early Buddhist schools of India. The origins of the Mūlasarvāstivāda school and their relationship to the Sarvāstivāda remain largely unknown, although various theories exist. The continuity of t ...

branch of Buddhism in

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

under the direction of three masters. While in Kashmir he studied at the Mengdi monastery which

Sten Konow image:StenKonow.jpg, Sten Konow Sten Konow (17 April 1867 – 29 June 1948) was a Norwegian Indologist. He was a professor of Indian philology at the University of Oslo, Christiania University, Oslo, from 1910, until moving to Hamburg Universi ...

identified as being located in the village of Uskar (Hușkapura), which is in western Kashmir on the main road to Gandhara, near the modern border with Pakistan. Joshi suggests that it may be identical with the Rāja-vihāra built by King

Lalitaditya Muktapida Lalitaditya alias Muktapida (IAST: Lalitāditya Muktāpīḍa; r. c. 724 CE–760 CE) was a Karkota monarch of the Kashmir region in the Indian subcontinent. The 12th-century Kashmiri chronicler Kalhana characterizes Lalitaditya as a " world c ...

(r. 724-760), the most powerful ruler of the Karkoṭa Empire of Kashmir. Then, in 764 he headed south to Middle India where he visited Kapilavastu,

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

, Vaisali, Devavatara (Kapitha),

Sravasti Shravasti (, ; ) is a town in Shravasti district in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was the capital of the ancient Indian kingdom of Kosala which was ruled by Lava and the place where the Buddha lived most after his enlightenment. It is ne ...

, and Kusinagara, and then lived for three years in the monastery at

Nalanda Nalanda (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: , ) was a renowned Buddhism, Buddhist ''mahavihara'' (great monastery) in medieval Magadha (Mahajanapada), Magadha (modern-day Bihar), eastern India. Widely considered to be am ...

before returning to Gandhara where he stayed in various monasteries and visited all the sacred places.

Return to China

In Gandhara he asked his master if he could return to his homeland who first refused, but finally allowed him to go. He was given several sutras in Sanskrit and a tooth relic of the Buddha to take back to his sovereign. He first headed through

Tokharistan Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is a historical name used by Islamic sources in the early Middle Ages to refer to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources. By the 6 ...

and, after a number of adventures, reached Kashgar. From there, he travelled to

Khotan Hotan (also known by #Etymology, other names) is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region in Northwestern China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an ...

where he stayed for six months and went on to

Kucha Kucha or Kuche (also: ''Kuçar'', ''Kuchar''; , Кучар; zh, t= 龜茲, p=Qiūcí, zh, t= 庫車, p=Kùchē; ) was an ancient Buddhist kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of what is now the Taklam ...

, where he stayed for more than a year. From there he went to

Karashahr Karasahr or Karashar (), which was originally known in the Tocharian languages as ''Ārśi'' (or Arshi), Qarašähär, or Agni or the Chinese derivative Yanqi ( zh, s=焉耆, p=Yānqí, w=Yen-ch'i), is an ancient town on the Silk Road and the capi ...

, where he stayed three months before heading on to Beiting ( Urumqi) in Chinese territory. There he got help from a Khotanese monk by the name of

Śīladharma Śīladharma was a ninth-century Buddhist monk and translator from the Kingdom of Khotan. Śīladharma was mainly active in the Western territories of Tang China where he stayed in Longxingsi monastery, now situated in Inner Mongolia. Śīladharma w ...

in translating a number of the sutras he had brought with him. In 789 he wanted to return to his homeland but the route across the

Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Xinjiang, Northwestern China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, Ch ...

was closed, so he took a route through Uighur territory. As the "Chanyu" or leader of the Uighurs did not believe in Buddhism he had to leave the Sanskrit texts he had collected in the library of a temple in Beiting (Urumchi). However, he took the translated sutras and the tooth relic with him and returned to the capital Chang'an in early 790 after 40 years away. The translated sutras and the tooth relic of the Buddha were presented to the Emperor and he was rewarded with official titles and given the name of Wukong. He then retired to the recently built Zhangjing monastery in the capital and visited his parents' graves. The date of his death is unknown as the biography ends in 790. Although he does not seem to have been well-educated, and had to have the

sutras ''Sutra'' ()Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a ...

translated for him, and his brief biography was written by someone else, he was a keen observer and "his biography forms at least a precious complement and natural continuation of the gallery of "the Eminent Monks who went in search of the Law in the Western Countries during the period of the Great Tang Dynasty." It provides us with useful information about the political situation in the southern

Hindukush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and eastern Afghanistan into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan. The range forms the western section of ...

and

Taklamakan The Taklamakan Desert ( ) is a desert in northwest China's Xinjiang region. Located inside the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang, it is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the n ...

regions in an obscure and troubled period."Kaśmīr, Tang China, and Muktãpĩḍa Lalitā-Ditya's Ascendancy over the southern Hindukush Region." Tansen Sen. ''Journal of Asian History'', Vol. 38, No. 2 (2004), pp. 150-151.

References

Citations

Sources

Édouard Chavannes Émmanuel-Édouard Chavannes (5 October 1865 – 29 January 1918) was a French sinologist and expert on Chinese history and religion, and is best known for his translations of major segments of Sima Qian's ''Records of the Grand Historian'' ...

. (1900). ''Documents sur les Tou-kiue (Turcs) occidentaux''. Paris, Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient. 1900. Reprint, Taipei, Cheng Wen Publishing Co., 1969. (In French). * S. Dutt. (1952). ''Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India'', with the translation of passages (given by Latika Lahiri to S. Dutt, see note 2 p. 311) from Yijing's book: ''Buddhist Pilgrim Monks of Tang Dynasty'' as an appendix. London, 1952. * Lal Mani Joshi.(2002). "Studies in the Buddhistic Culture of India During the 7th and 8th Centuries A.D." Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi. . * M. M.

Sylvain Lévi Sylvain Lévi (; March 28, 1863 – October 30, 1935) was an influential French intellectual and author whose specialities were oriental studies and India. He taught Sanskrit and Indian religions at the École pratique des hautes études in ...

, and