Yang Xuanzhi () was a Chinese

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or Mandate (politics), mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual Office, working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (eithe ...

and translator of Mahayana Buddhist texts into the

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

during the

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 ...

Northern Wei Dynasty in China's Northern and Southern dynastic period. He is primarily remembered as the author of a history of the

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

s and monasteries of

Luoyang Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...

in Henan Province, at the time the capital of the Wei Empire.

Works

Yang wrote ''The History of the Temples of

'' or ''Record of the Monasteries of Luoyang'' or ) in 547. This text relates the introduction of Buddhism to China around the year 70: Yang's book also contains the first known account of the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma, founder of

Zen Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...

, whom he met in Luoyang around 520. He describes him as a man of Central Asian origin, who claims to be 150 years old and to have traveled extensively throughout Buddhist lands. He also wrote that Bodhidharma expressed praise for the beauty of the Buddhist temples in Luoyang, and that he chanted the name of the Buddha frequently: The ''Record of the Monasteries of Luoyang'' also preserves an account of the travels of the Buddhist pilgrims

Songyun Songyun is the atonal pinyin romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliterat ...

and Huisheng to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and back, whose own works are now lost.

Editions

* . * . * . *
also hosted
by the Nan Tien Institute.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * . {{DEFAULTSORT:Yang, Xuanzhi Northern Wei Buddhists Northern Wei writers