The novel Journey to the West concludes its legend with a triumphant homecoming, sparing little detail on the return journey.
Floating atop clouds, the monks heard the bells of Chang’an. Emperor Taizong himself opened the palace gates to welcome the pilgrims.
Yet reality diverged sharply. Xuanzang’s mission was only partially fulfilled. Charged with spreading Buddha’s legacy in his homeland, he declined all offers to remain in India after his debates and began preparing to return. From his Indian journey, he learned that royal patronage was essential to promote Buddhism.
Honor his promise to the King of Khocho
In 643 AD, Xuanzang bid farewell to King Harsha Vardhana and started his trek back. Though the Maritime Silk Route had reopened—and the king urged him to sail—Xuanzang refused. He vowed to honor his promise to the King of Khocho, pledging to lecture there for three years.
Upon reaching Khocho, he discovered his sworn brother had died, and the kingdom had been absorbed into the Tang Empire.
Would Emperor Taizong forgive the once-stowaway monk?
He also sought to gauge Emperor Taizong’s stance toward his unauthorized departure.
Xuanzang wrote humbly to the emperor, explaining his past flight and detailing the vast Buddhist texts and statues he carried. Stranded in Yutian after losing his elephant mid-journey, he pleaded for forgiveness and aid.
Meet the Emperor of Tang
In 645 AD, Emperor Taizong received Xuanzang in Luoyang—their first meeting. The emperor marveled at Xuanzang’s encyclopedic recall of the Western lands. Though Xuanzang sought support for translating scriptures, Taizong fixated on his geopolitical accounts of the West.
A year later, Xuanzang’s disciples compiled his Records of the Western Regions for the emperor. This legendary text chronicled 110 kingdoms Xuanzang visited and 28 others he documented secondhand, detailing geography, politics, agriculture, law, and customs. Emperor Taizong, deeply impressed, offered Xuanzang political posts, but the monk declined.
Translate Buddhist texts
His true mission—translating over 600 Indian Buddhist texts—remained unfinished. The Records were merely a bid for imperial backing.
Three days before the emperor’s death in 649 AD, Xuanzang completed his translation of the Heart Sutra. Taizong became its first reader. Unlike other obscure translations, this 260-word sutra grew widely revered, its phrases etched into Chinese cultural memory.
Xuanzang approached translation with monastic rigor. If daily quotas went unmet, sleep was sacrificed. Over 17 years and 6 months (645–663 AD), he translated 1,335 volumes—averaging 75 volumes a year, 6 a month, and 1 every five days. A staggering testament to devotion, bridging East and West through faith and ink.
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