Faxian

Faxian
Faxian at the ruins of Ashoka's palace
Personal
Born	337 Pingyang Wuyang (平陽武陽), in modern Linfen City, Shanxi
Died	ca. 422 (aged 85)
Religion	Buddhism
Parents	Tsang Hi (father)
Notable work(s)	Foguoji (A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms)

Faxian
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	法顯
Simplified Chinese	法显
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Fǎxiǎn Wade–Giles Fa3-hsien3 Hakka Romanization Fap5-hien3 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Fat3-hin2 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Huat-hién Middle Chinese Middle Chinese Pjop-xén
Japanese name
Kanji	法顕
Kana	ほっけん
Transcriptions Romanization Hokken
Sanskrit name
Sanskrit	फा हियान

Faxian (337 – c. 422) was a Chinese Buddhist monk. He is also translator. He traveled by foot from China to India, visiting sacred Buddhist sites in Central , South and Southeast Asia between 399–412 to acquire Buddhist texts. He described his journey his travelogue, A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms (Foguo Ji 佛國記).

Other transliterations of his name include Fa-Hien and Fa-hsien.

Biography

In 399, Faxian set out with nine others to locate sacred Buddhist texts. He visited India in the early fifth century. He is said to have walked all the way from China across the icy desert and rugged mountain passes. He entered India from the northwest and reached Pataliputra. He took back with him Buddhist texts and images sacred to Buddhism. He saw the ruins of the city when he reached Pataliputra.

Faxian's visit to India occurred during the reign of Chandragupta II. He is also renowned for his pilgrimage to Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha (modern Nepal). However, he mentioned nothing about Guptas. Faxian claimed that demons and dragons were the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka.

After two years stay on Ceylon, Faxian was coming back to China. Suddenly a violent storm drove his ship onto an island, probably Java. After five months there, Faxian took another ship for southern China. But, again, it was blown off course and he ended up landing at Mount Lao in what is now Shandong in northern China, 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of the city of Qingdao.