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Everyone have their own beliefs,
everyone have their own pursuits,
everyone has their own faiths,
and everyone has their own promises.
One must be persistent in their beliefs,
pursuits, faiths, and promises.
By doing so, hardships can be overcome
and even willingly sacrifice their life.
In this episode, we will talk about the idiom that
describes a person's strong will and perseverance.
Welcome to Steven's Chinese Idiom Stories.
To have a good understanding of the Chinese idioms
can help grasp the essence of the Chinese language,
discover the Chinese history and taste the Chinese culture.
Today, I will teach you the idiom call "shě shēn qiú fǎ"
Let me explain the meaning of this idiom
To abandon one's body in the search for Buddha's truth.
"shě shēn" means sacrifice one's life;
"qiú fǎ" means searching the essence of Buddhism.
This idiom originally referred to when Buddhists
searched for the scriptures, they never
hesitate to sacrifice themselves,
not afraid of hardships and surmounting difficulties.
Afterward, this idiom is used to describe people who
are willing to sacrifice their own life in order to seek the truth.
A famous Chinese writer, Mr. Lu Xun once said:
"Since the ancient times, there are hardworking people,
people who plead for others,
people who sacrifice everything
in the search for Buddhism...
These people are the backbone of China.
The person that Mr. Lu Xun talked about sacrificing himself
for Buddhism is Master Monk, Xuanzang,
from the Tang Dynasty.
Speaking of Xuanzang, for those people who know
Chinese literature, they will normally associate
him with the monk, Tang Seng
from the fiction "Journey to the West",
one of the Chinese top four classics.
Tang Seng travelled to the west to
search for Buddhism scriptures.
He went through many ups and downs in his journey
but with the company of his three apprentices,
and the blessing of Guan Yin,
the Chinese Goddess of compassion,
he finished his mission.
The writer of "Journey to the West",
Wu Cheng'en formed this mythical story
based on the life of Xuanzang.
In fact, according to documented history,
Master Xuanzang is an intellectual
and brave monk in Chinese history.
Today, I will tell you the story behind
"The Great Journey of Xuanzhang"
Please note I'm not referring to the Tang Seng
in the mythical story "Journey to the West"
but Xuanzang's real journey to the west.
Xuanzang was born in year 602.
His surname is Chan and origin from YingChuan,
which is today's XuChang in HeNan.
His family believed in Buddhism
this greatly influenced Xuanzang's belief since he was little.
When he was thirteen, he became
a monk at a Temple in Luoyang,
In his early stage of learning Buddhism,
he travelled a lot to seek apprenticeship
from different monks, learning scriptures
and started to gain fame because of his achievements.
Later on, he became a famous monk.
Before Xuanzang became a monk,
Buddhism has been passed from India
to China during the Han Dynasty.
Due to different reasons, Buddhism in
China formed into different branches,
and each branch has a different interpretation of Buddhism.
A lot of Buddhist classic literature
was not translated accurately.
Aiming to become a devote Buddhist,
Xuanzang wanted to look for the true meaning of Buddhism
and decided to visit where it all began,
India to visit famous teachers,
investigate the root of Buddhism
in order to obtain the real scriptures.
In AD 629, Xuanzang began his journey from Chang An
and then approached the long Silk Road.
As he travelled west, it was not like the fiction
"Journey to the West"; there were no monsters
or ghosts appearing continuously which prevented
the monk from his mission.
But of course, his westbound journey was
indeed arduous and dangerous.
Facing such a difficult trip,
he did not flinch and made a promise to
himself: "I will never return to the east if I am
not able to get to India. If I die during the journey,
I will not regret."
Many legendary stories were documented
during Xuanzang's westbound expedition.
According to the story, Xuanzang went into
Mo He Yan desert, which was called the
River of Sand in the olden days.
The desert stretches for 800km.
In the vast desert, there was not a sight
of other human being but only the sand
storm or scattered bones of animals.
As Xuanzang was walking alone,
he encountered a dust storm and lost his water and food.
Should he give up or continue his journey?
Xuanzang remembered his pledge that he could
not return without finding the real scriptures.
When someone said something,
they must keep their words; When someone swears,
they must keep their promises.
We can't give up halfway because of difficulties.
Xuanzang would rather in his westbound journey
than returning to the east, so he decided
to continue travelling to the west.
He travelled for another 5 days and 4 nights
without finding any water nor food.
His thirst and hunger was unbearable.
On the fifth night, he had no more
energy and collapsed on the sand.
In the middle of the night, suddenly a cold
wind was blowing and Xuanzang
started to regain consciousness.
If maybe God's blessing, he didn't die.
With his persistence, Xuanzang slowly climbed back up.
After not long, he found water.
He rested for a while and continued his journey.
Because of his perseverance and conviction,
he finally conquered Mo He Yan desert.
Later he climbed up the snow mountain,
trudged through deserts and roads,
regardless of their fatigue,
stopped at many places and spread Buddhism.
He shared his knowledge and insights of Buddhism
with the local Buddhist masters.
During this progress,
he realized tha going to India really taught him
the true meaning of Buddhism.
Therefore, his was even more
determined to go to India to study Buddhism.
Xuanzang started his trip from Chang An,
after experiencing many obstacles in his long trip,
he finally reached his destination, India in AD 628.
He went to the most famous temple, Nālandā,
Besides learning, he traveled around India and
collected and learned various Buddhism classics.
Because of Xuanzang's profound attainments and reputation,
he got invited to be the host of a debate
of the True Buddhism Beliefs,
which is the Highest honor a monk can get.
passed through seventeen Springs and Autmns,
Xuanzang brought back 357 Buddhism
classical books in AD 645 back to China.
All the politicians, commoners as well
as the King of Tang Dynasty, Li ShiMing
appointed to meet Xuanzang.
Since then he stayed at Changan to translate
75 books with 1335 volumes, and wrote the book "West journey
of Tang". This book details history, geography, products,
folklore and religion for over a hundred ancient countries
between South and Middle Asia.
This book then became the most important piece of
literature for future generations to research
about Asian history.
There's no doubt that Xuanzang is the greatest Buddhist,
translator and traveler.
The perseverance of Xuanzang to undergo such
a laborious journey in order to learn
the truth meaning of Buddhism,
became an inspirational role model for future generations.
Today, you can still see the carving of Xuanzang
in the frescoes of the Mogao Caves
to commemorate his achievements.
After he returned to China, he continued to study Buddhism
and made an outstanding contribution to
the development of Buddhism in China. He died in AD 664.
Xuanzang's journey to the west
is to pursue the truth. For Xuanzang,
finding a way for people to be happy
among the adversity of life is the mission of a monk.
Master Xuanzang left us a great monument.
Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time.