Central Asia in Xuanzang's Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western

Recording the West: Central Asia in Xuanzang’s Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions Master’s Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master Arts in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Laura Pearce Graduate Program in East Asian Studies Ohio State University 2018 Committee: Morgan Liu (Advisor), Ying Zhang, and Mark Bender Copyrighted by Laura Elizabeth Pearce 2018 Abstract In 626 C.E., the Buddhist monk Xuanzang left the Tang Empire for India in a quest to deepen his religious understanding. In order to reach India, and in order to return, Xuanzang journeyed through areas in what is now called Central Asia. After he came home to China in 645 C.E., his work included writing an account of the countries he had visited: The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (Da Tang Xi You Ji 大唐西域記). The book is not a narrative travelogue, but rather presented as a collection of facts about the various countries he visited. Nevertheless, the Record is full of moral judgments, both stated and implied. Xuanzang’s judgment was frequently connected both to his Buddhist beliefs and a conviction that China represented the pinnacle of culture and good governance. Xuanzang’s portrayal of Central Asia at a crucial time when the Tang Empire was expanding westward is both inclusive and marginalizing, shaped by the overall framing of Central Asia in the Record and by the selection of local legends from individual nations. The tension in the Record between Buddhist concerns and secular political ones, and between an inclusive worldview and one centered on certain locations, creates an approach to Central Asia unlike that of many similar sources. The influence of the Record and Xuanzang as a figure continued far after its publication and his death, but the unique approach to Central Asia would be lost in later works. An understanding of how Central Asia was conceptualized in the Record and related works is crucial in understanding the history of Chinese thought regarding Central Asia, an issue which remains relevant today. ii Acknowledgments I would like to sincerely thank the members of my committee, Dr. Ying Zhang, Dr. Mark Bender, and especially my advisor Dr. Morgan Liu. This thesis would not have been completed without your support and critical insight. I would also like to thank Amy Carey of the East Asian Studies Center, whose administrative know-how eased this process immensely. And to everyone else I have worked with at the Ohio State University: thank you, I am a better scholar thanks to your efforts. iii Vita 2007……………………………………………………………………..Walnut Hills High School 2011…………………………………………….B.A. International Studies, Ohio State University 2014…………………………………….M.A. Folklore, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Fields of Study Major Field: East Asian Studies iv Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………….…………..…...…iii Vita……………………………………………………………………………………………..…iv List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………….vi Introduction: Xuanzang and the Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions………...…1 The Record and Its Antecedents…………………………………………………………………..7 Framing Central Asia in the World………………………………………………………………16 Creating a Moral Geography Through Legends…………………………….………………...…31 The Re-Centralization of China in Later Accounts……………………………………………...42 Conclusion: A Record of the World……………………………………………………………..53 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………..56 v List of Figures Figure 1. Map of Xuanzang’s Journey…………………………………………………………….2 vi Introduction: Xuanzang and the Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions In 626 C.E., as the reign of the second emperor of the Tang dynasty began, the Buddhist monk Xuanzang left the Empire in order to journey to India, hoping to study there and bring back knowledge and sacred texts to benefit Chinese Buddhists and help the spread of Buddhism in China. Xuanzang journeyed through the Gansu corridor, around the Taklamakan desert, through the regions of Sogdiana and Bactria to reach the Indian states, and trekked through Central Asia once more upon his return (Wriggins, fig. 1). After he came home to China in 645 C.E., his work included writing, with the aid of his court-appointed disciple Bianji, an account of the countries Xuanzang had visited. The result was The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (Da Tang Xi You Ji 大唐西域記, henceforth the Record). This Record, along with its coverage of Indian states and Buddhist sites, provided remarkable detail concerning the areas in what is now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, and Afghanistan. The coverage of Central Asia provides some of the clearest insights into the tensions inherent in the text, and as such is a window into both Xuanzang’s Buddhist worldview and the political expectations of his audience. Moreover, a close reading of Xuanzang’s portrayal of Central Asia not only provides critical insight into Chinese attitudes towards Central Asia in an expansionist period, but brings into clearer focus the attitudes prevalent both before and after Xuanzang’s journey. Certain stereotypes of behavior and values have remained constant, while the specific ideological interests and historical circumstances of different authors have caused Central Asia to be framed and potentially received in different ways. 1 Figure 1, Map of Xuanzang’s Journey “Central Asia” is, of course, a modern concept. For many from Imperial China at the time, including Xuanzang, concepts of geography were directional, not continental, and privileged the position of the Imperial center (Chang’an) relative to the rest of the world. In Xuanzang’s view, the areas which will be focused on here were part of “the West.” “The West,” as indicated by the Record’s very title, could be conceived of as everything to the west or southwest of the heartland of the Tang Empire, dominated by particular groups of people whose genealogy and culture differed from those of the Tang elite. This conception of “the West” included modern India as well as Central Asia. 2 However, as laid out in the Xuanzang’s introduction and discussed in greater detail in chapter two, in the text of the Record Xuanzang distinguished between “the West” and “the South.” The nations roughly corresponding to modern-day India, are part of “the South,” defined by their climate and great spiritual development (itself defined by the presence of Buddhism and significant Buddhist sites). “The West” is comprised of the nations between the Chinese empire proper (as opposed to tributary states) and “the South.” This area includes a number of states in the present-day Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region province of the People’s Republic of China, but also encompasses nations in the region now considered “Central Asia,” including present-day Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. For ease of reference, and to help present-day readers conceptualize the geography in question, I will be using the term “Central Asia.” I acknowledge, however, that is a term of convenience more than accuracy. Following the example of Marc Abramson, I will be referring to the culture of the Tang elite at the heart of the Empire, as “Han Chinese.” Han (漢) was only one of a number of terms Tang writers used to refer to themselves; others included hua (華), xia (夏), and qin (秦), all based, like han, on the names of dynasties of antiquity which were considered to represent a high point in cultural and political development (Abramson 2). Han has the advantage of being clearly an ethnic term to the modern reader, as well as evoking the sense of continuity which is central to all these terms. The Han Chinese culture of the Tang elite was premised on tradition, as well as locality. It was tied to political and religious thought derived from (or said to derive from) the great rulers and thinkers of antiquity. For the purposes of this study, the most crucial aspect of this Han Chinese culture is Confucian thought, but it also encompassed Daoist traditions and, at the very least, literature relating to religious thought predating both Confucianism and Daoism (such as the Shan Hai Jing, which will be referenced in chapter 1). Crucially for the production 3 of the Record, Han Chinese culture at the time did not necessarily encompass Buddhism, which was still seen by some elites to be “foreign” and to promote dangerous concepts such as abandoning the family. All this is not to say that Tang authors possessed a clearly defined notion of Han Chinese culture – this identity was constructed largely through being unlike (less civilized) others (Abramson ix) rather than through clearly defined shared affiliations, and the importance of locality which helped define those beyond the borders of the Empire as Other also created tensions between regional identities within the Empire (Skaff 54). Elite Tang authors were still, however, shaped by recognizable traditions defining the civilized Self and the barbaric Other, as well as by contemporary political concerns. Xuanzang and his Record were far from immune to this influence, although Xuanzang’s Buddhist beliefs complicated the issues of civilized and uncivilized, central or peripheral. The Record’s circulation, and possibly its influence, began even before writing was complete. According to Thomas Watters, “The first draft of this work was presented to the Emperor in 646, but the book as we have it now was not actually completed until 648. It was apparently copied and circulated in Ms [manuscript] in its early form during the author’s life and for some time after (12-13).” The Record’s influence continued in official circles, as “most Chinese official histories, at least from the Tang period onwards, depend, for their sections on ‘Western Regions’, to a greater or lesser extent, on the information found in Xuanzang’s great work. They sometimes even quote complete passages from the XJ [the Record] (Deeg 97).” It does not seem a stretch to say that the Record was a critical document in shaping the Imperial 4 Chinese view of Central Asia, a region which would be contested over and over throughout the history of the Empire1.

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