In 671 CE, the monk Yijing left Tang China to seek authoritative Buddhist teachings and texts in South Asia. He chose the maritime route through Southeast Asia, reflecting how ocean trade networks also carried religious ideas and scholars.
Yijing reached Śrīvijaya (often linked with Palembang in Sumatra) and stayed long enough to study local conditions and build skills needed for India, including language study. His reports describe Śrīvijaya as a serious center of Buddhist learning and a practical staging point for the journey onward.
By 673 CE, Yijing had reached India via the sea route and then traveled inland to major Buddhist areas, eventually reaching the monastic university of Nālandā. This marked the shift from travel logistics to long-term study and textual collection.
At Nālandā, Yijing studied Buddhist philosophy and monastic discipline (Vinaya, the rules for monks and nuns) and worked with Indian scholarly traditions in their original languages. He also copied and gathered large numbers of texts intended for translation and use in East Asia.
In 685, after many years in India, Yijing began the return journey with manuscripts and notes meant for translation. Leaving India with a large collection was crucial because accurate translations depended on having stable reference texts, not just memory or hearsay.
By the late 680s, Yijing was back in Śrīvijaya and began translating and organizing the materials he had brought from India. His decision to translate there shows how Southeast Asia could be more than a waypoint—it could function as a working intellectual hub linking India and China.
In 689, Yijing briefly returned to China because writing supplies needed for copying and translation were scarce in Śrīvijaya. The episode highlights how the spread of texts depended on practical materials—paper, ink, and trained assistants—not only religious motivation.
From late 689 to 695, Yijing and assistants worked in Śrīvijaya on translating and preparing texts for transmission to China. He also studied locally and wrote important accounts describing Buddhist practice across India and the maritime regions he traveled through.
In 692, Yijing dispatched writings and translated materials to China through an assistant. This kept the Tang court and Chinese Buddhist communities informed and helped ensure that knowledge gained abroad began influencing practice at home even before his personal return.
In 694, Yijing traveled back to southern China (often identified with the Guangfu/Guangdong region) with assistants. This move positioned him to connect his overseas work to the imperial translation system and the wider Chinese monastic network.
In 695, Yijing arrived in Luoyang and was received with honor by Empress Wu Zetian, who supported Buddhist scholarship and state-sponsored translation. His return brought hundreds of Sanskrit texts and relics into the capital, strengthening the prestige and resources of Chinese Buddhism.
After arriving in Luoyang, Yijing was placed at Foshouji Monastery and worked within the translation establishment associated with the court, including collaboration connected with Śikṣānanda’s translation projects. This phase turned his travel-and-study achievements into durable Chinese-language scriptures and reference works, completing the 671–695 arc from departure to institutional impact.
Yijing's travels, Indian study, and translations across Central and South Asia (671–695 CE)