Context and Text: Historicizing Xuanzang and the Da Tang Xiyu Ji

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Author(s)
Wu, Guo
Date Issued
May 1, 2020
Abstract
The content of the Da Tang Xiyu ji, or The Great Tang Records of the Western Regions, drew upon Xuanzang’s long-term interest in secular things and its compilation was a response to the imperial order of Li Shimin, or Tang Taizong, with the main goal of finding facts about the Western Regions, which Li Shimin was planning to conquer and govern. The book’s style and focus inherited traditional Chinese geographical books, local gazetteers and the official history’s section on the western borderlands by recording the regions’ products and customs, and it passes moral judgments on local people. The book’s ethnographical character and Xuanzang’s concern with secular affairs and his interest in empirical studies, as well as its goal of providing information to the emperor, are the important aspects that need to be grasped to achieve an in-depth and multifaceted understanding.
Journal
Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies
Department
History
Citation
Wu, G. (2020). Context and Text: Historicizing Xuanzang and the Da Tang Xiyu Ji. Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies, 3(1), 348–367. https://doi.org/10.15239/hijbs.03.01.10
Publisher
Cambria Press
Version of Article
Published article
DOI
10.15239/hijbs.03.01.10
ISSN
2576-2923
2576-2931
Rights
CC BY 4.0
Subjects

Tan Taizong

Li Shiming

Xuanzang

Tang Dynasty

Western Regions

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