yijing

Yijing (义净 / 義淨, Wade-Giles I-ching, rendered in Sanskrit as परमार्थदेव - Paramārthadeva, and in Tibetan as དོན་དམ་ལྷ། don dam lha Döndam Lha, universally revered across China, India, Indonesia, Tibet, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam as one of the Four Great Translators of Chinese Buddhism alongside Kumarajiva, Paramartha, and Xuanzang), acclaimed throughout Asian Buddhist history as the intrepid 7th century and 8th century pilgrim-monk, maritime explorer, and supreme translator of the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya Pitaka, stands as an indispensable bridge between the monastic universities of classical India, the maritime kingdom of Srivijaya, and Tang dynasty China. With his year of birth in 635 and his year of death in 713, Yijing was born with the secular surname Zhang and given name Wenming in Qizhou (modern Jinan, Shandong Province) in northern China. Recognizing the pervasive reality of anicca and dukkha from early childhood, he practiced fearless renunciation, took formal refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, entered the monastic order at age seven under his devoted teachers Shanyu and Huizhi, and received full monastic ordination in the Vinaya Pitaka lineage at age twenty while upholding strict monastic precepts and ethical conduct.

Inspired by the epic overland pilgrimages of Faxian (337–422) and Xuanzang (602–664), and deeply concerned by widespread discrepancies in monastic rules practiced across China, Yijing resolved to travel by sea to India to recover complete, authentic Sanskrit manuscripts of the Vinaya Pitaka. Departing from Guangzhou in 671 aboard a Persian merchant vessel, Yijing sailed across the South China Sea to Srivijaya (modern Palembang on Sumatra in Indonesia), where he spent six months mastering Sanskrit grammar and phonology before continuing via Malayu and Kedah across the Bay of Bengal to Tamralipti in eastern India in 673, where he met the venerable master Dachengdeng (Mahayanapradipa).

Arriving at the great monastic university of Nalanda in Magadha in 675, Yijing immersed himself for ten years in intensive scholastic and contemplative training alongside hundreds of Indian scholars, studying the complete corpus of Sutra and Shastra literature—including Abhidharma, Pramana logic, Madhyamaka, Yogacara, and especially the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya Pitaka—while practicing single-pointed meditation, mindfulness, and concentration and making sacred pilgrimages to Bodh Gaya, Vulture Peak, Sarnath, Kushinagar, and Vaishali. Departing Nalanda in 685 carrying nearly four hundred Sanskrit manuscripts comprising over five hundred thousand verses, Yijing sailed back to Srivijaya, where he resided for another decade (685–695) translating scriptures and composing his two famous historical and ethnographic accounts before returning triumphantly to Luoyang in China in 695, where he was welcomed in person outside the city gates by Empress Wu Zetian.

Presiding over imperial translation bureaus at Foshouji Monastery in Luoyang and Dajianfu Monastery and Ximing Monastery in Chang'an under Emperors Zhongzong and Ruizong, Yijing led teams of bilingual scholars to produce fifty-six to sixty-one monumental translations spanning two hundred and thirty fascicles preserved in the Chinese Tripitaka.

Throughout his extraordinary life spanning China, Indonesia, and India, Yijing exemplified fearless right effort, impeccable monastic precepts, and tireless generosity, dedicating every translation and historical record to the liberation of all beings across the six realms. Anchoring every monastic rule and sutra translation in Shakyamuni Buddha's foundational teachings on the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, loving-kindness, compassion, equanimity, right view, non-attachment, skillful means, and universal bodhicitta, he showed how disciplined monastic life uproots the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion.

Passing into final parinirvana at Dajianfu Monastery in Chang'an in 713 at the venerable age of seventy-eight amidst imperial honors and deep veneration from the entire Sangha, Yijing left an immortal canonical and historical legacy. Providing the exact Chinese Tripitaka parallels to the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya Pitaka preserved in the Tibetan Tripitaka by Shantarakshita, Gunaprabha, and Lachen Gongpa Rabsal, Yijing stands forever alongside Faxian, Kumarajiva, Paramartha, Xuanzang, and Amoghavajra as a supreme guardian of the Middle Way.