India and China: the spirit of shared history
At a time when both countries are at the inflection point of their making, it is very important to cherish the spirit of our ancestors who had created the mammoth cultural legacy that is still being showcased today.
By Ajay Krishna
There is a lot of hue and cry about weather the 21st century will be an Asian Century. From the present trajectory of development in the Asian continent, it is safe to assume that the Asian Continent would regain her position by 2050. To be in sync with the development trajectory it is also important that the world understand the ambition and Spirit of Asian countries correctly and provide the necessary support to the Asian development project. Precisely because there are a lot of apprehensions among the nations on the nature of development in Asian continent, we need to delve into the nature of the many different kinds of cultural amalgamation that has occurred throughout Asian history and their outcomes.
History has taught us many lessons that we need to relate to the Asian century. The sole superpower America used to be hegemonic in her developmental process. In that respect, Asian emergence is much peaceful and inclusive. If we look at the global soft power index, Asian countries still lag far behind despite being peaceful in their pursuit of developing their economy and, in the process, uplifting the living standard of millions of poor and desperate people. While in retrospect, European and American resurgence were not as peaceful as the Asian one. Asia being the land of Buddha and Confucius, now needs to promote soft power to convince the world of her peaceful resurgence. India being the birthplace of four major world religions and the melting pot of multiple ethnicities, cultures, traditions, and faith, trends far ahead in soft power than her fellow Asian countries. South and East Asia is in some or other way much more Indianized than anywhere else. Of course, the process of Indianization of this region started with the civilizational interaction between India and China. And the earliest carriers of these dialogues were the monks and monasteries from India and later from China. Among the Buddhist monk community, there were some extraordinary monks whose legacies are still the guiding spirit of our times. These monks are from the regions of South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia. From South Asia, there were a number of monks like; Kumārajīva (c. 401), Bodhidharma (early 5th century.),Jñānagupta (561~592),Vajrabodhi (671~741) Prajñā(734~?), Amoghavajra (705~774), etc. whose contribution to Indian culture and traditions were immense. Similarly there were a number of Chinese monks who were the carriers of Indian culture and traditions. Among the most notable were Faxian (337~422), Xuanzang (602~664) and Yijing (635~713).
Now among all the Buddhist monks, the Chinese Monk Xuanzang stood apart. Although all theBuddhist monks were esteemed scholars, they were also avid travelers. In multiple threads of our cultural legacy, these spiritual travelers from both India and China have left an indelible imprint on both sides. Since both India and China are ancient civilizations, the culture of long travelling and in search of wisdom had been our shared spirit. Travelling to remote regions and understanding other cultures and societies had been an essential part of the Chinese Spirit. Complementing this, travelling to remote areas and spreading the philosophical or religious and spiritual ideas had been the Indic spirit. Although both countries were witness to this spirit of travel, the intent and purpose were varied. In the era of globalization, we need to grasp many such threads of our cultural spirit to spread the message of peace and non-violence and mitigate the biases that persist in many places. Now is an opportune moment, when India and China is celebrating the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties, we need to look back at our shared spirit of travelers.
Starting from Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaratna to Faxian, Xuanzang and Yijing to the more recent Rahul Sankrityayan (9 April 1893~14 April 1963), Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861~7 August 1941) and Xu Fancheng (26 October 1909, Changsha – 6 March 2000, Beijing) the spirit of travelers from India and China has never stopped. All of it is in the spirit of cultural exchanges and in pursuit of understanding each other. History tells us that whenever India and China came together, they created some marvelous things. It could have happened only because the spirit of sharing knowledge and creating something to help humankind were cherished by both sides. Buddhism which originated in ancient India and waswpropagated in China became global because of Chinese efforts. China had not only accepted Buddhism but had also preserved, propagated, and developed the Indic tradition and value system. Wheher it was to nurture the monk community from Japan, Korea or Vietnam, or taking Buddhism to European and American communities, China has played a vital role in the propagation of Buddhist thought and value ever since it accepted Buddhism. It could have happened because the Spirit of the Travelers had been cherished and protected and promoted – by both India and China. The legacy of monks like Faxian, Xuanzang, Yijing, and Huineng isithe shared legacy of both China and India.
Venerable Xuanzang became a global saint because he understood the spirit of both cultures and had aptly employed the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family). This resulted in producing a legacy which we still admire. Similarly the story of sugar is a historical joint venture of India and China, much before the concept of joint venture saw the light in the production like nes of western industrialized societies. Silk from China and cotton from India had similar impact on human lives when China and India came together.
Xuanzang had in fact achieved some milestones that no one before him had achieved. He traveled thousands of miles to justj learn the Buddhist culture and to spread it in mainland China. In many ways Xuanzang had preserved and propagated Indian philosophical traditions and ideas. To understand the legacy that Xuanzang left behind, we cannot help but delve into those aspects of Indic culture and traditions that spread in China thanks to many, but mostly to the single minded effort of Xuanzang. The contribution made by Xuanzang is manifold. Xuanzang authored books, translated Buddhist scriptures, and promoted the building of stupas and viharas. In Chinese Buddhist fraternity, Xuanzang is not only the most venerated but also the most articulated propagator of Buddhist traditions. These are the concrete and visible contribution to the Indic cultures apart from that of propagating Indian philosophical ideas and doctrines.
Now the book that goes to the credit of Xuanzang is a gem in the genre of travelogue. Datang Xiyuji, herewith, Translated ; is not an ordinary travelogue, but a 7th century Chinese Encyclopedia on India. This Encyclopedia had many contribution to it’s credit. First was an extended version based on the previous Chinese travelogue written by Chinese monks who visited India before Xuanzang. The most notable one among the travelogues of Chinese monks before Xuanzang is the Foguoji. Foguoji was written by 5th century Chinese monk Faxian. But Faxian’s Foguoji is certainly nowhere in terms of length, of content, nature, and scope of information. Next to this and certainly the most valuable account provided on India is Datang Xiyuji. After Datang Xiyuji, Nánhǎi Jìguī Nèifǎ Zhuán is one other important travelogue written in Chinese by Yijing. In comparative perspective, among all the travelogues, Xuanzang’s Datang Xiyuji is the most encyclopedic and valuable Chinese source on India. In terms of translation, Xuanzang had lad a team which has been credited for translating some 1300 fascicles of Buddhist Scriptures.
But besides the book and scriptures, there are two stupas which are actually the symbol of cultural interaction between India and China and most constructive interaction of early medieval Sino-India history. These two stupas are the Great Wild Goose Pagoda and the Small Goose Pagoda, both are located in Xi’an City in China. These two pagodas were constructed in 7th century by the efforts of monks Xuanzang and Yijing with imperial assistance to preserve and translate the Buddhist Scriptures. Now these two Pagodas are great cultural and spiritual attraction for people from across the world.
India’s cultural imprint on Asia is quite visible. With European countries, India’s linguistic affinities is also well established. The value-system that Indic tradition had created has been admired and upheld by many Asian and European countries. Just to elaborate on some visible Indic culture that had encompassed the world map, Buddhist monasteries, stupas, scriptures, sutras are the earliest ones. Indic philosophical ideas about Avatar (Incarnation), Karma, Atman, Non-self, Non-Violence, Vegetarianism, etc. is well established in East Asian and South Asian Countries. Ancient Indian contribution in scientific thoughts is also considered an inflection point in human history. Spiritualism, yogic practices, and bhajan-sankirtan traditions of India are still the melting point for all people from different cultures. Whatever the threads of Indic culture we look at we would find that it had found place in people’s life across the world but has most strongly manifested in East Asian countries.
The Chinese language became enriched not only in vocabulary but also in ideas that in turn enriched Chinese culture and belief system. The vegetables, fruits, and flowers entered Chinese people’s life had lasting impact on the softer side of the Chinese civilization. India’s democratic society and values have given the world a most valued and needed alternative at the time of crisis. India did a fabulous job in the ancient times and in modern contemporary era, India is again showing the world the most diverse pluralistic society which can live, act, and perform together in turning the tide of an unequal world. Hinduism, Buddhism, writing systems, art, architecture, and music have been the biggest export from India and have had a visible imprint on East and Southeast Asia and on other part of the world.
In our age old humanistic spirit, India and China are celebrating the 70th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between their two nation states. Both countries have agreed to 70 events that will be held in celebration by the two countries. Various other activities are also planned. The aim of all these activities is to enhance the mutual understanding of each other among the people of India and China. These are required entirely because of a range of misunderstanding and biases that people from both sides harbor in their minds against each other. At a time when both countries are at the inflection point of their making, it is very important to cherish the spirit of our ancestors who had created the mammoth cultural legacy that is still being showcased today. So Buddhism, monks, monasteries, sutras and scriptures and the Spirit of Travelers are the avenues we need to look into to understand the nuances of confluences of these two ancient cultures and traditions. With only such spirit we would be able to create a better place for our posterity.
(The author is Assistant Professor, Indic Studies, School of Oriental Languages and Culture, Xi’an International Studies University, China)
