[Buddha-l] In the footsteps of Xuan Zhang

[Dan Lusthaus]

> Just so I don't get tangled up in these names again, did Xuanzang write
> Si-Yu-Ki?  Does this translate as Buddhist Records of Western Countries or
> Records of Western Countries?  Many thanks!
>
> Kate

Kate,

Si-yu-ki is an archaic transliteration of what in pinyin would be Xiyuji, in
Wade-Giles Hsi Yu Chi.
Xi = west, yu = country, capital city or region, ji = record.
So record of Western lands.

Xuanzang wrote it at the request of the emperor once he returned to China.
The best (and only complete) translation is the one by Li Rongxi, through
the Numata series, _The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Lands_. Li
has also translated the biography of Xuanzang written by his contemporaries
and published soon after he died, in the Numata version (also, the only
complete translation available), _A Biography of the Tripitaka Master of the
Great Ci'en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty_.

Dan Lusthaus