Xingjiao Temple is situated at
Chang'an County in the south of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, and is one of
Fanchuan Region's Big Eight Temples in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Bone relics
of Xuanzang, an accomplished monk in the same dynasty, were buried here.
After Xuanzang passed away, his remains were
buried on the Bailuyuan in the eastern suburb of Xi'an City. In the second year
(669) of the Gaozong reign of the Tang Dynasty, his remains were moved hereto,
and a dagoba was built to commemorate his contributions. Afterwards when Emperor
Suzong of the Tang Dynasty paid a visit here, he inscribed two characters:
Xing Jiao (booming Buddhism) on this temple, hence the name Xingjiao
Temple.
Xuanzang (620-664), a prestigious monk in
the Tang Dynasty, is reputed as Tang Sanzang or Tang Seng among the people. He
entered into Buddhism at the age of thirteen, was formally initiated into
monkhood when he was twenty-one, and devoted himself to Buddhism since then. In
the third year (629) of the Zhenguan reign of the Tang Dynasty, he went westward
from Chang'an City, the then capital of China, to India, after passing Xinjiang
and Central Asia for the purpose of going on a pilgrimage for Buddhist
Scriptures. He came back to Chang'an City in 645, and then began to translate
Buddhist Scriptures in three temples including Daci'en Temple successively.
After nineteen years, seventy-five Buddhist Scriptures were translated into
Chinese. Also, he translated Laozi (a work of Laozi, the founder
of Taoism) and Mahayana Shraddhotpada Shastra (Treatise on the Awaking of
Faith in Mahayana) into Sanskrit, and introduced them into India. He wrote
Report of the Regions West of Great Tang which, recording and narrating
the situations of Central Asia, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, made important
contributions to Sino-foreign cultural exchanges.
Xingjiao
Temple consists of West Yard and East Yard. Three-square pagodas stand in the
West Yard, and the middle one is just the famous Xuanzang Dagoba, which is the
oldest brick-built pagoda extant in China. A stone stele at the bottom of this
pagoda records Xuanzang's life story, and a colorful clay statue of Xuanzang is
enshrined in the brick hole on the ground floor hereof. The other two in the
east and west are dagobas for Xuanzang's two disciples. The East Yard is the
Sutra Hall in which thousands upon thousands of ancient scriptures of different
editions are treasured up. Among them, Beiye (leaf of a kind of palm)
Scripture, obtained by Xuanzang from India, is deemed unique treasure.