![]() ![]() The terracotta army of the first ruler to unify China is only one bit of evidence about the importance of Chang'an as an imperial center. Under the Han Dynasty (2nd century BCE-2nd century CE) and later in Sui and T'ang times (6th century CE-9th century CE) the city we know as Xi'an was called Chang'an and was the capital of China. Along the way we will discover many other interesting facets of the history of the Silk Road. My approach will be to piece together various aspects of Buddhism as we travel with Xuanzang, rather than offer a conventional exposition of beliefs and history, which can be obtained from any textbook. Our focus tonight will be on Buddhism, whose transmission along the Silk Road provides perhaps the most striking of all evidence regarding cultural exchange across Eurasia. I wish to begin today with Xi'an, not so much for its terracotta army (*), but rather for its centrality to the story of Xuanzang, one of the great travellers of all time, and to the history of the spread of Buddhism in China. As you recall, our subject was its importance in the history of Chinese relations with the Inner Asian nomads and the development of the Silk Road. We talked about the Great Wall (*) last time, although in a configuration not so familiar to you, a strucutre of tamped earth and reeds, not a crenellated stone edifice. Very likely your mental images of early China would include the Great Wall and the now famous army of terracotta soldiers discovered a quarter of a century ago by a farmer who was digging a well north of the present city of Xi'an. ![]() Xuanzang and the Buddhist "Conquest of China" ![]()
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