Talk:Xuanzang

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Contents 1 South India 2 Title 3 Year of Birth 4 A map? 5 Why has this article been given a "low importance" rating? 6 India or South Asia?

[edit] South India

Xuanzang travelled as far as Kanchipuram in South India. He visited the famous stupas and monasteries at Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda. The article is silent about these visits. Can it be added?

[edit] Title

Why is his name written as Xuan Zang and not Xuanzang (currently just a redirect)? The one-word version is two or three times more popular (Google), and it doesn't mislead ppl into thinking that Xuan is his surname or Zang is. --Menchi 11:42 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Err, I usually write it Xuanzang too .. can't be bothered looking at the history atm but i think maybe someone else came and moved it, or I moved it at some point. The book on which I based the article had the space, so if I was the originator that could have been why. OK to move it if you like!

--prat

Deleted the redir and moved. Also replaced all references to "Xuan Zang" to "Xuanzang" in this article using MS Word auto-find.

--Menchi 01:42 30 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Deleted Xuanzang's revision history was:

• 14:28 27 Jun 2003 . . Pratyeka (#REDIRECTXuan Zang)

--Menchi 00:51 2 Jul 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Year of Birth

Some sources give 599, others 600. Here it is 602. Do we have any authority here? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kdammers (talk • contribs) 10 July 2005.

As it is, it's even contradicting; the article states "Xuanzang [...] (602-644/664) [...] was born near Luoyang, Henan in 599". There's obviously something wrong here. If there isn't any proof on the date we should just write "born between 599 and 602, died in 644 or 664". Any thoughts? --Εξαίρετος (msg) 21:19, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks John Hill for the reference. --Εξαίρετος (msg) 12:38, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A map?

To improve the article, a map of the journey would be of great help, I think: the list of cities, mountains and rivers Xuanzang crossed can be confusing, especially to those unfamiliar with the geography of the area. The article describes in depth his journey, so I guess someone with good skills could draw a map useful enough. --Εξαίρετος (msg) 12:38, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why has this article been given a "low importance" rating?

What possible justification can be given for rating this article of "low importance" (i.e. "Subject is peripheral knowledge, possibly trivial"?) See the "WikiProject China" box above and click on "show" to see what this rating and how it compares to other, higher, ratings.

Xuanzang is one of world history's most famous travellers and his book of travels and his Biography contain so much historical information on the many countries he travelled through that they are by far the most important documents on this period for many places in Central and South Asia.

Moreover, he was one of the greatest and most prolific translators of Buddhist texts into Chinese and was a major influence on all who followed him, and on the development of Chinese Buddhism in general. He is also important for the influence he had on the development of later Chinese literature notably the enduring and important Ming novel Journey to the West with it's world-famous character, Monkey, based on the life of the great pilgrim himself.

Please, I strongly urge that the "importance rating" of this article be considerably upgraded.

Sincerely, John Hill 02:57, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

The importance ratings are necessarily subjective. To improve their validity, discussion is encouraged. I suggest you bring up your points at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject China and see what others think. --Ideogram 04:52, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] India or South Asia?

A certain user is now encouraging an edit war so I ask for the opinions of other users. Xuanzang visited a lot of different states, all of them having names like Ghandara, Multan, Nepal, Swat Valley etc, so what is the significance of calling this region in the context of British "India"? The region in question is Afghanistan, Pakistan, North India and Nepal. I propose editing the heading from India to South Asia as it would make more sense. The region was not called "India" at the time, but consisted of 100s of smaller Kingdoms. It is misleading to use the term "India" as a substitute for South Asia. There seems to be a Nationalist intent. --Xinjao (talk) 12:29, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think there is any "Nationalist intent" at all. I think it's simply that all of these places were part of the historical region of India. The Indian subcontinent, perhaps. I'll admit I'm not really sure, but I am assuming good faith and guessing that the user means that Xuanzang visited the area that generally formed part of Indian empires (whenever an emperor actually united the whole country by force). Or, more likely, the geographical landmass that is called "India" (i.e. the tectonic plate that has moved further northward than any other, if I recall correctly). --Kuaichik (talk) 21:25, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

I agree - I think in early historical terms it is fine to refer to "India" as the name of the subcontinent or the region generally. This term was historically reasonably free of political overtones as the subcontinent was never really united until most of it was absorbed into the British empire. Unfortunately, now, due to the separation of Pakistan and Bangladesh the name is assumed to have political overtones and a more restricted geographic application - however, I don't think this should be a problem for anything much before 1947. Cheers, John Hill (talk) 23:35, 26 April 2008 (UTC)