Quote by Xuanzang: “I must seek the true law in the land of its origin.”

Xuanzang declared his mission to go directly to India, the birthplace of Buddhism, to find authentic scriptures and teachings. He sought to avoid corruptions and misinterpretations that had crept into Chinese Buddhism.

This was his rationale for undertaking the perilous journey to India, driven by a desire for accuracy and the pure understanding of Buddhist doctrine, at a time when Buddhist texts in China were often incomplete or poorly translated.

Seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar who undertook a seventeen-year journey to India to collect and translate Buddhist scriptures. His account of the journey, the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, is a major historical source for the early medieval period across Central and South Asia. He translated seventy-four texts into Chinese upon his return.