The Women's Kingdom in the Journey to the West novel is likely to have been inspired be the legend of the Amazons as told by Herodotus. So, this really opens up the possibility of a crossover between Wonder Woman and Sun Wukong.
Sorry to pop the bubble, but most of the Chinese people are atheist. They do not hold any relations with the things of the past and the culture as most of it was destroyed in the cultural revolution.
@@zzzcorny9636 so, anything to back your claim? China has more than 1b people and according to your statement, more than half of them are atheist. Let’s round the number to exact 1b and you still claimed more than 500 MILLIONS people are atheist, I have never seen any study that cover that much people before. Except the government itself which in this case, I don’t believe they will share!
It's always interesting to see how different cultures influenced each other in these pre-modern times. I am not Buddhist myself, but I was fascinated to learn that Heracles became associated with the deity Vajrapani through the Greco-Buddhists in India (just imagine if Sun Wukong battled him!) It's a shame today's international relations so often have to be defined by border conflict and trade wars.
India is a place of knowledge, both spiritual and intellectual. At that time they already have well developed, complex rules of grammar, linguistics and logic. Venerable Master Xuan Tsang uses Sanskrit to wrote those triumphant treaties. He would debate anyone in Sanskrit. A task that is most difficult if not nearly impossible as someone also need to have deep understanding of both schools of Buddhism.
Being from Assam, Huanzang is incredibly important for history of my state. The earliest documented history from my region comes from his writing. Assam's earlier history is still unclear. Most of it is mythical. Also called Hiun Tsang, he had visited Assam as the guest of Bhaskarvarman. It is his writing that gave us a peek into how rich the region was.
A lot of our history remains lost. Many documents were burned through wars and invasions. It's sad honestly. How much we don't know about our own land.
@@hagongda123 india has no record of him at all. India has no interest for history just religion. So we have to learn most of our ancient history from foreign sources. Hieun Tsang is the name we used for Xuanzang based on an older transliteration scheme- wade giles I think
The situation was complicated, Gaochang died of a heart attack while Xuangzang was in India. Then a Tang Dynasty General took advantage of the situation and annexed the Turfan Basin. Xuangzang could not fulfill the promise given the circumstances.
I came across this channel a few days ago and found I have learned so much. Absolutely love it. One can certainly appreciate so much more the places where they visit (after the Covid crisis is over) after they know the history and culture better. I see this channel as giving us the basic information so that we can go do more research on the topics. Well done!
My wife and I enjoyed these videos. She grew up on the old Chinese epic series (dubbed in Viet) and loves anything related to the Monkey King. We also joke about how your animated host pretty much looks just like our younger son. Keep up the great work.
The king of Gaochang, Qu Wentai, died in 640 when Xuanzang was still in India. He had a heart attack on hearing of general Hou Junji of the Tang Dynasty leading a conquest army towards the Turfan basin where his kingdom was. It's debatable whether Hou was ordered to annex Gaochang but with its king dead that's what he did. Anyway, Xuanzhang didn't "ghost" the poor guy. If anything, literally the exact opposite happened.
Xuanzang didn't ghost the king! Pls dont smear the good name of this great monk! If i'm not mistaken, the king died and his country was annexed by the time xuanzang returned to fulfill his promise
Crazy how close China and India are, yet what an epic journey it took for people before planes, widespread commercial seafaring, or jungle roads through Southeast Asia. The two countries are neighbors, yet separated by a humongous mountain range to the southwest, an impenetrable jungle to the south, and thousands of miles of northern deserts, mountains, and steppe country along the Silk Road.
Really excellent video about the second half of Xuanzang's journey, full of interesting and little known facts! I am especially fascinated by the fact that some archaeologists used Xuanzang's writings to locate lost artefacts in India. Would you be able to share which source that info came from? Or which sites were excavated using Xuanzang's writings? I would like to research a little deeper on the topic.
Sure. Link below. It's mentioned that the Kanishka stupa was discovered by D.B. Spooner with the help of Xuanzang's accounts. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02666030.2012.725582?src=recsys&journalCode=rsas20
13:17 “…the king of Gochang? Apparently Xuanzang ghosted him and never went back to spend that three years he promised.” The TRAVELS OF XUANZANG (629-645 CE) site says this: “Unfortunately however, at Hwo, Xuanzang learnt about the death of the king of Kao-chang and gave up on going there.” Also, Xuanzang was unsure of how he would be received back in China, since he had broken the emperor’s decree in leaving. In Khotan, at the western edge of the Chinese empire, he “sent a messenger to King Taizong to explain on his behalf why he had secretly left the empire and ask for forgiveness for defying the law.” Eight months later, Xuanzang received a reply. Not only had the king forgiven him but he invited him to Chang’an, the capital city, with all the relics and manuscripts he brought from India. Xuanzang received a hero’s welcome on returning to Chang’an, with crowds of Buddhist monks and nuns turning out to greet him, and, of course, an audience with the king.
Thank you! I was rather surprised why Xuanzang didn’t return to that kingdom. Not only did the king financed the entire travel which made it possible in the first place, the two also made a promise, as a Buddhist, it would really weird for Xuanzang not to honor his promise to his patron. Thank you for putting my mind at ease!
The most hilarious part is than Xuanzang may be the reason Wukong is a thing. Xuanzang was one of many monks who went to India and wrote about the local deities at times. I wouldnt be surprised if he talked about the Hindu Monkey God Hanuman. In essence, he came back to China, where the mention of Hanuman probably was the reason why Sun Wukong was associated with Xuanzang. Wukong probably had influence from Hanuman and other Indian Monkeys via Buddhist texts, and from other Chinese Monkeys from folklore from around the place. The character probably culminated in Fujian province, where there were many monkey legends from the Tang Dynasty, and also the fact that there were Indian traders in Quanzhuo,. Also, there were some Shaolin training schools or some mini monasteries in Fujian, which influenced the martial and staff-fighting aspects. There was probably either a mention of Hanuman, a monkey from Buddhist literature, or some other reference that got Sun Wukong added.
You really have an awesome channel. Really breaks down the complicated parts into very understandable points. Since it appears to be primarily about Asian...Chinese history, I'm curious how you would narrate/illustrate these complex stories: 1. Spring and Autumn period - from the Quanrong invasion to the Partition of Jin. 2. Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period 3. More stories from the Northern and Southern Dynasties...I know you touched on some but it's really fascinating era. 4. Rise of the Manchus - how Qing Dynasty started 5. More historical Vietnamese stories - also quite complex than people give credit for. 6. More stories from Maritime Southeast Asia like in Philippines/Malaysia/Indonesia, etc.
@@thetruthseeker5448 Hahaha Yes Chinese did long long before it became fashionable, Yup the Chinese Silk Road. Reminds me of very old Japanese NHK TV series, Silk Road, it was academic!
After reading a lot about Monkey King abilities since Black Myth was introduced, I have notice that a lot of Marvel heroes have similar abilities as Monkey King, from flying on a cloud with a red cape to shape-shifting. The thing is that when monkey king use his fiery eyes, he get slightly burn. It look more realistic, but when Cyclop from X-men use his fire beams, it could cut through building and vehicle without burning out his eye balls. Now I know that sounds so bs and unrealistic lol. Speaking of mutants. It's basically other word for demons. Wukong and his companions was demonic that helped human to fight other demons. Then we have the Wukong ride, the flying cicada, a cloud that pretty much function as his personal jet vs Green Goblin in Spiderman, Silver Surfer from the Fantastic Four and the hovering board from Back to the future. Marvel Comics/Founded 1939, New York, NY Journey to the West. Earliest known edition of the book from the 16th century Author Wu Cheng'en Publication date c. 1592 (print) Here are some Wukong cool abilities that I didn't know much about until now. Abilities 72 Bian/"72 Transformations": Allows him to shapeshift into almost any form-however, he is never able to transform his tail. He can also transform each of the 84,000 hairs on his body into another form, animate or inanimate, and often bites the hairs into pieces to create even more copies. Bi Huo Jue/"Fire Avoidance Charm": Allows him to survive fire. Bi Shui Jue/"Water Avoidance Charm": Allows him to survive deep water; however, he is unable to fight while using this ability. Body Freezing Spell: Allows him to immobilize enemies. Huǒyǎn-jīnjīng(火眼金睛)/"fiery-eyes golden-gaze": Allows him to identify evil no matter what form it takes; however, it also causes smoke to sting his eyes. Wùkōng acquired this ability after Lao Tzu traps Wùkōng in his cauldron for 49 days, attempting to distill him as punishment. Jie Suo Fa/"Lock-Breaking Spell": Allows him to point a finger or his staff and open any lock. Jīndǒuyún/"cloud-somersault" or “cloud trapeze”: Allows him to cover 108,000 li (54,000 km, 33,554 mi) in a single leap. Protective Circle: Allows him to erect an impassible barrier by drawing a circle on the ground with his staff. Shen Wai Shen Fa/"Body Outside of Body": Specifically refers to his ability to transform his hairs into fighting clones of himself. Summoning: Allows him to summon local deities. Wind: Allows him to summon strong winds and storms. Wukong Abilities mythology.wikia.org/wiki/Sūn_Wùkōng More about Wukong mythopedia.com/chinese-mythology/gods/sun-wukong/ Journey to the West en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West The writer for Wukong was way ahead of it time. Now I remember Wukong is a stone monkey and he can transformed into one, just the The thing from fantastic four. He can also turn into a giant ape. You can compare that to Ant man, the hulk and Caesar from Planet of the apes for being the first talking monkey. Wolverine has facial feature as Wukong and both able to sniff out their enemy scents. Wukong can control winds and storms, just like Storm from X-men.
hi, have you guys done any videos on the kingdom of champa yet? i'm cham myself, but raised in the us and i dont see much about my culture, and i'd be interested in learning more if possible :,)
I just found ur channel today, its marvelous for me to study chinese history. Im chinese indonesian,but i know little my ancestral chinese history. Before ur channel, i am a nerd for german history (u know facist, heil thing history, i even join german reenactors for that) But now i want open my mind for new history. Maybe start from my ancestral history, chinese history.
As Thais, I have to say that because of him we knew exactly where our city-state Tolopoti /Dvaravati (ทวารวดี) is. It's located in btw old Myanmar and Khmer Kingdoms or current central Thailand - Chaophraya Basin.
Great video. The novel Journey To The West is not only about Xuan Zhang seeking Buddhist scriptures in India. The author intent was more of a satire about the corrupt society and evil behavior of those in power at that time.
Yeah there's a Korean monk Hyecho, almost a century after monk Xuanzang, who traveled to India in 723 starting from Silla to Tang and eventually to eastern India by ocean route and travelling throughout most of India (starting from the east to south, central, north, and finally west India), going as far west as the eastern territories of the Umayyad Caliphate. He then turned back east from there and went on land through central Asia, going through the Turks and Tibet before finally reaching the western lands of Tang (Dunhuang), where he rested before finishing the last leg of his journey to the capital of Tang, Chang'an. He settled down and lived in the vicinity of Chang'an in Tang, never to return to Silla.
From my room in Bangkok I can see a tall pagoda which is a temple to Guanyin. It's a beautiful place filled with statues, but off the tourist-trekked path. A new monorail line that opened this year which runs near to it, so perhaps that will change.
This is one quality video ! Keep up the good work, i'm rooting for more Eastern history, rise and fall of the Song, Jurchen Jin and the famed Iron pagoda cavalry, Great Mongol empire through your narative .
The Japanese Noh play "prince of Lanling" could be regarded as a reference of Ancient Chinese music at most. Because Noh play had already been Japanized after 1000 years. Nowadays, the researching of Ancient Tang music mostly rely on Xi'an Drum Music.
Can you make more videos on Chinese accounts of ancient and pre modern India ? For example, it would be interesting to know what Song China thought of the Chola-Srivijaya wars, Ming Chinese accounts of the Vijayanagara Empire and Hussain Shahi dynasty, the Yuan and Delhi Sultanate exchanges as well as the Qing accounts of the Mughal Empire.
This is wonderful information bro! I like it! It seems the historical Xuanzang was more interesting than the fictional Sanzang. They should made a movie about his adventures.
There should be an anime of this where Tang Sanzang is the anime protagonist and he has a harem of demons chasing after him. Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy are there protecting their master from that harem throughout the journey.
@ZebraZ Western interest in Hinduism and later Buddhism spiked in the mid-19th century. Curiosity, orientalism, a myriad of factors contributed to it. Whist it's a good thing in itself which enabled scholars to look back at these religions with the latest academic tools, people did it in the contemporary fashion - i.e. in an imperialist and colonialist way. Numerous "expeditions" were contracted by academic institutions to retrieve "materials" for study, with little regard to what happened to people on the ground at the destinations. That's why you get a load of artifacts in American and European museums today.
Cool story, bro! 😁 Excellent writing, narration, and production values. It’s great hearing Asian history related to us by someone with your cultural experience and scholarship. For example, as a westerner who hasn’t studied Chinese language, trying to pronounce pinyin is a major fail (while romaji rolls off the western tongue much more naturally), and it’s nice to hear Chinese names and other words properly pronounced in your videos. Sub’d!
Xuanzhang's travels took 17 years. He stopped at various learning centers to learn the language and the sutras. But since Pali was the most important Buddhist language at the time, he might have had travelled to India with some knowledge of Pali.
@@CoolHistoryBros He traveled with a large entourage that stayed with him from Gaochang onwards, which most likely had a few translators. Gaochang was a Han-dominated kingdom that used Chinese as its administrative language. Its last king and Xuanzang's patron was Qu Wentai, a Han nobleman. Xuanzang probably didn't have any need to speak anything but Chinese until he got to Nalanda.
I'm curious why most of India does not believe in Buddhism nowadays, while Buddhism is quite popular in East Asian cultural spheres like china and japan.
there is some problems in 7:23, 1-Babylon did not exist in that time really at least officially 2-Babylon is in southern to middle Iraq where you did show is Azerbaijan and Armenia and in that time middle Caucasia was indeed the kingdom of Armenia 3-Babylon is in west but he said Folin is in northwest I believe, so he means somewhere in Caucasia and it is really acceptable too because of what you said about Themyscira which was in west of Armenia
King of Gaochang had already died 3 years before Xuanzang coming back to Changan. On learning this sad news, Xuanzang decided to go by a roundabout route to avoid Gaochang on his way back to Changan.
Interesting. After I heard you talked about Xuan Zhang was a consultant for Emperor Taizong for something. I wonder what's that? Is it something I heard from Ms.Zhao's channel? She was talking about Emperor Taizong experienced traveling into the underworld that could have been the reason why he encouraged Xuan Zhang to traveled to Nalanda university in ancient India. How did emperor Taizong travel to the underworld then came back to the empire? It'd also be very interesting but not surprising. I bet. Lots of people in that period of time could do such a thing and Emperor Taizong. He was the one with the great knowledge other than his ability to dealed with empire administration and warfare. He had that one great knowledge. I guess. As same as you mentioned about Silabadra at Nalanda university. How can he know beforehand there would be Chinese Buddhist monk came to study Buddhist manuscript then take some of them back to ancient china? I'd say. Silabadra couldn't wait for someone if he hadn't known beforehand. Could he? Big fan of your work here.
@@CoolHistoryBros Oh I see. Ms.Zhao mentioned. Emperor Taizong was in "journey to the west". I assumed that's the real journey of Xuan Zang but she refered to the novel. Thanks CJ. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Indian here. The names Hindu India Sindh all comes from the name Sindhu. Sindhu is the Indian name of the river Indus. India was first used by the Greeks of Alexander, meaning country of the Indus. Hindu was the name given to the religion practiced by the people of Indus. People of India called the country Bharat and the religion Sanatan Dharma as mentioned by you. A video on the spread of Buddhism & martial arts from India to China would be great. Thanks.
6:21 this type of sacrifices were condemned throughout our traditions, and now it is completely shunned and banned. In past, these were condemned to the extent that it was called ways of the evil. Here also, it were the bandits who wanted to commit it.
@@CoolHistoryBros It is still amazing that he commanded those languages within a few years. In ancient times, there was no access to language textbooks and I can imagine even the people who shared the same language may have drastically different accents. It was just unbelievable. He's a true legend.
You forgot Tibet as a major Mahayana nation, who remains a bastion of Mahayana in modern times, while Buddhism was mingled with Shinto in Japan and was banned for a generation in China, remaining in decline there. In Korea, Christianity has begun to overshadow Mahayana.
Sanskrit was official language for most part of the India, so Sanskrit did well in India. He himself wrote in his work that he learned Sanskrit and also translated Sanskrit texts into Chinese.
Most Famous Chinese in "Indian History", 99.99% of indians dont even know him, and the ones who do only know him very recently like 2-3 years ago because of their exposure to internet
Is the relation between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism analogous to Catholics vs Protestants vs Orthodox?? Is Buddhism relationship with Hinduism like Christianity’s relationship with Judaism? Do they hate each other as well??
They didn't really war with each other. They mostly just trash talk rival schools. Buddhism was never as centralized as Christianity, there were 18-20 early Buddhists sects. Theravada was a subsect of an earlier school and mahayana was a subsect of a subsect of a different school that also changed when it went to China. And Christianity is much closer to the messianic Judaism of that time period compared to Buddhism which is related to Hinduism but outright rejects very core Hindu concepts like the atman(soul), eternalism and the authority of the Vedas.
@@nomanor7987 religions are always internally diverse and you never know what could happen. Despite the Buddha's extreme non violence people have rallied behind buddhist identity to commit atrocities. Despite abrahamic religions violent themes, mystical schools in all of them have philosophies of extreme unity claiming everyone should be loved like God, even non believers.
@@orkkojit you dont read history. Shoshanko killed harshas elder brother rajjabardhan. Shoshanko king of gour of bengal were on the road of establishing another great empire for bengalies. Bengal was the land of plenty for ages.
The Women's Kingdom in the Journey to the West novel is likely to have been inspired be the legend of the Amazons as told by Herodotus. So, this really opens up the possibility of a crossover between Wonder Woman and Sun Wukong.
China definitely had some closer to home inspirations going on too, with the Mosuo and their ancestors, but crossovers are always fun.
Here's an interesting bit: in Indonesia "Barat" means "West"
@@fernbedek6302 s'y,,,
@@fernbedek6302 ggggg
@@fernbedek6302 gg
As an Indian it is really heartwarming to know how much of beliefs and culture we share with China.
Sorry to pop the bubble, but most of the Chinese people are atheist. They do not hold any relations with the things of the past and the culture as most of it was destroyed in the cultural revolution.
@@zzzcorny9636 I know that , however these ancient values can always be rejuvenated after the one party system ofcourse.
@@zzzcorny9636 Thanks to CCP~
@@zzzcorny9636 so, anything to back your claim? China has more than 1b people and according to your statement, more than half of them are atheist. Let’s round the number to exact 1b and you still claimed more than 500 MILLIONS people are atheist, I have never seen any study that cover that much people before. Except the government itself which in this case, I don’t believe they will share!
It's always interesting to see how different cultures influenced each other in these pre-modern times. I am not Buddhist myself, but I was fascinated to learn that Heracles became associated with the deity Vajrapani through the Greco-Buddhists in India (just imagine if Sun Wukong battled him!) It's a shame today's international relations so often have to be defined by border conflict and trade wars.
India is a place of knowledge, both spiritual and intellectual. At that time they already have well developed, complex rules of grammar, linguistics and logic. Venerable Master Xuan Tsang uses Sanskrit to wrote those triumphant treaties. He would debate anyone in Sanskrit. A task that is most difficult if not nearly impossible as someone also need to have deep understanding of both schools of Buddhism.
Nice info.
I wonder how India got this poor?
Was it the British and their colonial wars?
@@condorX2 yes because of British mughals. They ruined india
@@condorX2 Well, imperialism by west literally destroyed many great civilization in Africa and Asia
@Svënsk really bro? come and see some temples here
Being from Assam, Huanzang is incredibly important for history of my state. The earliest documented history from my region comes from his writing. Assam's earlier history is still unclear. Most of it is mythical. Also called Hiun Tsang, he had visited Assam as the guest of Bhaskarvarman. It is his writing that gave us a peek into how rich the region was.
A lot of our history remains lost. Many documents were burned through wars and invasions. It's sad honestly. How much we don't know about our own land.
in Indian's record, his name is Hiun Tsang?
@@hagongda123 Huanzang, hiuen tsang, huen tsang
it's a 17 years journey
@@hagongda123 india has no record of him at all. India has no interest for history just religion. So we have to learn most of our ancient history from foreign sources. Hieun Tsang is the name we used for Xuanzang based on an older transliteration scheme- wade giles I think
Love Chinese people and culture...
It was very painful to watch what happened to nalanda and now the Bamiyan Buddha.
穆斯林文化是不包容的😢😢😢
Well the reason he didn't go back to Gaochang, was because Gaochang was conquered by Tang in 640AD, when he was still in India
Sad
The situation was complicated, Gaochang died of a heart attack while Xuangzang was in India. Then a Tang Dynasty General took advantage of the situation and annexed the Turfan Basin. Xuangzang could not fulfill the promise given the circumstances.
@@deadbutmoving For a second I thought Xuanzang had a sinister side lol.
“He was like a weeb in outaku heaven”
One of my favourite descriptions ever
That is hilarious!! 😂😂😂
@@skanthavelu you dont say and no not really.
@@shikigranbell7608 Huh?
this channel should be included as a major part of any history classes in Asian countries. so well done.
I came across this channel a few days ago and found I have learned so much. Absolutely love it. One can certainly appreciate so much more the places where they visit (after the Covid crisis is over) after they know the history and culture better.
I see this channel as giving us the basic information so that we can go do more research on the topics. Well done!
Cool history bros for China, and Linfamy for Japan (totally no sex jokes in there)
My wife and I enjoyed these videos. She grew up on the old Chinese epic series (dubbed in Viet) and loves anything related to the Monkey King. We also joke about how your animated host pretty much looks just like our younger son. Keep up the great work.
"What about the King of Gaochang? Apparently, Xuanzhang ghosted him."
Pain.
The king of Gaochang, Qu Wentai, died in 640 when Xuanzang was still in India. He had a heart attack on hearing of general Hou Junji of the Tang Dynasty leading a conquest army towards the Turfan basin where his kingdom was. It's debatable whether Hou was ordered to annex Gaochang but with its king dead that's what he did. Anyway, Xuanzhang didn't "ghost" the poor guy. If anything, literally the exact opposite happened.
@@andrewsuryali8540 So instead of Xuanzang "ghosting" him, the King turned into literal "ghost"?
Xuanzang didn't ghost the king! Pls dont smear the good name of this great monk! If i'm not mistaken, the king died and his country was annexed by the time xuanzang returned to fulfill his promise
Xuanzang didn’t forget that 3 year promise, the truth is the king of gaochang was executed by emperor of tang just before xuanzang came back.
Sad story 😥
All Indians know about Hsuen Tsang or Xuanzang. He is known as a adviser of King Harsha.
Absolutely true
He visited South India also. He took Buddhist scriptures from Kanchi.
Emperor Harsha*
这家伙很聪明学语言和其他知识很厉害，从印度和中亚带回去很多知识给大唐😮😮😮😮😮😮
Crazy how close China and India are, yet what an epic journey it took for people before planes, widespread commercial seafaring, or jungle roads through Southeast Asia.
The two countries are neighbors, yet separated by a humongous mountain range to the southwest, an impenetrable jungle to the south, and thousands of miles of northern deserts, mountains, and steppe country along the Silk Road.
Really excellent video about the second half of Xuanzang's journey, full of interesting and little known facts! I am especially fascinated by the fact that some archaeologists used Xuanzang's writings to locate lost artefacts in India. Would you be able to share which source that info came from? Or which sites were excavated using Xuanzang's writings? I would like to research a little deeper on the topic.
Sure. Link below. It's mentioned that the Kanishka stupa was discovered by D.B. Spooner with the help of Xuanzang's accounts.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02666030.2012.725582?src=recsys&journalCode=rsas20
@@CoolHistoryBros Thanks for the link, this should be an interesting read.
@@CoolHistoryBros why not do one on why asian horror or ghost are scary and different from the rest
I love his history. I watched another movie about him. Love from Mongolia 🇲🇳🇲🇳🇲🇳
Eagerly waiting for the Three Kingdom series! You're easily one of the best chinese history teller in YT. Cool history bro 😎
"He was like a Weeb in Otaku heaven" best description ever.
lol he was fanboying all over india lol
@@lyhthegreat yeah
13:17 “…the king of Gochang? Apparently Xuanzang ghosted him and never went back to spend that three years he promised.”
The TRAVELS OF XUANZANG (629-645 CE) site says this:
“Unfortunately however, at Hwo, Xuanzang learnt about the death of the king of Kao-chang and gave up on going there.”
Also, Xuanzang was unsure of how he would be received back in China, since he had broken the emperor’s decree in leaving. In Khotan, at the western edge of the Chinese empire, he “sent a messenger to King Taizong to explain on his behalf why he had secretly left the empire and ask for forgiveness for defying the law.” Eight months later, Xuanzang received a reply. Not only had the king forgiven him but he invited him to Chang’an, the capital city, with all the relics and manuscripts he brought from India. Xuanzang received a hero’s welcome on returning to Chang’an, with crowds of Buddhist monks and nuns turning out to greet him, and, of course, an audience with the king.
Thank you! I was rather surprised why
Xuanzang didn’t return to that kingdom. Not only did the king financed the entire travel which made it possible in the first place, the two also made a promise, as a Buddhist, it would really weird for Xuanzang not to honor his promise to his patron. Thank you for putting my mind at ease!
@@davidjerkinson You're welcome!
The most hilarious part is than Xuanzang may be the reason Wukong is a thing. Xuanzang was one of many monks who went to India and wrote about the local deities at times. I wouldnt be surprised if he talked about the Hindu Monkey God Hanuman. In essence, he came back to China, where the mention of Hanuman probably was the reason why Sun Wukong was associated with Xuanzang. Wukong probably had influence from Hanuman and other Indian Monkeys via Buddhist texts, and from other Chinese Monkeys from folklore from around the place. The character probably culminated in Fujian province, where there were many monkey legends from the Tang Dynasty, and also the fact that there were Indian traders in Quanzhuo,. Also, there were some Shaolin training schools or some mini monasteries in Fujian, which influenced the martial and staff-fighting aspects. There was probably either a mention of Hanuman, a monkey from Buddhist literature, or some other reference that got Sun Wukong added.
mfw India is the origin of modern shonen manga.
Muslim ruler burn Millions books of Nalanda University -Xuanzang book is source to know Indian History all Indian respect him. - From Canada
So Xuanzang pulled a “Mahayana is best, change my mind” stunt.
Hah! I should've used that joke.
As for in terms of cinema, Xuanzang has been the memory of many Vietnamese generations.
Vietnamese watch monkey king movies??
@@MeanGuy969 Almost every year.
@@hoangkimviet8545 not almost lol. It's every year.
@@MeanGuy969 what we watch was not a movie but a 40-episode series made in 1986
You really have an awesome channel. Really breaks down the complicated parts into very understandable points.
Since it appears to be primarily about Asian...Chinese history, I'm curious how you would narrate/illustrate these complex stories:
1. Spring and Autumn period - from the Quanrong invasion to the Partition of Jin.
2. Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period
3. More stories from the Northern and Southern Dynasties...I know you touched on some but it's really fascinating era.
4. Rise of the Manchus - how Qing Dynasty started
5. More historical Vietnamese stories - also quite complex than people give credit for.
6. More stories from Maritime Southeast Asia like in Philippines/Malaysia/Indonesia, etc.
Hey history bros. Love you video am following you for awhile and havr almost watched all you videos please continue
He is definitely one of pioneer of Backpacking
Yes many ancient Chinese did lots of 'backpacking' along the Silk Road, and kept 'blogs' too for future generations
@@thetruthseeker5448 Hahaha Yes Chinese did long long before it became fashionable, Yup the Chinese Silk Road. Reminds me of very old Japanese NHK TV series, Silk Road, it was academic!
After reading a lot about Monkey King abilities since Black Myth was introduced, I have notice that a lot of Marvel heroes have similar abilities as Monkey King, from flying on a cloud with a red cape to shape-shifting.
The thing is that when monkey king use his fiery eyes, he get slightly burn. It look more realistic, but when Cyclop from X-men use his fire beams, it could cut through building and vehicle without burning out his eye balls. Now I know that sounds so bs and unrealistic lol.
Speaking of mutants. It's basically other word for demons. Wukong and his companions was demonic that helped human to fight other demons.
Then we have the Wukong ride, the flying cicada, a cloud that pretty much function as his personal jet vs Green Goblin in Spiderman, Silver Surfer from the Fantastic Four and the hovering board from Back to the future.
Marvel Comics/Founded
1939, New York, NY
Journey to the West.
Earliest known edition of the book from the 16th century
Author Wu Cheng'en
Publication date c. 1592 (print)
Here are some Wukong cool abilities that I didn't know much about until now.
Abilities
72 Bian/"72 Transformations": Allows him to shapeshift into almost any form-however, he is never able to transform his tail. He can also transform each of the 84,000 hairs on his body into another form, animate or inanimate, and often bites the hairs into pieces to create even more copies.
Bi Huo Jue/"Fire Avoidance Charm": Allows him to survive fire.
Bi Shui Jue/"Water Avoidance Charm": Allows him to survive deep water; however, he is unable to fight while using this ability.
Body Freezing Spell: Allows him to immobilize enemies.
Huǒyǎn-jīnjīng(火眼金睛)/"fiery-eyes golden-gaze": Allows him to identify evil no matter what form it takes; however, it also causes smoke to sting his eyes. Wùkōng acquired this ability after Lao Tzu traps Wùkōng in his cauldron for 49 days, attempting to distill him as punishment.
Jie Suo Fa/"Lock-Breaking Spell": Allows him to point a finger or his staff and open any lock.
Jīndǒuyún/"cloud-somersault" or “cloud trapeze”: Allows him to cover 108,000 li (54,000 km, 33,554 mi) in a single leap.
Protective Circle: Allows him to erect an impassible barrier by drawing a circle on the ground with his staff.
Shen Wai Shen Fa/"Body Outside of Body": Specifically refers to his ability to transform his hairs into fighting clones of himself.
Summoning: Allows him to summon local deities.
Wind: Allows him to summon strong winds and storms.
Wukong Abilities
mythology.wikia.org/wiki/Sūn_Wùkōng
More about Wukong
mythopedia.com/chinese-mythology/gods/sun-wukong/
Journey to the West
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West
The writer for Wukong was way ahead of it time.
Now I remember Wukong is a stone monkey and he can transformed into one, just the The thing from fantastic four.
He can also turn into a giant ape. You can compare that to Ant man, the hulk and Caesar from Planet of the apes for being the first talking monkey.
Wolverine has facial feature as Wukong and both able to sniff out their enemy scents.
Wukong can control winds and storms, just like Storm from X-men.
hi, have you guys done any videos on the kingdom of champa yet? i'm cham myself, but raised in the us and i dont see much about my culture, and i'd be interested in learning more if possible :,)
Namaste and anneyong hyung,it's very informative video it's very glorious relationship in ancient times ,love from India.
I just found ur channel today, its marvelous for me to study chinese history.
Im chinese indonesian,but i know little my ancestral chinese history.
Before ur channel, i am a nerd for german history (u know facist, heil thing history, i even join german reenactors for that)
But now i want open my mind for new history. Maybe start from my ancestral history, chinese history.
India was known the knowledge
Thank you very much for your hard work and dedication. Much appreciated 🤠✌
if you ask a kid in India today
who is the most important person in Chinese History: Jeckie Chan
This was great! I thoroughly enjoyed it!
As Thais, I have to say that because of him we knew exactly where our city-state Tolopoti /Dvaravati (ทวารวดี) is. It's located in btw old Myanmar and Khmer Kingdoms or current central Thailand - Chaophraya Basin.
This is such a good channel.
Great video. The novel Journey To The West is not only about Xuan Zhang seeking Buddhist scriptures in India. The author intent was more of a satire about the corrupt society and evil behavior of those in power at that time.
I want to hear more about Japanese, Koreans, And Mongolians in India too
Same
Yeah there's a Korean monk Hyecho, almost a century after monk Xuanzang, who traveled to India in 723 starting from Silla to Tang and eventually to eastern India by ocean route and travelling throughout most of India (starting from the east to south, central, north, and finally west India), going as far west as the eastern territories of the Umayyad Caliphate. He then turned back east from there and went on land through central Asia, going through the Turks and Tibet before finally reaching the western lands of Tang (Dunhuang), where he rested before finishing the last leg of his journey to the capital of Tang, Chang'an. He settled down and lived in the vicinity of Chang'an in Tang, never to return to Silla.
Oh I just realized Hyecho is listed in the video!
@@yaleyoon6856 thanks for the info
In ancient time many east asians came here cuz buddhism was generated here
Aaaaaaaaah this was so cooooool!!!!!!!! thank you!!!!!!!
I do not know why despite all of these efforts this channel still is not in 100k, UA-cam is weird
From my room in Bangkok I can see a tall pagoda which is a temple to Guanyin. It's a beautiful place filled with statues, but off the tourist-trekked path. A new monorail line that opened this year which runs near to it, so perhaps that will change.
This is one quality video ! Keep up the good work, i'm rooting for more Eastern history, rise and fall of the Song, Jurchen Jin and the famed Iron pagoda cavalry, Great Mongol empire through your narative .
The Japanese Noh play "prince of Lanling" could be regarded as a reference of Ancient Chinese music at most. Because Noh play had already been Japanized after 1000 years. Nowadays, the researching of Ancient Tang music mostly rely on Xi'an Drum Music.
Before youtube, this is the kind of content that sunk me in endless wikipedia reading
I feel so proud and greatful to this channels as indian thank you
It's called Nalanda Mahavihara (The Great monastery of Nalanda) not Nalanda Mahavira (The great hero of Nalanda).
Can you make more videos on Chinese accounts of ancient and pre modern India ? For example, it would be interesting to know what Song China thought of the Chola-Srivijaya wars, Ming Chinese accounts of the Vijayanagara Empire and Hussain Shahi dynasty, the Yuan and Delhi Sultanate exchanges as well as the Qing accounts of the Mughal Empire.
I wonder how did they communicate back then
Diana Prince meets Wukong. Now that is a film worth watching.
I absolutely this - will definitely plan a travel over land, tracing the footsteps of Xuan Zang!
im a new subscriber to your channel and love your videos
Thanks mate!
@@CoolHistoryBros no joke your videos are really informative and high quality.
This is wonderful information bro! I like it! It seems the historical Xuanzang was more interesting than the fictional Sanzang. They should made a movie about his adventures.
Excellent work kudos Cool History Bros
There should be an anime of this where Tang Sanzang is the anime protagonist and he has a harem of demons chasing after him. Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy are there protecting their master from that harem throughout the journey.
Well, it does have an anime though, it’s called “HENTAI”. And there’s a lot of them
@@luutuan7162 Sri km⅚(#-' 8 viOhio 6k
@@luutuan7162 or saiyuki reload which is basically journey to the west.
I would prefer a donghua
There is a Sun Wukong in Marvel Comics, you know... so there might yet be a chance for your wished crossover sometime down the road...
UK: why we didn't know there's a priceless scriptures in lndia..so wasted....🤔
LOL.
@ZebraZ Western interest in Hinduism and later Buddhism spiked in the mid-19th century. Curiosity, orientalism, a myriad of factors contributed to it. Whist it's a good thing in itself which enabled scholars to look back at these religions with the latest academic tools, people did it in the contemporary fashion - i.e. in an imperialist and colonialist way. Numerous "expeditions" were contracted by academic institutions to retrieve "materials" for study, with little regard to what happened to people on the ground at the destinations. That's why you get a load of artifacts in American and European museums today.
Cool story, bro! 😁 Excellent writing, narration, and production values. It’s great hearing Asian history related to us by someone with your cultural experience and scholarship. For example, as a westerner who hasn’t studied Chinese language, trying to pronounce pinyin is a major fail (while romaji rolls off the western tongue much more naturally), and it’s nice to hear Chinese names and other words properly pronounced in your videos. Sub’d!
Don't worry, according to the law of karma and promise done must be fulfilled, he would have reincarnated in that kingdom to keep that promise.
10:37 Well if only the Nicean convention went that way.
Great video! What language did Xuanzang use to communicate with people in India and central Asia? Assuming they could not speak Chinese.
Xuanzhang's travels took 17 years. He stopped at various learning centers to learn the language and the sutras. But since Pali was the most important Buddhist language at the time, he might have had travelled to India with some knowledge of Pali.
Trade was very common in those days. So translators would be many in number
@@CoolHistoryBros no it was Sanskrit language as he was Mahayana Buddhist. Pali was only language of Theravada Buddhism
@@Sticklemako It was Sanskrit language as he was Mahayana Buddhist nd Pali was only d language of Theravada Buddhism
@@CoolHistoryBros He traveled with a large entourage that stayed with him from Gaochang onwards, which most likely had a few translators. Gaochang was a Han-dominated kingdom that used Chinese as its administrative language. Its last king and Xuanzang's patron was Qu Wentai, a Han nobleman. Xuanzang probably didn't have any need to speak anything but Chinese until he got to Nalanda.
I'm curious why most of India does not believe in Buddhism nowadays, while Buddhism is quite popular in East Asian cultural spheres like china and japan.
Buddhism needs royal/state patronage to survive , unfortunately during invasions such things couldn't sustain for long .
Simple Hinduism got revived and people like Hinduism much more
Well Buddhism was created by Buddha's initial followers and not buddha so for indian Buddhism hinduism and jainism are all same
@@lokeshgouda4167 Yeah thats kinda true
One factor is that the Islamic Conquest of Northern India 1192 AD destroyed the Nalanda University and many Buddhist temples and shrines.
Sun wu kong was Chinese version Hanuman indeed
Wonder Woman meets Sun Wukong, eh? Cool call. I would definitely pay to see it.
Hi Cool History Bros, please do a history of General Yang and his 7 sons of the Song Dynasty.
Love your work!
Interesting topic
there is some problems in 7:23, 1-Babylon did not exist in that time really at least officially 2-Babylon is in southern to middle Iraq where you did show is Azerbaijan and Armenia and in that time middle Caucasia was indeed the kingdom of Armenia 3-Babylon is in west but he said Folin is in northwest I believe, so he means somewhere in Caucasia and it is really acceptable too because of what you said about Themyscira which was in west of Armenia
1 buddhist weeb vs 3000 ancient buddhist monk, who will win? 😂
the xuan zhang movie is really good you should watch it.
Amazing!
King of Gaochang had already died 3 years before Xuanzang coming back to Changan. On learning this sad news, Xuanzang decided to go by a roundabout route to avoid Gaochang on his way back to Changan.
Hahaha, the Wonder Woman and Sun Wukong crossover got me.
Interesting. After I heard you talked about Xuan Zhang was a consultant for Emperor Taizong for something. I wonder what's that? Is it something I heard from Ms.Zhao's channel? She was talking about Emperor Taizong experienced traveling into the underworld that could have been the reason why he encouraged Xuan Zhang to traveled to Nalanda university in ancient India.
How did emperor Taizong travel to the underworld then came back to the empire? It'd also be very interesting but not surprising. I bet. Lots of people in that period of time could do such a thing and Emperor Taizong. He was the one with the great knowledge other than his ability to dealed with empire administration and warfare. He had that one great knowledge. I guess.
As same as you mentioned about Silabadra at Nalanda university. How can he know beforehand there would be Chinese Buddhist monk came to study Buddhist manuscript then take some of them back to ancient china? I'd say. Silabadra couldn't wait for someone if he hadn't known beforehand. Could he?
Big fan of your work here.
Taizong's travel to the underworld was a scene in the Journey to the West novel. It is not historical.
@@CoolHistoryBros Oh I see. Ms.Zhao mentioned. Emperor Taizong was in "journey to the west". I assumed that's the real journey of Xuan Zang but she refered to the novel. Thanks CJ. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
What's the best English translation of a Journey to the West? I mainly heard of 2, Arthur Waley and Anthony Wu.
Indian here. The names Hindu India Sindh all comes from the name Sindhu. Sindhu is the Indian name of the river Indus. India was first used by the Greeks of Alexander, meaning country of the Indus. Hindu was the name given to the religion practiced by the people of Indus. People of India called the country Bharat and the religion Sanatan Dharma as mentioned by you. A video on the spread of Buddhism & martial arts from India to China would be great. Thanks.
I’m sure someone else may have already pointed this out but Western woman island may also be Crete as well. Great series, keep up the good work.
That's some epic tale lol amazing achievement.
Top 10 Anime betrayals: Xuanzang
Are you Chinese?? Your pronunciation of English and Hindi is so perfect
maybe he's half indian and half chinese
@@lyhthegreat How do you know??
@@MeanGuy969 i said maybe lol
His Chinese pronunciation is not good 😌
for a Wonder Woman/Sun Wukong crossover, DC would start with the comic series before the DC cinematic treatment.
Proud to be Indian
6:21 this type of sacrifices were condemned throughout our traditions, and now it is completely shunned and banned.
In past, these were condemned to the extent that it was called ways of the evil. Here also, it were the bandits who wanted to commit it.
Best videos ever ❤️
Very cool
인도 도착하고 끝인줄 알았는데 인도에서의 여행은 진짜 처음 알았다ㄷㄷ 왜 인도 얘기는 안알려졌을까..
A Video about the Romane of the three Kingdom World be interesting.
Reminds me of a certain Islamic traveler of the 14th century. Less marriages but great traveling stories.
Cool History Bros, your Chinese pronounciation were perfect, are you Chinese?
Is there a reason why Japanese do the prince lanling ritual thing? How was him connected to Japan?
One thing I’ve been wondering for a long time is that how xuanzang learned those languages such that he can even debate with native speakers.
He made various stops at multiple monasteries to learn the languages. That's why his journey took years.
@@CoolHistoryBros It is still amazing that he commanded those languages within a few years. In ancient times, there was no access to language textbooks and I can imagine even the people who shared the same language may have drastically different accents. It was just unbelievable. He's a true legend.
I'm intrigued by where you came from? I'm trying to guess your escent. You mind letting us know?
Major cross-over eh？ fascinating
You forgot Tibet as a major Mahayana nation, who remains a bastion of Mahayana in modern times, while Buddhism was mingled with Shinto in Japan and was banned for a generation in China, remaining in decline there. In Korea, Christianity has begun to overshadow Mahayana.
Now Buddhism is rising fast in Korea.
Does anyone know what language did hsuen tsang use when he travel to India... chinese, indian, persian or body language?
Pali
Sanskrit was official language for most part of the India, so Sanskrit did well in India.
He himself wrote in his work that he learned Sanskrit and also translated Sanskrit texts into Chinese.
Most Famous Chinese in "Indian History", 99.99% of indians dont even know him, and the ones who do only know him very recently like 2-3 years ago because of their exposure to internet
wow so many koreans monks went to india, i didn't knew that
Is the relation between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism analogous to Catholics vs Protestants vs Orthodox?? Is Buddhism relationship with Hinduism like Christianity’s relationship with Judaism? Do they hate each other as well??
Theyvare rivals for sure, but I don't think that there had ever been any major bloodshed between the two.
They didn't really war with each other. They mostly just trash talk rival schools. Buddhism was never as centralized as Christianity, there were 18-20 early Buddhists sects. Theravada was a subsect of an earlier school and mahayana was a subsect of a subsect of a different school that also changed when it went to China.
And Christianity is much closer to the messianic Judaism of that time period compared to Buddhism which is related to Hinduism but outright rejects very core Hindu concepts like the atman(soul), eternalism and the authority of the Vedas.
@@dudeonthasopha thanks 🙏🏻! ... or maybe Semitic religions are just more violent and nasty compared to Aryan religions like Buddhism??
@@nomanor7987 religions are always internally diverse and you never know what could happen. Despite the Buddha's extreme non violence people have rallied behind buddhist identity to commit atrocities. Despite abrahamic religions violent themes, mystical schools in all of them have philosophies of extreme unity claiming everyone should be loved like God, even non believers.
Theravada is just more about orthodoxy of Buddhism while Mahayana is about practical Buddhism
you escaped harshas enemy Soshanko. I dont know why foreign historians always misses the history of Bengal.
Maybe because at that time our Bengal consisted mostly of jungles. We didn't become a major power player until the pala Empire.
@@orkkojit you dont read history. Shoshanko killed harshas elder brother rajjabardhan. Shoshanko king of gour of bengal were on the road of establishing another great empire for bengalies. Bengal was the land of plenty for ages.
Wow, I didn't know that Tang Sanzang was a fictional character!!! Always believed he was real lol
tangshanzang is xuanzang, novel base on real his record
You mean Romance of the Three Kingdoms isnt just a video game?
I'll show myself out :P
It's a 14th century novel adaption of a history book written in the 3rd century recording events that took place between 2nd and 3rd centuries.
The ghosted king deserved better