What happened to the Tang Priest who came back from the scriptures? According to the original version of The Journey to the West, Tang Priest had to go through Du Lingyun to reach the Western Heaven. This water is extremely dangerous. In the past, there were only two ways, one was to walk over the 800-mile-long wooden bridge, and the other was to float by wooden boat. This wooden bridge was so scary that Tang Priest naturally dared not go and chose to take a boat. As a result, taking a bottomless boat is the really dangerous choice. In the process, Tang Priest suddenly fell down and died on the beach. But it was only his body that died, and his real body had already soared to become a Buddha.
But what is the ending of Tang Sanzang in history? Let's take a look.
The real Tang Priest's name was Alice Chan, and later it was renamed Chen Xuanzang. His father was an official in the Tang Dynasty. Unfortunately, when he was a teenager, his old father died suddenly, and then his family began to go downhill. Tang Priest, only in his teens, went to Chang 'an Buddhist Temple with his brother and became a monk.
Tang Priest has great affinity for Buddhism. After becoming a monk, he devoted himself to chanting and learning Buddhism. In 6 18 AD, a war broke out in the Tang Dynasty, and Tang Priest was exiled to learn Buddhism from monks. He was proficient in all kinds of Buddhism in his early twenties.
In 6 18, the Tang priest returned to Chang' an Buddhist temple to settle down again and told the people that Buddhism was orderly, so he was called Sanzang Master or Sanzang Master by the local people. However, in Tang Sanzang's history, the Monkey King, Pig and Friar Sand did not accompany him to India to learn Buddhist scriptures. He walked there, crossed Hexi Corridor, crossed Gobi Desert and climbed Kunlun Mountain, and walked all the way 10000 km. Experienced thousands of waters in Qian Shan, overcame all kinds of difficulties, and finally arrived in Tianzhu.
When Tang Priest arrived in Tianzhu, he was deeply attracted by the local culture and chose to stay. He usually visited Indian monks everywhere and learned from them. Later, Tang Sanzang became the local mage of Nalanduo Temple. After studying in India for more than 17 years, Tang Sanzang felt that he had finished his studies and decided to leave for Chang 'an, Datang.
After years of collection and giving away, Tianzhu has collected more than 650 volumes. To this end, Tang Sanzang rode heavy books and traveled long distances back to Chang 'an. On the day he came back, Tang Sanzang was much older, but Emperor Taizong was very happy. He held a grand welcoming ceremony in the palace to welcome Tang Sanzang. After the conversation, Emperor Taizong hoped that Master Sanzang could be a secular official, so as to better help him govern the imperial court. Unfortunately, Master Sanzang was influenced by Buddhism for most of his life and had no intention of secularization, but Emperor Taizong was always dissatisfied and sent people to persuade Master Sanzang from time to time.
Soon, when the Western Regions War broke out, the Tang Emperor often called Tang Priest to help solve some diplomatic problems, so Tang Priest spent most of his time in the palace Buddhist temple dealing with some trivial matters of the court, and never had much time to translate the Tianzhu Buddhist scriptures he brought back.
Time dragged on until 663 AD, when Master Sanzang finally found time to translate all the Indian Buddhist scriptures into more than 600 volumes of Mahayana Sutra in Chinese. At this time, Sanzang was already white-haired and sickly, and some of the late diseases left by him when he was studying in the Western Heaven also recurred from time to time, which made Sanzang master often be invaded by diseases. After reading this Mahayana Sutra, Sanzang knew that his time had come. So, he called his disciples to his side, explained some things behind them, and told them to persist in learning Buddhism and spread the Mahayana Sutra.
After everything was explained clearly, Xuanzang had no worries and seemed to have reached nirvana. According to ancient records, Master Xuanzang died in the Yuhua Palace in Chang 'an in the first year of Tang Gaozong (664). After his death, he was buried in Bailuyuan and moved to Fan Chuan. During the uprising in Huang Chao, the mausoleum was destroyed and the skull was transferred to Zige Temple in Zhong Nanshan for worship. Another story is that on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, Master Xuanzang went into the back room alone to find something, but unfortunately his foot slipped and fell, and he couldn't get up in bed for ten days, and then he died, which is probably the fate of Tang Priest in history.