tures (T376, T745), and one was a HINAYANAscripture
(T7). Faxian continued to work on translations until
his death between 418 and 423.
Faxian, like later Chinese monks, conceived of his
travel to India as a “search for the dharma,” which
involved venerating holy sites, studying with Indian
masters, and collecting texts. His trip inspired later
generations of pilgrims, including XUANZANG(ca.
600–664) and YIJING(635–713). The major source of
information about Faxian’s travels is his Faxian
zhuan(Record of Faxian, T2085), written in 416,
which is an important document for South Asian and
Buddhist history.
See also:China
Bibliography
Giles, Herbert A., trans. The Travels of Fa-hsien (399–414 A.D.),
or, Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms(1923). London: Rout-
ledge and Kegan Paul, 1956.
Shih, Robert, trans. and ed. Biographies des moines éminents
(Kao seng tchouan) de Houei-kiao.Louvain, Belgium: Insti-
tut Orientaliste, 1968.
ALEXANDERL. MAYERFAXIANG SCHOOL
Called theWeishi(Sanskrit,Vijñaptimatra; Consciousness-
only) school by its proponents, and the Faxiang
(dharma characteristics) school by its opponents, this
was the third major introduction of the YOGACARA
SCHOOLof Buddhism into China. Competing versions
of Yogacara had dominated Chinese Buddhism since
the beginning of the sixth century, first with the North-
ern and Southern Dilun schools, which followed, re-
spectively, the opposing interpretations by Bodhiruci
and Ratnamati of the Dilun(Vasubandhu’s commen-
tary on the Shidi jing; Sanskrit, Das ́abhumika-sutra).
Thereafter, a different brand of Yogacara was intro-
duced by the translator PARAMARTHA(499–569) in the
mid-sixth century. Disputes between these three
schools, as well as various hybrids of Yogacara and
TATHAGATAGARBHA, had become so pervasive by the
time of XUANZANG(ca. 600–664) that he traveled to
India in 629 believing that texts as yet unavailable in
China would settle the discrepancies. Instead he found
that the Indian understanding of Yogacara differed in
many fundamentals—doctrinally and methodologi-
cally—from what had developed in China, and on his
return to China in 645 he attempted to narrow the dif-
ferences by translating over seventy texts and intro-
ducing Buddhist LOGIC.Because the novel teachings Xuanzang conveyed
represented Indian Buddhist orthodoxy and because
the Chinese emperor lavished extravagant patronage
on him, Xuanzang quickly became the preeminent East
Asian Buddhist of his generation, attracting students
from Korea and Japan, as well as China. Two of his
disciples, the Korean monk WO ̆NCH’U ̆K(613–696) and
the Chinese monk KUIJI(632–682) bitterly competed
to succeed Xuanzang upon his death, their rivalry
largely centering on divergent interpretations of the
Cheng weishi lun(Treatise on Establishing Conscious-
ness-Only), a commentary on Vasubandhu’s Trims ́ika
(Thirty Verses) that, according to tradition, Kuiji
helped Xuanzang compile from ten Sanskrit com-
mentaries. Kuiji is considered by tradition to be the
first patriarch of the Weishi (or Faxiang) school.Kuiji wrote many commentaries on such works as
the Vimalaklrtinirdes ́a-sutra, the HEARTSUTRA, the
LOTUS SUTRA (SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-SUTRA), the
Madhyantavibhaga, and Buddhist logic texts, but his
commentaries on the Cheng weishi lunand an original
treatise on Yogacara, Fayuan yilin zhang(Essays on the
Forest of Meanings in the Mahayana Dharma Garden),
became the cornerstones of the Weishi school. Hui
Zhao (650–714), the second patriarch, and Zhi Zhou
(668–723), the third patriarch, wrote commentaries on
the Fayuan yulin chang,the Lotus Sutra,and the Mad-
hyantavibhaga; they also wrote treatises on Buddhist
logic and commentaries on the Cheng weishi lun.Af-
ter Zhi Zhou, Faxiang’s influence declined in China,
though its texts continued to be studied by other
schools. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries Faxiang enjoyed a revival among Chinese
philosophers such as Yang Wenhui (1837–1911),
Ouyang Jingwu (1871–1943), TAIXU(1890–1947), and
Xiong Shili (1883–1968), who sought a bridge between
native philosophy and Western philosophy, especially
in the field of epistemology.Faxiang (Korean, Po ̆psang; Japanese, Hosso) was
influential in Korea during the unified Silla (668–935)
and Koryo ̆dynasties (918–1392), but faded with the
decline of Buddhism in the Choso ̆n dynasty (1392–
1910). Similarly, Hosso, initially transmitted to Japan
from China and Korea, was prominent during the Nara
period (710–784), but withered under attack in the
Heian period (794–1185) from rival Tendai and Shin-
gon schools. The Hosso monk Ryohen (1194–1252)FAXIANGSCHOOL