I would rather die going to the west than live by returning to the east.
寧可就西而死、豈帰東而生
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Xuanzang
Born in 602 CE during the Sui dynasty, Xuanzang was a Tang dynasty Buddhist monk, scholar, translator, and explorer. In 627 he defied an imperial travel ban to embark on a 17-year journey to India, traversing Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. He returned with 657 Buddhist texts, authored the 'Great Tang Records on the Western Regions,' and translated 75 works into Chinese. His journey inspired the classic novel 'Journey to the West' and remains one of history's greatest individual intellectual enterprises.
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Xuanzang's Other Quotes
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