YIJING (635–713), Chinese Buddhist translator and traveler to India. Born Zhang Wenming, a native of Qizhou (modern Shandong province), Yijing left his family at the age of seven and lived in a Buddhist monastery, where he studied under the guidance of two monks, Shanyu (d. 646) and Huizhi. The former was a learned scholar with a broad range of religious and secular knowledge; the latter was an expert on monastic discipline (Vinaya). Yijing was ordained at the age of fourteen and was urged by Huizhi to follow the Vinaya strictly. He studied the monastic rules for another five years and became well versed in its regulations as well as in the interpretations given by Fali (d. 635) and Daoxuan (d. 667), the two leading and influential masters of monastic discipline. He was then allowed to lecture on the subject at the monastery. With the encouragement of his teacher, Yijing left the monastery...