The Buddhist monk Faxian 法顯 left for his travels to India (399-414) from Chang'an. The following is a footnote about Chang'an from the modern annotated edition by Zhang Xun 章巽:
Xi’an 西安 was called Chang’an 長安 in pre-modern times.
It was the capital of the Western (Former) Han and the Tang dynasties in China. The Former and Latter Qin (Qian Qin 前秦 and Hou Qin 後秦) also had their capitals there. This was the time when the Buddhist monk Faxian 法顯 left for his travels to India (399-414). The ancient site lies northwest of present-day Xi’an in Shaanxi.
During the Eastern Jin, the rulers of the Former and Latter Qin, Fu Jian 苻堅 and Yao Xing 姚興 were supporters of [chongfeng 崇奉] Buddhism.
The renowned Buddhist monks Dao An 道安 and Kumarajiva 鳩摩羅什 and others came here around this time, when it became an important centre for the translation of Buddhist writings (zhuan 傳).
When Faxian left Chang’an for India, Yao Xing was on the throne.
- Zhang Xun 章巽, Faxian zhuan jiaozhu 法顯傳校注
(Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 1985), p. 2, n. 1
