How will dharma survive.

I-tsing (Yijing, written as I-ching) was a 7th century Chinese Buddhist pilgrim in India. Born in 635 AD in Fan-Yang, near present-day Beijing. He has left behind an extensive account of his travels to India. He began a secular education at the age of seven. When I-tsing was 12-y, his teacher died. It was at this time that he devoted himself to the study of the Buddhist Canon. At age 14 (649 AD) he was ordained in monkhood.

I-tsing spent next 5-years in the study of the rules of discipline (Vinayapitaka) which remained his main interest and formed the main topic of his writing. I-tsing was aware of fa-hien's and hiuen-tsang travels and their travelogues. In fact, - he was in Changan when Hiuen-tsang's funeral took place in 664 AD - and was inspired by him to travel to India.

I-tsing (36-years old) left for India from Canton by sea in 671 AD, and arrived in India in 673 AD. After visiting the sacred Buddhist sites in Magadha, he resided at the great Nalanda monastery for ten years (676-685 AD), devoting himself to the study of the Vinaya. In 685 AD, I-tsing left India for the city of Shri Bhoja (modern Palembang in Sumatra), which at that time was very much under the cultural influence of India. Here he devoted himself to the translation of Buddhist Sanskrit texts. In 689AD, I-tsing returned to China to obtain further assistance for his translations of manuscripts he had collected. A year later, he returned to Sri Vijaya (Bhoja), and stayed there for 5-years before finally returning to China in 695 AD during the reign of the Chinese Empress Wu Ze-tian (well-known patron of Buddhism). 

I-tsing's total stay in India and Sumatra was around 25 years (671-695 AD). Although, I-tsing received grand acclaim on his return to China, but aloof like his predecessor Hiuen-tsang, I-tsing devoted the remaining years of his life in translating Buddha’s preachings. He died in 713 AD at the age of 79, during the reign of the Chinese Emperor Zhongzong.

Apart from his translations of Buddha’s words, I-tsing has left behind two important works; 

1. The Qiufa Gaoseng Zhuan (Ch'iu-fa Kao-seng Chuan) is a series of brief biographies of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims he met or heard of while he was in India. This work is interesting in that it gives an impression of the numbers of pilgrims who went to India but have left no records of their own. 

2. Another fascinating work, Nanhai Jigui Neifa Zhuan (Nan-hai Chi-kuei Nei-fa Chuan) meaning 'A Record of the Buddhist Religion in India and Malaya 671-695AD. Probably, due to the already existing monumental travelogue; Xiyu Ji of Hiuen-Tsang, I-tsing did not write any travelogue describing India and the surrounding areas. He, however, described the Buddhist practices in India and contemporary orthodox interpretation of the Rules of Discipline (the Vinaya) in 7th-century India. His records provide us with great insight into the “Decline of Rules of Discipline -the Vinaya” and Buddha’s teaching of the Dhamma and possibly enslavement of this great country that followed, a few century later.

(Ref: Translation of the displayed work of I-tsing and multiple resources on the Internet, including Wikipedia)