Lets Retrace our footsteps

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | CIVILISATION

The civilizaTional dialogue

Civilizational cross cultural currents between India and China went unhindered for two millennia. What went wrong and why we need to revive it.

BR Deepak

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n the repository of world civilizations, India and China are the two oldest and living civilizations, having carried out an intimate uninterrupted civilizational dialogue for over 2000 years. Both are neighbours having strikingly similar experiences, vast commonalities and complementarities.

In such a long history of civilizational dialogue, the 1962 conflict could be termed as an aberration, yet it has cast a dark shadow on our relations for nearly half a century. The shadow of this ghost lingers on till date, as if the history of civilizational dialogue and the amalgamation of two cultures of India and China never existed! If we scan our micro and macro surroundings, can we find a match to such a civilizational interface in Asia, Europe or America whether in the antiquity or present?

There is none for sure. Therefore, the history of civilizational dialogue between India and China is indeed unique in the comity of nations. So much so, the very names of these two nations, India and China known to the

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Let’s retrace our footsteps

world today have their origin in Sanskrit, albeit in their own land they are known as Bharat and Zhongguo. This speaks volumes about the linkages between the two, and could be authenticated by going through the historical records of both the countries. Unfortunately, the civilizational discourse has lost its credence to the geopolitical paradigm, even if the latter has created wedges between the nations, unfolded many bloody wars, which have maimed, killed and rendered millions of people homeless, and even stateless!

In view of this, it is pertinent that the civilizational dialogue between India and China is revisited, emulated and factored in while developing bilateral or multilateral relations.

Leaders from both India and China have been emphasizing on India-China civilizational interactions every now and then during their state visits. However, not many people in India and China are familiar with the contents of such a dialogue besides a few academics on either side of the Himalayas. The geopolitics once again is the culprit to overshadow or throw the classical studies in India and China to oblivion. I believe this is the opportune time when both the countries are progressing well and could pool in resources for furthering the classical studies, and apply this civilizational dimension while seeking solution to many of its problems. It is in this context that this article reconstructs the endless flow of cross cultural currents between India and China.

The great Chinese historian Si Maqian (BC 145-BC 90) records in his masterpiece Records of a Historianthat when he was in Bactria (around 123BC) he came to know from local merchants that they were procuring Chinese products such as Sichuan silk and bamboo walking sticks from Indian markets, thus establishing the fact that India and China were already having trade relations in the second century BC. This is also an indication of the existence of a trade route linking southwest China to the northeast of India, the route is sometimes also known as the Southern Silk Route. The famous Stillwell Road o the World War II vintage is part of this route and there are negotiations between our governments

that the route be revived and restored for better economic development of the region. Following Si Maqian, Ban Gu (32 AD-92 AD), another Chinese historian writes in his book Early Han Annals about the state of affairs in Jibin (Kashmir) state of India and its products like pearls, corals and lapis lazuli.

The same book mentions about a sea route connecting southern India and China. Cultural and trade relations between India and China further developed during Tang (618-907), Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties. By this time maritime activities were intense and it is reported in

local merchants were procuring chinese products such as sichuan silk and bamboo walking sticks from indian markets, thus establishing the fact that india and china were already having trade relations in the second century bc various sources that in Canton there were ships of Indians, Persians and Sri Lankan merchants. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Calicut and Cochin in India rose to prominence as new ports. References of other sea ports such as Mahabalipuram, Goa, Nagapattam, Quilon, Nicobar, Mumbai, Malabar, Calcutta and many more could be found in various Chinese literary sources.

It was perhaps the spiritual linkage that transformed the relationship between India and China completely and took it to a new high. The earliest wave of scholar monks going from India to China perhaps started with Kashyapa Matanga and Dharamraksha reaching Luoyang in the first century AD, and continued till the end of the 3rd century. A monastery called the White Horse Monastery was built to accommodate them in Luoyang. In

May 2010 during her visit to China, Indian President Pratibha Patil inaugurated a Buddhist complex built with an Indian investment of 4 million US dollars next to this monastery. The second wave stretched between the 4th and the 5th century and the third between the 6th and 7th centuries.

Of all the Indian scholar monks in China, Kumarajiva and Bodhidharma undoubtedly were the brightest of all.

The former apart from being reduced as war booty for his brilliance and impeccable memory by the Chinese monarchs was also accorded the highest honor of >Rajyaguru< by emperor Yao Xing of the later Qin dynasty. Between the 2nd century and 13th century some 6000-7000 fascicles of Buddhist sutras were disseminated into China and translated into Chinese; Kumarajiva alone translated 74 scriptures in 384 fascicles. Bodhidharma, who went to China in 6th century, though not a great translator of sutras, is believed to be the founder of the Shaolin martial art in China. Shaolin monastery in Luoyang still reminds us of this great Indian cultural ambassador to China.

On the other hand, Faxian (342424), Xuanzang (600-664) and Yijing (635-713) shine bright amongst the Chinese cultural ambassadors to India.

Faxian was the first Chinese to travel to India in search of Buddhist sutras according to the records. His monumental work Accounts of a Buddhist Country narrates his experiences in India. Xuanzang and Yijing had certain advantages over Faxian, as both were patronized by Tang Emperor Taizong (626-649) and Empress Wu Zetian (690-704) respectively. Xuanzang and Yi Jing both studied at Nalanda and became proficient in Sanskrit. It is indeed heartening that the university where Chinese monks once studied is being rebuilt jointly

by India, China, Japan and Singapore, and will offer courses in Buddhist studies besides other disciplines. The most remarkable section in >The Records of the Western Regions during Great Tang< by Xuanzang is in fascicle five of the book that narrates his encounter with Harshvardhana. Xuanzang narrated the state of affairs of China to the Indian King Harshavardhana. Harsha was so impressed that he sent an envoy July 2012 ď&#x201A;§ India-China Chronicle |45|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | CIVILISATION

to the Chinese capital Chang’an that reached the Tang court in 641 AD. The Chinese emperor Taizong responded positively and sent his envoy Wang Xuance to India. Xuanzang reached back in Chang’an in 645 at the age of 46 carrying 657 Buddhist Sutras from India.

For the next 19 years, Xuanzang and his assistants systematically translated 73 Buddhist scriptures, 1335 fascicles in all, from Sanskrit to Chinese. Faxian on the other hand with the help of an Indian scholar monk Budhhabhdra translated 6 sutras with 63 fascicles including the Mahasangha Vinaya, for which he had carried out his journey to India.

Owing to the material and spiritual linkages, India and China benefited immensely in the field of literature as also in science and technology. Indian stories, fables, art, drama and medicine reached China. During the Tang Dynasty, Chinese literary forms like Chuanqiwen (short stories or poetic drama) and bianwen (narrative literature with alternate prose and rhymed parts for recitation and singing) were greatly influenced by the Indian literary style manifested in Panchtantra and Jataka stories. Sugar manufacturing technology and its dissemination from India to China and vice versa is another example of the two-way traffic.

Xin Tangshu (The New Tang Annals), Juan 221, part I, account on ‘Mojietuo’ (Magadha) tells us that in the 21st year of Zhenguan Era (647 AD), Emperor Taizong sent a mission to acquire the recipe of (crude) sugar-making from India. Afterwards, the recipe was followed in the Yangzhou workshop.

The experiment came out successfully.

The colour and taste of the sugar were much superior to the produce of India.

Almost a thousand years later it disseminated back to India in the form of white granulated sugar (Cheeni) from China during the Ming dynasty.

From Yuan and Ming dynasties onward until India and China launched their freedom struggles, cross cultural currents between them virtually went unnoticed. The interactions were interrupted by the drastic domestic changes and more importantly by the gradual eastward expansion of western colonialism. It is unfortunate that very few |46| India-China Chronicle  July 2012

people are aware of the mutual support and sympathy of the Indian and Chinese people during the colonial era. In this regard, I requested the Chinese Premier in person that in order to enhance mutual understanding between our two people, the civilizational interactions along with our glorious antiimperialist struggle must be included in the school text books of both countries.

The anti-imperialist efflorescence of the Indian and Chinese people manifested in a major way as a challenge to the colonial order for the first time during the First War of Indian Independence (1857-59) in India and the Taiping Uprising (1850-1864) in China, as for the first time Indian sol-

general chiang kaishek

diers stationed in China switched over to the Taipings and fought shoulder to shoulder against the imperialists and the Qing government. Reports of Indian soldiers joining the Taiping fighters can be found in the memorials of the Qing dynasty army generals and other officials, and in the works of foreigners who were directly involved in this uprising. The memorials of Zeng Guofan (1811-72) and Li Hongzhang (18231901) are important. The documents compiled by the Nanjing Museum of the Heavenly Kingdom such as Taiping Tianguo Wenshu Huibian (Documents on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom), Taiping Tianguo Shiliao Yicong (Materials on the Taiping Heavenly King-

dom—Translation Series), and Wu Xu dangan (Wu Xu’s Records), reveal enormous data on this heroic peasant movement, while also touching on the Indian involvement. Yet another invaluable source is Augustus Lindley’s book Ti-ping Tian-kwoh written in 1866 after his return to England from China. More details could be found in this authors article in Madhavi Thampi ed. (2005: 139-149) India and China in the Colonial World, Social Science Press, New Delhi.

It was due to the synergy between the cultures and the plight of India and China that the nationalists and revolutionaries of India and China developed deep mutual contacts and friendship

amidst their anti-imperialist struggle.

Indian nationalists such as Surendermohan Bose, Rash Behari Bose, MN Roy, Barakatullah, and Lala Lajpat Rai had forged very close association with Chinese nationalists such as Sun Yat-Sen and Zhang Taiyan, and had their active support whether in Japan or China. In China, the activities were mostly carried out by members of the Ghadr Party. The hubs of their activities were Hankou, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Their post Siam-Burma Plan activities find a link with the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) alike. Ghadr support to the Chinese nationalist government and in turn enlisting latter’s support was the

direct outcome of the formation of First United Front in China between the KMT and CPC. Details could be found in this author’s article entitled “Revolutionary activities of Ghadr Party in China” in China Report 35 (4), pp439-456.

This was also the time when Tagore visited China (1924). It undoubtedly was a great event in the history of China-India cultural relations. He rose to instant glory in China after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

His advent and his lectures delivered in China impressed the Chinese people so much that his visit has been discussed time and again in the past 88 years.

Tagore was showered with encomiums as well as criticism during his China visit. Chen Duxiu who first translated poems from Gitanjali was on the forefront of such attack and criticism. Notwithstanding the criticism Tagore left an indelible impression on some of the most prominent Chinese writers including Xu Zhimo, Bing Xin and Guo Moruo. His success in China could also be gauged through the translation of 189 collections of his poetry, drama, novels, and other works between 1921 and 1948, least to talk about research on Tagore after 1949.

During the same period organizational links between the Indian National Congress and KMT were strengthened. The Brussels Congress against imperialism in February 1927 is the testimony, when Nehru had extensive exchange with the 16 member strong Chinese delegation led by Liao Huanxing. Some of the points which were negotiated and agreed upon include: China should open an Information Bureau in India in order to organize an efficient and regular service of information between the two countries.

Till its establishment the information on China may flow through China’s London Bureau to be passed on to the Indian media and nationalist organizations operating there; a Chinese representative to be stationed in India; mutual visits of the representatives to be arranged. Some Chinese representatives may attend the annual session of the Indian National Congress on invitation; the exchange programme also included visits of trade unions from both sides. The Chinese delegates were July 2012  India-China Chronicle |47|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | CIVILISATION

keen on some Indian students coming to China for studies, develop, and establish contacts with the Chinese people and their national movement. It was also agreed that India would continue to press the British to withdraw Indian forces from China and not to use them against the Chinese people. Taking these agreements as foundations, the Indian and Chinese delegates issued a joint manifesto and emphasized the resolve of India and China in their anti-imperialist struggle. It is unfortunate that the flow of information between the two nations even today is not to the expected levels, we may know a lot about our western counterparts but very little about ours neighbours including China.

During the War of Resistance and the Second World War, so long as China suffered at the hands of the Japanese, the reverberations were felt in India too. India dispatched a medical mission to China in 1938 to help them in their War of Resistance. Dr Kotnis, one of the doctors of this mission died in China while serving the wounded soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and other Chinese people. Nehru made the bonds of friendship even stronger when he visited China in 1939. The fruits of the 1927 interaction were further consolidated. President Chiang Kai-Shek visited India in 1940 specially to break the deadlock between the British and the Congress, and met Gandhi. This was also the period when China studies gathered momentum at Tagore’s Shantiniketan under the stewardship of Prof Tan Yunshan. China and Sino-Indian studies in India took a shape and flight only after Tan joined forces with Tagore and especially after the establishment of Cheena Bhavan (1937), Tan left no stone unturned, collected huge amount of funds and bibliographical sources in China and Southeast Asian countries through his personal connections. In order to strengthen the India-China studies, he also invited many Chinese scholars and teachers to Shantiniketan, who dedicated themselves to teaching and research on Sino-Indian cultural studies, and also published a periodical, Sino-Indian Studies to disseminate the research work of the scholars. Tan acted as a bridge between the Chinese |48| India-China Chronicle  July 2012

HEALTH | INDIA-CHINA | INFOCUS

and Indian scholarship as he wrote prolifically not only in Indian newspapers, journals and media but also in leading research journals of China that time including the Eastern Miscellany (Dongfang Zazhi), thus introducing the Indian freedom movement and its leadership to the Chinese people, and at the same time sensitizing the Indian mind about the situation in China, particularly the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-45) and influencing Indian thinking of many leading personalities about China.

In retrospect, the civilizational cross cultural currents between India and China went unhindered for two mil-

various historic personages including kumarajiva, Xuanzang, tagore, tan yunshan, ji Xianlin and many others that facilitated such a dialogue between india and china, had tremendous faith in the indian and chinese civilizations and had visualized the vitality of the oriental culture lennia. Especially the colonial period was the period when both the people of India and China rendered support and sympathy to each other in their common struggle. It was Nehru’s vision that in future India and China would necessarily come nearer to each other for the vast and tremendous potentials of economic cooperation in a New World after the War. India was the first country in non-communist block to recognize China and establish diplomatic relations. It is unfortunate that both India and China did not handle their relations well in the 1950s due to various misconceptions and misunderstandings. We cannot blame geopolitics and the Cold War, which itself was the product of the former. Miscon-

ceptions have bred mistrust, rivalry; destabilized the nations, and pushed them into deeper economic crisis. The military retaliations by the US and the subsequent war on terror, far from solving the problem has aggravated it, and sowed the seeds for even greater calamities. The US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan rendered a million people dead. Even though Osama bin Laden has been killed, the war on terrorism is far from over; Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia have been radicalized or Talibanized and the forces of Islamic fundamentalism strengthened in these countries.

The only way out in conflict resolution perhaps is dialogue rather civilizational, not the military solution that originates from the dangerous thesis of the clash of civilizations. Therefore, rather than geo-politics, the need of the hour is geo-civilizational dialogue and discourse that would help us to understand the people of other nations in a better way and sensitize ourselves towards others’ sensitivities. This is the only way through which trust can be built. Various historic personages including Kumarajiva, Xuanzang, Tagore, Tan Yunshan, Ji Xianlin and many others that facilitated such a dialogue between India and China, had tremendous faith in the Indian and Chinese civilizations and had visualized the vitality of the Oriental culture.

Prof Ji Xianlin, doyen of Indian studies in China, has even prophesied that the twenty-first century would be the century of the Oriental culture. According to Ji Xianlin, it would become the world’s leading culture and would take human and cultural development to a higher level.

Obviously, India and China has to work together to turn the vision of these personages into reality. Can they do it, and thus pave the way for a firmer hand shake across the Himalayas? 

icec’s china india healThcare conference and china india Yoga summiT in guangzhou

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Mind over matter

ast year, in June 2011, the China India Yoga Summit was held in Guangzhou with the lead taken by India’s Consul General’s Office and was directed by Mr Zhiyong Chen.

ICEC Council’s representatives in Guangzhou and Shenzhen joined the event as observers.

Significantly it was graced by the 93-year-old yoga guru Yogacharya BKS Aiyangar and a 117-year-old Shaolin master Lu Zijian. Both renowned masters practice their art for hours even at this age. After a lifetime exploring links between body, mind and spirit, they are sharp and agile enough to teach youngsters one-third their age lessons on how to stay not just fit but keep their equipoise.

In June 2011, both came together at an ambitious China-India Yoga Summit held in Guangzhou. The agenda was a dialogue on the traditional fitness regimens of the two countries. Iyengar led a packed, three-

day programme of guiding thousands of yoga enthusiasts from China and abroad on the many inter-connecting layers of the system along with senior Iyengar teacher Birju Mehta. Before leaving for China, Yogacharya, who has always been generously allowing beginners and veterans to attend his classes, said, ‘‘I will go from the scratch to the ultimate.’’

Yoga reached China around 40 years ago and caught on like wild fire despite the fact that the country has its own indigenous systems of mind-body regimens. There are about 15 million

yoga practitioners in China today. Chen observed that “Tai Chi is now not as popular as yoga in China. Yoga is definitely more popular among the educated youth, especially women—95% of learners are women.” Ayush Department of the Ministry of Health of India supported the event. Master Lu Zijian, who is fondly referred to as the Yangtze River’s Great Chivalrous Man, lives in Chongqin and practices the evolved Tao-based martial art and healing system, bagua zhang. With help from interpreters, the two masters compared Tai Chi and yoga, its principles and similarities, how they look at the human body, mind and spirit, and how they work to improve them.

ICEC Council will join the Consul General’s Office and Ayush for the China India Yoga Summit and further co-sponsor a similar event in Guangzhou and follow it up with the China India Healthcare Conference, CIHC 2012. 

Dr BR Deepak is Associate Professor of Chinese at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi

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