Harṣa and China: The Six Diplomatic Missions in the Early 7th Century by Yuan Zhang
Table 1: The time of each mission (from the quoted post)
| Date of Departure | Date of Arrival | Date of Return | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harṣa’s 1st Mission | At the end of 640 or at the beginning of 641 | latter half of 641 | At the end of 641 or at the beginning of 642 |
| Taizong’s 1st Mission | At the end of 641 or at the beginning of 642 | 642 | 642 |
| Harṣa’s 2nd Mission | 642 | At the end of 642 or at the beginning of 643 (before the 3rd lunar month) | The 3rd lunar month, 643 |
| Taizong’s 2nd Mission | 1 lunar month, 643 | At the beginning of 644 (the 12th lunar month of Zhen Guan 17) | Later than the 11th day of the 2nd lunar month, 645 |
| Harṣa’s 3rd Mission | At the end of 646 or at the beginning of 647 | In the first half of 647 | Unknown |
| Taizong’s 3rd Mission | In the first half of 647 | In the latter half of 647 | June 16, 648 (the 20th day of the 5th lunar month) |
The motives and results of each of the missions (combined from the two images in the main post; the final cell appears truncated in the original image)
| Main Purposes | Other Purposes | |
|---|---|---|
| Harṣa’s 1st Mission | Harṣa sent envoys to present credentials, in which Harṣa called himself the King of Magadha. | Unknown |
| Taizong’s 1st Mission | Taizong sent He Chu Luo Ba (何处罗拔) the Guo Yi (果毅) to present abundant gifts to Ji Bin (Kaśmīra). | Taizong ordered Liang Huaijing (梁怀瓖) the Yun Ji Wei (云骑尉) to appease Tian Zhu (天竺, i.e., India) with credentials. |
| Harṣa’s 2nd Mission | Harṣa again sent envoys. | Unknown. |
| Taizong’s 2nd Mission | 1. To escort the Brahman guests (i.e., Harṣa’s envoys) back to their country. 2. To appease India with abundant gifts. 3. Fetch sugar-making skills. |
1. To make a pilgrimage around the hometown of the Buddha and visit the Buddha’s relics. 2. To visit the Buddha’s footprint stone. 3. To engrave inscriptions on the Gṛdhrakūṭa Mountain. 4. To set up a monument in the Mahābodhi Monastery. 5. King Kumāra asked for the Sanskrit version of Lao Zi’s Dao De Jing. |
| Harṣa’s 3rd Mission | Harṣa offered fire pearls, tulips and saplings of the bodhi tree. | Unknown. |
| Taizong’s 3rd Mission | A return visit for Harṣa’s 3rd mission. | 1. Four Tian Zhu (i.e., four divisions of India) paying tributes. 2. Borrow troops from Tibet, Nepāla and Zhang Qiu Ba to defeat Arunaśa. 3. King Kumāra rewarded the army, offered treasures and a map, asked for Lao Zi’s statue. 4. Indian physician Na Luo Er Suo Po Mei (那罗迩娑婆寐), acclaimed for being skilled in making life-prolonging drugs, came to Chang’an with Wang [text truncated in original image] |
मानसतरङ्गिणीकृत् - टिप्पनी
It is rather ironic that closer to our times crystal sugar came to be known as chInI and to double the irony the H physician nArAyaNa-svAmin (na-luo-er-sua-ba-mi 那羅邇娑婆寐) likely killed Taizong with his mercurials.
Interestingly, bhAskaravarman, the shaiva monarch of kAmarUpa, had commissioned a translation of Dao into Skt from Taizong’s court by Xuan Zang or this students.