Huisheng (monk)

Huisheng or Hui Sheng (fl. 510s & 520s), also known as Hoei Sing, Hwei Sang, and by other romanizations, was a Chinese Buddhist monk who travelled to medieval India with Songyun and others.

Huisheng and his companions were dispatched from the Tuoba Northern Wei to seek Buddhist scriptures in AD 518. They only reached as far as Gandhara but, receiving 170 sutras, they returned in 521.

Works
Huisheng and Songyun both composed accounts of their travels. Huisheng's is variously known as The Travels of Huisheng ( t 《》, s 《》, ), The Record of Huisheng, Envoy to the Western Regions ( t 《》, s 《》, ), and the Account of the Northern Wei Monk Huisheng, Envoy to the Western Regions ( t 《》, s 《》, ). It and Songyun's record are now lost in the original, but were largely preserved through quotes and commentary in books by other authors. Samuel Beal's account was based on the version in the 5th book of Yang Xuanzhi's 6th-century History of the Temples of Luoyang.