Wuxing

Wuxing (c. 630). A Chinese monk who travelled to India circa 680 CE, where he collected Buddhist texts, including texts on tantra. He is mentioned by Yijing. He died in Northern India.

Gray and Overbey (2016) state:

While there are many lacunae in our understanding of the early history of tantric Buddhist traditions, available evidence points to the mid-seventh century, as the most likely point at which historically datable traditions began to take shape. The earliest known datable Tantric text is the Awakening of Mahavairocana Tantra (Mahavairocanābhisaṃbodhi-tantra) , which was composed circa the mid-seventh century, and was reportedly one of the texts collected by the Chinese pilgrim Wuxing circa 680 CE... Wuxing also commented on the emergence of a new "teaching about mantra" (zhenyan jiaofa), which was very popular during his time in India..., a fact that is confirmed by another Chinese pilgrim who journeyed in India during the late seventh century, Yijing...

Sources

• Gray, David B.; Overbey, Ryan Richard (2016), Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation, Oxford University Press . (Previews: Google Books, Amazon)