The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang

Centuries before biography became a business, before the peccadilloes of Royal mistresses and forgotten courtesans obtained a ''market value,'' the writing of the Master's life by some cherished disciple was both an act of love and piety in the far East. The very footprints of the famous dead became  Luminous, and their shadows shone in dark caves that once withheld them from the world.