Samuel Beal 
The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang [PDF ebook] 

This is Volume I of sixteen on Buddhism. Originally published in 1911, it looks at the Life of Hiuen-Tsiang, by the Shaman Hwui Li. 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. In this spirit, then, the man of compassionate feeling (such is the rendering of the Sanscrit Shama), the Shaman IIwui-li, took up his tablets and wrote the life of Hiuen Tsiang.