ASIA 
 
Fib- (^4-7 
 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 CHARLES WFLLIAM WASON 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 1918 
 

 DATE 
 
 DUE 
 
 
 
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 @WiiljePP^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 1 GAYLORD 
 
 
 — ~~: -i^.J'-'" >' 
 
 PRINTED IN U.SA 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 DS 6.F15G47 
 
 Record of the Buddhistic Idngdoms / 
 
 3 1924 023 188 489 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023188489 
 
« 
 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS: 
 
 Translated from the Chinese 
 
 BY 
 
 HERBEET A. GILES, 
 
 Of H. M.'s Consular Service. 
 
 London : TEUBNEE & CO. 
 Shanghai: KELLY & WALSH. 
 G. 
 

 DSfc 
 
 v^^^^ 
 
 Y T I B 51 i V i W U 
 
PEEPACE. 
 
 The "Eeeord of the Buddhistic Kingdoms " is a mea- 
 gre narrative of one of the most extraordinary journeys 
 ever undertaken and brought to a successful issue. A 
 Buddhist priest, named Fa Hsien, travels from China 
 through India to Ceylon, on to Sumatra and back to 
 China by sea ; his object being to obtain copies of the 
 Sacred Books of Buddhism for the further enlightenment 
 of his fellow countrymen at home. 
 
 This work was translated into French by Eemusat, but 
 he did not live to superintend its publication. He had, 
 in fact, only revised about one half, that half being ac- 
 companied by valuable and exhaustive notes. In this 
 state it fell — we were almost saying, among thieves — into 
 the hands of Klaproth, who, with the slender assistance of 
 Landresse and his own very considerable aplomb, managed 
 to fill up the blanks of the latter portion, add some bulky 
 notes after the manner, but lacking the scholarship, of 
 Eemusat, and generally patch up the whole in a form 
 presentable to the public. This was subsequently trans- 
 lated into English by a Mr. Laidlay. 
 
 In 1869 the Eev. S. Beal, Chaplain in Her Majesty's 
 
EECOED OF THE 
 
 Fleet, published a new version of the travels of Fa Hsien, 
 in which he corrected some of the mistakes, grammatical 
 and otherwise, which disfigured Eemusat's translation ; 
 but managed, it has appeared to us, to introduce in the 
 process a very considerable number of his own. Whe- 
 this is so or not we shall leave to the discrimination 
 of those of our readers who understand Chinese, and will 
 take the trouble to follow the notes in which we point out 
 Mr. Seal's errors, or seek to justify any renderings of 
 our own which may differ from those adopted by our 
 predecessors. We would submit that the present transla- 
 tion was undertaken solely with a view to get at an 
 exact grammatical analysis of the text. We do not 
 pretend to have elucidated any new points in the great 
 field of Buddhism, or to have succeeded in identifying 
 any of the hitherto unknown or doubtful localities visited 
 or mentioned by Fa Hsien. This would be the province 
 of those who have devoted more time than ourselves to 
 the fascinating study of ancient geography ; — not, indeed, 
 that we mean to insinuate that translation is our own 
 particular province, for we would gladly have seen this 
 task in the hands of some such accomplished scholar as 
 Mayers, Edkins, or Eitel, In that case, future students 
 of the "Buddhistic Kingdoms " would have had at their 
 disposal an English version, proof against any criticism 
 that could be brought to bear. As it is, we can only hope 
 that the present translation will be found a much more 
 accurate rendering than that published by Mr. Beal, who 
 in the year 1869 seems to have been quite unqualified for 
 the task he undertook. He certainly corrected a great 
 many of Eemusat's blunders, speaking somewhat unctu- 
 ously of the' " looseness " of the French version, but we 
 
BUDDHTSTle KINGDOMS. lit 
 
 could mot dismiss hdia etor miinds the um^lea'Sant siusjvi!' 
 cion- thai Mr.i BeaJ h'sdi diirawn upoaa the valkiaM'e' uotes< tcr 
 th'at despised: vdtalue' to a greater extent than^ he ■\tss 
 frank euo«i'g]a to aekuDowIedge. We< shail- avoid this iia^ 
 jiutatiom by iaiivariablj q;ui0tiaa@ th® soiiTees^ of infoirmatioit 
 given ; and whenever we have occasion to raisei s q^m^ 
 tion as to the proper way of translating any passage, we 
 shall try to put the arguments for and against both views 
 before feci rmder ia as iflipattial a manner a'S p^ussibfo. 
 Our object, will be to express the real meaning of tie text 
 ki. the most simple IiangOfage<, unadornied wMhi tawdry 
 fftwers of eomp'Ositiom : in- fact, rather pArUakiag of the' 
 rugged,, unpolished style of the original. "We shall well- 
 com^ any strieifcuKles, howev'er severe, that may lead us to 
 a better appreciation of this difficult author. We have 
 HOt spared the feelitags ©f Mr. Eeal, and ^e dottrt no 
 quarter ourselves. For tliCTB is notMng" disgracefuT it» 
 ffiisimderBtandiiig a seatenCe' of Chinese'; it lieed not 
 brand anyone" with infjiniy or overwheittt him vdth shame. 
 Sn- suppiort of which' daj^^erous &eory and for the en- 
 eouragemenfrof all erring' students of Chinese, we tfill 
 now rdfrtfi' Yi<iW a' Very extraordinary fe&mder -nsk^ oncer 
 made by a cefebrat'ed siniolo'gue',- and eseaped the' eagle eye' 
 of criticism fer many yeaus-, during which' period' the au- 
 thor of ite existence' rose to poweir and ftiiQe'', and is no* 
 Her Majes1fy"s' Minister' aM the" Court of Peasing. 
 
 lai'k&Hsiw CMngLw, pablisHedin 1'8®9 byS&ThoMWS 
 Wade', a'^iransllation isgi'v'en of the' first' elaaptter of the 
 TWUVKnown Saered Bdieti Paiagraph 37, on page 5CS, 
 contains Sir Thomas Wade^Si rendering of a. Chinese: pro'- 
 verb quoted in the original t«s!t.. Fbr the- benefit of those 
 who have not a copy of thisi wcaal!:; at hand -we wili give- the 
 
17 
 
 EEOOBD OF THE 
 
 passage in Chinese, accompanied by Sir Thomas Wade's 
 version and what is unquestionably the correct one ; so 
 as to shew the slippery nature of the Chinese language 
 even in the hands of an acknowledged master of it, at 
 that date of fifteen years' standing among the ranks of 
 sinologues. 
 
 TEXT. 
 
 Sir Thomas Wade's 
 Translation: — " And 
 again a proverb Bays 
 Tidth equal trath, It 
 may be well to Mil 
 another ; it is perdi- 
 tion to kill oneself." 
 
 TT fib 
 
 » X 
 
 
 m TT 
 
 s 
 
 
 The correct trans- 
 lation: — "And again 
 a proverb well says. 
 Good as those may 
 be, they are strang- 
 ers; bad as these 
 may be, they are 
 (part of) oneself." 
 
 The allusion is to quarrelling brothers who seem dis- 
 posed to make friends among outsiders rather than of 
 each other, and the proverb signifies in plain English 
 that " A bad brother is better than a good stranger." 
 The catch lies in the word ^ which besides meaning 
 "to slay" is often used as an intensive of a preceding 
 adjective, e.g., ^J ^ — good beyond all expression. But 
 there is yet further consolation in store for the timorous. 
 Dr. Williams in his new dictionary, published after forty 
 years' study of Chinese, quotes the above proverb under 
 the character ^ with the following eccentric mistransla- 
 tion : — " If you love the child greatly, yet he is another's: 
 " if you feel that he is a ruined child, still he is my own." 
 Dr. Williams further makes the mistake of reading j^ 
 in the ^ g, whereby he quite destroys the very clear 
 antithesis between f^ and ^. 
 
 We need only add that Fa Hsien's Eecord contains 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. Y 
 
 many mueli more obscure passages than the trifling 
 proverb given above. The difficulty of correctly inter- 
 preting the written language of China has long been a 
 household word ; and where even the strongest fall, the 
 weak need not be ashamed to slip. 
 
OBIGINAL INTEODUCTION. 
 
 The " Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms," in one 
 volume, was composed bj Sung Shihj otherwise called Pa 
 Hsien. Tu Yu» in his Tung Tien quotes this work, but 
 makes the author Fa Ming. He did so because the word 
 Hsien had been appropriated by the emperor Chung 
 Tsung,3 and men of the T'ang dynasty had substituted 
 Ming. Por this reason there occur in the original com- 
 mentary the four words " changed because imperially ap- 
 propriated." 
 
 Fa Hsien returned during the I Hsi period* of the Chin 
 dynasty, having started from Oh'ang-ngan and travelled 
 
 ' This has never to our knowledge been translated before ; neither 
 have the two Notet by native scholars which follow Chapter XL. See 
 Appendix. 
 
 » Here /^ '^. Mr. Mayers, in his Chinese Reader's Manual, 
 gives /^ jjij, who is evidently the same individual. " 9th century 
 A.D. A soholarof profound erudition.'' Hisgreat work, the 5@, -^j 
 is classed by Mr. Wylie in his Notes on Chinese Literature among 
 " Treatises on the Oonstitutioh." It was in 200 books, divided into 
 8 sections on Political Economy, Music, Geography, etc. 
 
 » A.D. 648. 
 
 4 The style I Hsi began A.D. 405. Pa Hsien got back to China 
 in the twelfth year or A.D. 417. 
 
VIU RKCOBD OP THE 
 
 to India, passing through more than thirty countries. On 
 arriving at the capital, = he and a Buddhist priest put this 
 book together between them. Hu Chen-heng^ had it cut 
 on blocks and entered in his private catalogue, naming it 
 on the cover according to its old designation, viz. — 
 " Eecord of the Buddhistic Kingdoms." Yet in his note 
 at the end Oheng-heng says it ought to be called the 
 " Narrative of Fa Hsien." Now in Li Tao-yiian's com- 
 mentary on the Shui Ching'' where he quotes " From this 
 point following the range, the pilgrims journeyed south- 
 west for fifteen days"^ and so on, eighty-nine words in 
 all ; and where he quotes " On the upper Ganges there is 
 a country "» and so on, two hundred and seventy-six 
 words in all, — in both these cases he speaks of the " Nar- 
 rative of Fa Hsien." Chen-h§ng's statement is therefore 
 not without authority. In the Miscellaneous Eecords of 
 the Sui dynasty there is an entry of the " Narrative of Fa 
 Hsien," in two volumes, and of the " Biography of Fa 
 Hsien," in one volume, the authors' names not being giv- 
 en ; and in the Geographical Miscellany the " Eecord of 
 the Buddhistic Kingdom," in one volume, is mentioned, 
 with a note saying that it was composed by the Buddhist 
 priest Fa Hsien. Thus we have two distinct entries in 
 one work and three separate names, so that it is not ab» 
 solutely necessary to change the title to the " Narrative of 
 Fa Hsien." 
 
 ' Nanking. 
 
 » A celebrated soholar of the Ming dynasty. 
 ' The earUeat work on the water-courses of China. Li Tao-yiian 
 flourished during the Northern Wei dynasty. Wylie. 
 » Chapter VII. 
 » Chapter XXV. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. IX 
 
 In this book we find India made the Middle Kingdom 
 and China treated as a foreign country. This is because 
 the ecclesiastics give precedence to their religion, which 
 anomaly is not worth arguing about. Again, Yii-t'ien,!" 
 or as it is now called Ho-t'ien, has been from time imme- 
 morial devoted to Mahommedanism, as is amply borne 
 out in "the Illustrated Notices of Western Countries," 
 reproduced in the present dynasty by Imperial authority. 
 Yet Pa Hsien informs us that there were fourteen Bud- 
 dhist monasteries and several tens of thousands of priests, 
 which statement we need not accept as literally true. 
 Nevertheless, the old Buddhistic records of the Six Dy- 
 nasties have stood the test of time ; and since both the 
 style in which they are written is antique and elegant, 
 and as narratives they have not been equalled in later 
 generations, there is no reason why they should not' be 
 preserved to extend the stock of information on such mar- 
 vellous subjects. 
 
 In Ta Hsien's work we have " the third year of Hung 
 Shih, being the cyclical year Chi Hai." According to the 
 History of the Chin dynasty, speaking of Yao Ch'ang, the 
 second year of Hung Shih corresponds with the fourth 
 year of Lung Ngan,'^^ and should be the cyclical year 
 Keng Tzii. Fa Hsien's " Eecord " is therefore one year 
 wrong. 1* On the other hand, the History of the Chin 
 dynasty (§ National Eecords), speaking of Chao Shih-hu, 
 
 >» Khoten. 
 
 " Or A.D. 400. 
 
 1 2 As Chi Hai £ ^ would be only the third year of Lung 
 Ngan, or A.D. 399. But, gi anting that the j:! is not a misprint 
 for .,.., we make Fa Hsien to be two years wrong. For it the se- 
 cond year of Hung Shih was J^ -f) the third would be ^ ^ or 
 A.D. 401. 
 
X RECOKD OF THE BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 
 
 says the sixth year of Chien Wu corresponds with the 
 fifth year of Hsien E'ang, the cyclical characters being 
 ChiHai; but it is stated in the Chin-shih-lui » that on 
 the tablets of Chao Heng-shan and Li Chiin, as well as in 
 the ancestral hall of Hsi Men-pao, the sixth year of Chien 
 Wu is made to correspond with the cyclical year Zeng 
 Tzu. This again is a mistake of a year, i * The reason 
 is that at the above period the various States were sepa- 
 rated from and contending with each other, and the style 
 of the reign was recklessly changed, sometimes annually, 
 sometimes even oftener, without there being any fixed rule. 
 Further, the North and South being divided, and events 
 being reported in various ways, it is difficult to decide 
 that history must necessarily be right and Pa Hsien 
 wrong. In the present edition, the original text is given 
 word for word, that the precept may be carried out of 
 " putting aside points of which we are in doubt." ^ * 
 
 Anonymous. 
 
 ' = A catalogue of inseriptions. 
 
 '* WMoh the reader need not trouble himself to test. 
 
 >' Lun Yil, Chapter 11. ^ M Wi M- 
 
EECOED 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Formerly, when Fa Hsien was at Ch'ang-an,^ be was 
 distressed at the imperfect state of the Disciplines ;* and, 
 subsequently, in the second year of Hung Shib, the Chi- 
 hai' of the cycle, be agreed with Hui Ching, Tao Chtog, 
 Hui Ying, Hui Wei and others to go to India and try to 
 obtain these Disciplines. They started from Ob'ang-an, 
 crossed the Lung (mountains), and arrived at the country 
 of Cb'ien Kuei* where they spent the rainy season. The 
 rainy season over they went on to the country of Nou 
 
 CHAFTEK 1. 
 
 1. Now Hsi-an Fu "^ •^ J^, the capital of Shan-hsi |P^ "^. 
 
 2. One of the three classes into which the Sacred Books of 
 Buddhism are divided : — (2) j^ ching, aphorisms (of Buddha him- 
 self) ; (2) ^ lU, disciplines ; and (3) |^ lun, discourses (on theo- 
 logy, metaphysics etc). 
 
 3. g, ;^, or A.D. 399. 
 
 4. S& &J^ the name of a prince. Mr. Beal writes these two 
 characters Eon Kwei. j^ ^ ■^''" ^'"'^ "'■ *^^ ^^'^^ sentence is 
 also the name of a prince. 
 
2 KECOED OF THE 
 
 T'an, and crossing the Yang-lou range arrived at the 
 garrison city of Chang-yeh. Chang-yeh was in a state of 
 rebellion and the roads impassable ; and therefore the 
 Prince, being anxious about them,'* kept them there at 
 his own expense. 6 Thus they fell in with Chih Yen, 
 Hui Chien, Seng Shao, Pao Yiin, Seng Ching and others ; 
 and rejoicing to find their errands the same, they spent 
 the rainy season together. The rainy season over they 
 again went on to Tun-huang, where there is a fortified 
 encampment eighty li from east to west and forty li from 
 north to south.' Having stayed here one month and 
 some days. Fa Hsien and others, five in all, went on 
 ahead in the train of some oflScials^, and where thus once 
 more separated from Pao Yiin and his colleagues. The 
 prefect 5 of Tun-huang gave all necessaries for crossing 
 the desert (of Gobi). In this desert there are a great 
 many evil spirits, and hot winds. Those who encounter 
 them (the winds) perish to a man. There are neither 
 birds above nor beasts below. Gazing^" on all sides as 
 
 5. The words ^ ^ have been omitted by Mr. Beal. 
 
 6. Literary, " became their patron " ;^ ^, 
 
 7. About 26 miles by 13. We may here notify the reader that 
 throughout this translation we shall keep to the Chinese measure- 
 ments whether in li, feet, or inches. It is difficult to determine 
 what was the exact value of either at the time when this volume was 
 written. Julieu fixes the li at J of the English mile, and the foot 
 may" possibly have been near about what it is now — a little larger 
 than the English foot. 
 
 8. The text has I^ 'j^ ^ ^. Efimusat gave, "si la suite de 
 quelques ambassadeurs," and it is difficult to get anything else out 
 of the text as it stands. Mr. Beal has, " made arrangements to set 
 out in advance of the others," which implies that he has changed 
 1^ into 3^ , though he does not say so or even allude to the doubt- 
 fulness of the passage. But see Chapter IV, note 1. 
 
 9- ±'^- 
 
 10. Mr. Seal's rendering of the following sentence would be 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 8 
 
 far as the eye can reach in order to mark the track, it 
 would be impossible to succeed but for the rotting bones 
 of dead men which point the way. After travelling se- 
 venteen days, about 1,500 li, they arrived at the country 
 of Shan-shan,^^ 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 This land is rugged and barren. The clothes of the 
 people are coarse, like those of the Chinese, the only dif- 
 ference being that they use f«lt and serge. ^ The King of 
 the country is a convert' to Buddhism. There may be 
 some 4,000 priests, all belonging to the Lesser Develop- 
 ment.' The religion of India is universal among the 
 people and Shamans* of these* kingdoms: but there are 
 distinctions of refinement and coarseness (in their 
 practice of it). From this point travelling westwards, 
 the nations that one passes through are all the same in 
 this respect, except that the Tartar dialects they speak are 
 
 rather a hindrance than an aid to the student of the text. He has 
 avoided the difficulties of construction by giving a not over correct 
 paraphrase. 
 11. " At present called the desert of Makhaii." Beal, 
 
 CHATEB II. 
 
 1. This ^ is still commonly used in Peking by the working 
 classes. Peking carters are often called $ |§ ■^. 
 
 2. Mr. Beal has "well affected to;" but ^ ^^ is stronger than 
 that. Cf. ^ ^, used in the present day for actual conversion to 
 Christianity. 
 
 3. "La petite translation consiste dans la morale et 1« culte 
 extgrieur." RSmusai. The Hiuayana. 
 
 4. Ascetics. 
 
 5. The word g§ chu, all, frequently precedes g in this nar- 
 rative with the meaning we have here given to it. 
 
4 KEOOED OF THE 
 
 not the same. However the Buddhist priests all study 
 Indian books and the Indian spoken language. (Pa Hsien 
 and his companions) having stayed here somewhat more 
 than a month, again travelled north-west for fifteen days 
 and arrived at the country called Wu-i. 8 The priests of 
 the Wu-i country also number over 4,000, all belonging to 
 the Lesser Development. The reUgious observances are 
 properly attended to.' When the Shamans of the land 
 of Ch'in" arrive here, they are all unprepared^ for the 
 rites of these priests. Fa Hsien having obtained the 
 protection of Fu Hsing-t'ang and Kung-sun^° remained 
 
 6. ^6 ^. B^musat changes ^ into j§Q " qui a la mSme 
 valeur," and explains it as the Ouigour country. 
 
 7. The text has J'^ glj ^ ^ which Mr. Beal wrongly joins 
 to the following sentence and translates " When Pah Tsih and Tsai 
 Toh'ang (two Buddhist priests of the land of Thsin, arrived at this 
 country, they were unable to conform to some of the customs of the 
 religious community)." For the four characters quoted above Ee- 
 musat has "Us sont, quant k la loi, exacts et bieu regies," in which 
 he mistakes ^Ij for a particle. But ^ glj is quite as common a 
 term as ^ glj. Mr. Beal's rendering is ^absurd. 
 
 8. ^ China, from the name of "a feudal state which arose 
 with Fei-tsz' ^^ ^ B.C. 897, arid gradually extended over the 
 whole of Shensi and Eansuh, till, in B.C. 221, under the Emperor 
 First ^ ^ ^ ^ it subdued all China, and was called the Ts'in 
 dynasty." Williams. 
 
 9. Unaccustomed to. 
 
 10. This passage has been a stumbling-block to M. E6musat and 
 Mr. Beal alike ; in fact, the latter follows servilely the extraordinary 
 translation of his predecessor. The text runs, — ^i Wi'^ ^ 'ti 
 
 ^ & ?^ ^ S ft ^ ^ f^' ^^^ °^^ °* *'^®^^ characters 
 Mr. Beal sees no difficulty in extracting this result; — "Pa Hian, 
 therefore, having obtained a pass, proceeded to the palace (haU) of 
 the reigning Prince, Kung Siin, where he remained two months and 
 some days." There is some excuse for Eemusat who only wrote 
 out his translation in the rough and never put the finishing touches ; 
 but what is to be urged in deference to Mr. Beal who can calmly band 
 over such a version to the uninitiated public without even hinting that 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. O 
 
 two months and some days after which he returned to 
 Pao Yiin and the others.^'- They all agreed that the 
 people of the Wu-i country did not cultivate politeness or 
 their duty towards their neighbour/'' and were cold^^ 
 in their treatment of strangers. Subsequently/* Chih 
 Yen, Hui Chien, and Hui Wei went back to Kao-oh'ang 
 in order to obtain necessaries for the journey ; but Fa 
 Hsien and his party, being provided with these things by 
 Fu and Kung-sun, went on forthwith towards the south- 
 east. The country was uninhabited, and the difficulties 
 of travelling by land and water and the hardships they 
 went through were beyond all comparison. After being 
 on the road a month and five days they arrived at 
 Yii-t'ien.'s 
 
 CHAPTER ni. 
 
 This country is fertile and prosperous. The people 
 are well off and all converts to Buddhism. They play 
 religious music to each other for amusement.^ The 
 
 there is a difficulty of any kind? Of the correctness of our own 
 translation there can be no reasonable doubt, and the only stone an 
 adverse critic could possible cast is one that we shall anticipate him 
 by throwing ourselves. It is rather unusual to give the surname 
 ^ and name i§ of one of two people (Pu Hsing-t'ang), and only 
 the surname of the other (Eung-sun) . But almost in the next line 
 they are spoken of as Fu and Kung-Sun. 
 
 11. Who, as Mr. Beal justly supposes, had by this time arrived 
 at the Wu-i country. 
 
 12. ^ which Mr. Beal omits as if it were part of j^. 
 
 13. Literally, thin ^. 
 
 14. The whole of this passage differs grammatically speaking 
 from MM. E^musat and Beal's translations, though the general 
 sense is the same. 
 
 15. Khoten. R4musat. 
 
 CHAPIEB III. 
 
 1. M. Efimusat:— "c'est la loi qui leur procure la f61ioit6 dont 
 
6 KECOED OF THE 
 
 priests number several tens of thousands,'' mostly belong- 
 ing to the Greater Development. ' They all obtain their 
 food from a common fund.* The people live scattered 
 about; 5 and before the door of every house they build 
 small pagodas. The smallest may be about two change 
 high. They build houses for travelling priests' and en- 
 tertain all who arrive, giving them anything else they 
 may want. The King of the country lodged Pa Hsien 
 and his companions comfortably in a monastery called Chii- 
 ma-ti belonging to the Greater Development. At the sound 
 of the gong," three thousand priests assemble to eat. 
 
 ils jouissent." Mr. Beal : — " take delight in attending to ther re- 
 ligious duties." The text:— j^ H M ^ M- '^^ character |^ 
 is here unquestionably yo music, and not le joy. We also venture 
 to think that our own translation is the only one which disposes 
 satisfactorily of ^ " to each other." 
 
 2. Mr. Beal translates "ten thousand men," and says he prefers 
 " taking sho as a verb." But such a preference is totally uncalled 
 for and inadmissible. 
 
 3. " La grande translation a pour base une thfeologie abstruse, 
 une ontologie raffinge, le mystioisme le plus exaltfe." Remusat. 
 The Mahayama. 
 
 4. The text is ^ ^ ^ ^, and it is truly somewhat tempt- 
 ing to copy Mr. Beal and make them all sit down to dinner together. 
 But the sentence means that there is a single fund for the support 
 of all the priests, and that the revenues of the various temples, 
 contributions of subscribers &c., are all thrown into a common stock 
 from which an allowance of so much is made for the keep of each 
 member. This rendering is confirmed later on, where the numbers 
 mentioned are too great to admit of Mr. Beal's translation. 
 
 5. A .S M ^- Mr. Beal says " this is a perplexing passage," 
 but the phrase is common enough in ordinary books, novels, and 
 often met with in proclamations. Compare Ml ^ ^ /^. 
 
 6. Twenty Chinese feet. 
 
 ''• E9 55r fl"' Literally, " priests from the four quarters." Mr. 
 Beal makes this improvement on K^musat's "de forme carrde." 
 
 8. The text is ^ ^ f^ ^ If^ ^ j^. Mr. Beal's note says 
 " Kien for Eieu-ti, i. e., Ghanta or Gong." We have nothing better 
 to offer, and commit this sentence to the ingenuity of our readers. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINaOOMS. 7 
 
 When they enter the refectory their demeanour is grave 
 and orderly :, they sit down in a regular order ; they all 
 keep silence ; they make no noise with their bowls etc.; 
 and when the attendants' serve more food they do not 
 call out to each other but only make signs with their 
 hands. ^0 Hui Ching, Tao Cheng, and Hui Ta, started 
 in advance towards the country of Ghieh-ch'a, but Pa 
 Esien and the others wishing to see the procession of the 
 images remained three months and some days. In this 
 country there are fourteen large monasteries without 
 counting the smaller ones. Beginning on the 1st of the 
 4th moon, they sweep and water the streets inside the city 
 and decorate the principal thoroughfares. Over the city 
 gate they stretch a large awning with all kinds of orna- 
 mentation, and there the King and Queen '^^ and maids- 
 of-honour reside. The priests of the Ohii-ma-ti monas- 
 tery belong to the Greater Development, which^" is 
 
 At the same time we mnst object to Mr. Beal's idea that the three 
 thousand priests take their meal together, it only implies that the 
 hour was the same. 
 
 9- S* A ^*s ^^^'^ utterly ignored by M. Beal whose transla- 
 tion is otherwise a considerable improvement on E6musat's absurd 
 rendering. Mr. Beal gives " when they (i. e. the priests) require 
 more food there is no chattering one with the other, but etc." 
 Now as we have just been told that " they all keep silence " it would 
 seem unnecessary to repeat the remark in another form. Further 
 ^ never means to chatter. The ^ \ are the menials who wait 
 upon the priests. Their heads are shaved but have not been branded 
 with three (or more) marks ^ Jjg that are the pride of an ordained 
 priest, and signify to the public that he has renounced for ever flesh, 
 wine and woman. 
 
 10. Mr. Beal wrongly joins i^ with ^, and translates it 
 " fingers," instead of with g. The text is -ffl ,{y ^ ^p ^. 
 
 11. The text is ^ ^ ^ A ^ 2^- ^'- ^®*^ translates 
 "the King and the court ladies, with their attendants." 
 
 12. Not the priests, as Mr. Beal renders it in defiance of grammar. 
 
8 EEOOED OF THE 
 
 deeply venerated by the King, They take the first place 
 in the processions. At a distance of three or four li from 
 the city a four-wheeled image car is made, over thirty 
 (Chinese) feet in height, looking like a movable pavilion, 
 and adorned with the seven precious substances, ^ ^ with 
 streaming pennants and embroidered canopies. The 
 image is placed in the middle of the car, with two attend- 
 ants P'u-sas^* and followed by all the demi-gods. These 
 are beautifully carved in gold and silver, and suspended 
 in the air.^' When the image is one hundred paces 
 from the city gate, the King takes o£f his cap of state and 
 puts on new clothes. Then, barefoot, holding flowers 
 and incense in his hand, he proceeds with his attendants 
 out of the gate to meet the image, bows down his head to 
 the ground, scatters the flowers and burns the incense. 
 When the image enters the city, the Queen and maids-of- 
 honour on the top of the gate scatter far and wide^^ 
 all kinds of flowers, which fall in clouds, and thus 
 decorate the implements of worship.^' The cars are 
 all different; and each monastery has a day for its 
 procession, 18 beginning at the 1st of the 4th moou 
 and lasting to the 14th when the processions terminate 
 
 13. Gold, silver, emeralds, crystal, rubies, amber, and agate. 
 li. Bodhisatvas. 
 
 15. The text reads ^^m^^MMm^. Mr. 
 Beal translates, " all are made of gold and silver, -whilst gUttering 
 gems are hung suspended in the air." He Las put the comma on 
 the -wrong side of ^. 
 
 16. The text is, ^ ^ |^ ^. Mr. Beal skips over the 
 puzzling ^. 
 
 17. ia ^W^ Wi^M- ^^- Beal translates the two middle 
 words as "sumptuously," and either includes therein or omits 
 altogether the two f oUo-wing words ^ M. . 
 
 18. A friend would persuade us to render this passage as if a 
 single procession of images visited the different monasteries in turn. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 9 
 
 and the King and Queen go back to their palace. Seven 
 or eight li to the west of this city there is a monastery 
 called the Wang-hsin Temple. It took eighty years to 
 build, and the reigns of three Kings before it was com- 
 pleted.^" It may be two hundred and fifty feet high, 
 and is ornamentally carved and inlaid, ^o and covered 
 with gold and silver. All kinds of jewels combine to 
 complete (its magnificence). Behind the tower there is 
 an oratory, decorated most splendidly. The beams, 
 pillars, folding doors, and windows, are all gilt. Besides 
 this there are apartments for the priests, also beautifully 
 ornamented beyond all expression. All the kings of the 
 six countries to the east of the liills make large offerings 
 of whatsoever very valuable jewels they may have, using 
 very few themselves."^ 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 The processions of the fourth moon being over, one of 
 the party, Seng Shao, set out with a Tartar Buddhist "^ 
 
 19. A simple enough specimen of Chinese grammer, but one 
 which Mr. Beal has utterly misunderstood, and rendered, "During 
 the last eighty years three kings have contributed towards its com- 
 pletion. The text has ffi JSfS TV + ^ ^ H I :^ ;S*- 
 Bemusat's translation is correct. 
 
 20. We fail to see how Mr. Beal gets " There are many inscribed 
 plates of gold and silver within it " out of J^ Tjj^ ^jj ^ ^ ^ 
 
 m±- 
 
 21. Whatever these last four characters A ffl ^ i!? ^^^ 
 mean, Mr. Seal's rendering " in such abundance that but few of 
 them can be used" is quite out of the question. They seem to us 
 simply to signify that jewels were not much used by the people 
 of that country. 
 
 CHAPIEK IV. 
 
 1. [^ J|3 J^ A • Eemusat ; — " ^ la suite d'un pritre barbare^" 
 
10 EEOOED OF THE 
 
 towards Clii-pin.^ Fa Hsien and the others went on to 
 tlie Tzu-ho country where they arrived after a journey of 
 twenty-five days. The king of the country is devoted to 
 (Buddhism). 3 There are more than a thousand priests, 
 mostly belonging to the Greater Development. After 
 stopping here fifteen days, the party went south for four 
 days, and entering the Onion range arrived at the 
 country of Yii-hui, where they rested. When their rest 
 was over,* they journeyed twenty-five days and arrived at 
 thecountry of Chieh-ch'a,* where they rejoined HuiChing 
 and the others. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 The King of this country holds the Pan-che-yiieh-shih. 
 The Pan-che-yiieh-shih is in Chinese a, Jlve-years-great-as- 
 semhly. At the time of the assembly he invites Shamans 
 from all quarters, and they come in vast numbers.^ The 
 place where the priests sit is adorned beforehand^ with 
 streaming pennants and canopies embroidered with lotus- 
 flowers in gold and silver. The backs of the seats are 
 
 Beal: — "in company with a fallow-disciple belonging to the country 
 of the Ouigours." 
 
 2. "La Copheue ou le pays arrose par le Cophes." Eemusat. 
 
 3. The text has g ^ In M- ^'^- ^^^^ 8^''^^ " ^^« ^^°g ^f 
 the country, by the determined energy of his character," adding in a 
 note that "this translation is doubtful.'' We heartily agree with 
 him. 
 
 4. Mr. Beal says this must be Kartohoa. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 1. Literally, " in clouds." 
 
 2. ^ i has been the same force as ^^. Mr. Beal joins it on 
 to the last sentence, but it is only fair 'to suppose that all these 
 arrangements were made before the arrival of the Shamans. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 11 
 
 covered with spotless drapery, etc' The King with all 
 his ministers make their offerings according to rite. It 
 .^ay last for one,« two, or three months, and is generally 
 in the':, spring. The King, when the assembly is over, 
 further bids all his ministers arrange offerings for pre- 
 sentation, ^ which may last one, two, three, or five days. 
 When all the offerings have been made, the King takes 
 his own horse, saddle, and bridle, with those ridden by 
 his prime minister and high officials;^ also much white 
 cloth and all kinds of jewels, such as the Shamans re- 
 quire, and together with his ministers vows to give these 
 things as alms (to the Shamans.) When they have been 
 thus given as alms, they are redeemed from the priests 
 with money. This country is mountainous and cold. 
 With the exception of wheat no grain will grow and ripen. 
 When the priests have " gathered in their harvest' (or, 
 
 3. Mr. Seal's translation of the last two sentences is : — " They 
 then proceed to decorate the priests' session-place with silken flags 
 and canopies. (In the midst) they erect a draped throne adorned 
 with gold and silver lotus flowers, and behind it they arrange the 
 seats for the priests." The text runs thus :— E; ^ M ^ fl" ^ 
 
 It is a very diflSoult passage. 
 
 4. Mr. Beal follows Elaproth and makes — ^ the first month 
 of the year. This translation is unquestionably wrong. 
 
 5. A second ceremony in which the King takes no part. 
 
 6. A most unsatisfactory passage, of which we do not profess to 
 have found the translation, but only a guess at the meaning. Mr. 
 Beal, however, trips lightly through it as usual, without hinting at 
 its obscurity. We gladly transfer it to the ingenious reader : — ■ 
 
 2 i^ W ^ .^ ^ H S SiJ f^- S f * a E S ;t 
 
 7. We quote Mr. Seal's translation, which is based on Eemusat's. 
 having nothing better to offer ; but we only accept it under protest, 
 The text reads j^ i"^ ^ ^ E ■ ^°^ '^ °^*en means harvest, 
 but ^ does not mean to collect it. J^ iu the Jl ^ ^ is to 
 gather iu (a harvest). 
 
12 EECOED OF THE 
 
 "received tlaeir dues,") the mornings forthwith become 
 frosty. 8 Therefore the King regularly begs the priests to 
 make the wheat ripen before they collect their harvest. 
 In this country there is a spittoon that belonged to 
 Buddha, made of stone and of the same colour as 
 Buddha's alms-bowl. There is also one of Buddha's teeth, 
 and iu honour' of this tooth the people of the country 
 have built a pagoda. There are more than one thousand 
 priests, all belonging to the Lesser Development. From 
 the hills eastward the people wear coarse clothes like the 
 Chinese, but also^° differing in their use of felt and serge. 
 The rites and ceremonies of the Shamans are varied, and 
 too numerous to mention. This country is in the middle 
 of the Onion range, and from this point onwards all plants, 
 trees, and fruits, are different from those of China, with 
 tlie exception of the bamboo, guava,^^ and sugar-cane. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 Prom this point travelling westwards towards North 
 India, the pilgrims after a journey of one month 'succeed- 
 ed in crossing the Onion range. On the Onion range 
 there is snow winter and summer alike. There are also 
 venomenous dragons, which, if provoked,^ spit forth poison- 
 
 8. .^ j^ ^IJ ^. Mr. Beal: — "the weather becomes cloudy 
 and overcast." 
 
 9. ^, which Mr. Beal translates "over" (the tooth). 
 
 10. That this, as in Chapter 2. 
 
 11. Mr. Beal says "pomegranate," but the text gives -^ ^ :^ 
 which we believe to be the guava. 
 
 CHAl'TEH TI. 
 
 1. Mr. Beal has thus happily rendered g ^ ^ 'M ', ^^^ ^^ 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 13 
 
 ed -winds, rain, snow, sand-storms, and stones. Of those 
 who encounter these dangers not one in ten thousand 
 escapes. The people of that country are called "men of 
 " Snowy Hills." Having passed these mountains, they 
 arrived in North India. Just at the frontier, there is a 
 small nation called T'o-h, which also has priests, all of 
 the Lesser Development. In this country there was for- 
 raerly a Lo-han,^ who using the power of transportation, 
 carried a clever artisan up to the Tou-shu Heaven ^ to ob- 
 serve the length, breadth, colour and features of the Mi- 
 lo* P'u-sa, that when he returned he might carve an 
 image of him in wood. Altogether he made three jour- 
 neys of observation, and afterwards completed an image 
 eighty feet in length, the foot^ of which is eight feet long. 
 On fast-days it always shines with a brilliant light. The 
 kings of these countries vie with each other in making 
 offerings to it. It has been for a long time in this coun- 
 try. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 Along the mountains, in a south-westerly direction, 
 they journeyed for fifteen days, over a difiScult, precipi- 
 tous, and very dangerous road.^ The mountains are 
 
 has made a terrible muddle of the next sentence by putting a full 
 stop at ^poison and making the wind, rain etc., a separate affair 
 from the dragons. 
 
 2. An Arhaii or saint. The eighteen Lo-han were Buddha's, 
 personal disciples. 
 
 3. " The Tushita Heavens." Beat. 
 
 4. Maitreya Bodhisatva, the " laughing god " of Chinese temples^ 
 and the " expected " Buddha. 
 
 5. The text has J£ M /V fi- *^^ M 'which usually means 
 " to sit cross-legged," we can give no satisfactory explanation, 
 
 CHAPTER vn. 
 
 1. Mr. Beal has quite mistaken the parsing of this passage. 
 
14 KEOORD OP THE 
 
 like a stoce wall 1,000^6)1^ in height. Coming near the 
 edge, the sight gets confused ; and wishing to advance, 
 the foot finds no resting-place. = Below there is a river 
 by name Hsin-t'ou. The men of former times cut away 
 the rock to form a path, making a ladder of the side of the 
 rock, seven hundred steps in all. Having got' down the 
 ladder, the river is crossed by a bridge of ropes. The 
 two banks of the river by are somewhat less than eighty 
 paces apart. According to the Chiu-yi,* neither Chang 
 Ch'ien nor Kan Ying of the Han dynasty reached this 
 point. The priests asked Fa Hsien if he knew when Bud- 
 dhism first went eastwards. Fa Hsien replied, "When 
 " I asked the people of those parts they all said that ao- 
 "cordingtoau old tradition Shamans from India began 
 ' ' to bring the Aphorisms and Disciplines across this river 
 "from the date of putting up the image of Maitreya Bod- 
 "hisatva." This image was put up about three hundred 
 years after the Nirvana of Buddha, which corresponds 
 with the reign of P'ing-wang= of the Chou dynasty, and 
 from this date it was said that the Great Teaching began 
 to be spread abroad at the setting up of the image. That 
 
 31 'it 11 IS S ^ ^ -IS- He translates it, "The road is 
 diflEoult and fatigamg. Steep crags and prioipices constantly inter- 
 cept the way." "We do not see whence he gets all this. We make 
 of it 1 demonstrative pronoun, 1 substantive, 2 dissyllabic adjectives, 
 1 monosyllabic ditto, and one adverb. 
 
 2. Ajen is about 10 feet. 
 
 3. Mr. Beal adds, — "and you are lost," — from his own inner 
 consciousness. 
 
 <t. it W yj^ tt' Efimusat suggests |^, and Klaproth a 
 stop at pjj, i. B. "nine fords." But there was a work called the 
 iU M W §15 IB "'^ yrhieh. was based the J^ ^ Ig, to which 
 this passage evidently refers. It is a topographical description of 
 the Empire. 
 
 5. 770—719 B.C. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS, 15 
 
 but for the transmission of Sakya's doctrines by the 
 mighty Maitreya, none conld have caused the Three Pre- 
 cious Ones" to be preached abroad and foreigners' to 
 become acquainted with the faith. That the revelation 
 of these mysteries was clearly not the work of man, and 
 that thus the dream of Ming-ti of the Han dynasty was 
 not without foundation." 
 
 OHPTEE vm. 
 
 Crossing the river, the pilgrims arrived at the country 
 of "Wu-ch'ang. This country is due north of India. The 
 language of Central India is universally used. Central In- 
 dia is the same as the Middle Kingdom. The clothes and 
 food of the people are also like those of the Middle King- 
 dom. The religion of Buddha is very flourishing.^ The 
 places where the priests live permanently are called Seng- 
 chia-lan. There are altogether five hundred of them, all 
 belonging to the Lesser Development. If any wandering 
 mendicants^ arrive, they will take charge of all= of 
 
 6. The Buddhist Trinity of Buddha, the Law, and the Church. 
 
 7. ^ J^, translated by Mr. Beal "men on the outskirts of the 
 world." 
 
 8. This is all clearly what " was said." Mr. Beal's translation of 
 the concluding sentence appears to us rather mixed. |g ^{1 H 
 
 5S ;t n * ^^ xmwimm^m^^m m £ 
 
 "We may conclude therefore, with certainty, that the origin of the 
 diffusion of the law of Buddha was no human work but sprang from 
 the same cause as the dream of Ming-ti." 
 
 This dream was supposed to refer to Buddhism, and led to an 
 expedition to bring back the sacred books. 
 
 OHAPIET Tin. 
 
 1. Mr. Beal evidently puts a stop before ^ ; we, after it, ^ ^ 
 being a common phrase. 
 
 2. A Pi-oh'iu, or Bikshu. 
 
 3. The j^ all does not refer to the priests as Mr. Beal gives it. 
 
16 BBCOBD OF THE 
 
 them for three days, after which they bid them shift for 
 themselves. Tradition says when Buddha came to 
 Northern India he visited this country. Buddha left a 
 foot-print here which appears large or small according to 
 the faith of each particular person. It exists to this 
 day. Also the stone he dried his clothes upon, and the 
 place where he converted the wicked dragon, are still to 
 be seen. The stone is fourteen feet high by more than 
 twenty feet in breadth. One side of it is smooth. Hui- 
 ching, Tao-cheng, and Hui-ta, went on ahead towards 
 Buddha's shadow in the country of Na-chieh. * Fa Hsien 
 and the others remained in this country (Wu-ch'ang) for 
 the rainy season. When it was over they went south till 
 they arrived at the country of Su-ho-to. 
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 In this country Buddhism is also popular. Of old, the 
 heavenly Indra Shakra, in order to try the Bodhisatva,^ 
 changed himself into a kite and a dove. ^ (The Bodhisatva) 
 cut off a piece of his flesh to ransom the dove, and on the 
 :spot perfected his intelHgence as a Buddha. ^ Subse- 
 
 4. The text has ;g ^ ^ gg ^ ::! ^ |^. Mr- Beal 
 says, — " The stone is about 12 feet high and 24 feet sc|.uare." 
 .6. Nagarahara. Bemusat. 
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 1. That is, Buddha in an earlier stage. 
 
 2. Mr. Beal translates ifjj •f^ as " caused the appearance of (a 
 Jiawk &o.)" Either will do. In this particular case, his is perhaps 
 the better. 
 
 3. The passage is worth quoting :—^iJ I^ g ^| ;^ {^ |P 
 
 M J^ ^ M ■? ^ ^ fr ^ ^- ^'^- B«a'l translates it,— 
 ■" (On which, Bodhisatwa), tearing his own flesh, gave it in substitu- 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 17 
 
 quently, •when wandering with his disciples, he said, 
 " This is the very spot where I cut off my flesh to ransom 
 the dove." Thus the people of the country came to 
 know, and erected at the place a pagoda adorned with 
 gold and silver. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 From this point descending eastwards for five days, 
 they arrived at the country of Chien-t'o-wei, which was 
 governed by Fa Yi the son of King A Yii.^ When Buddha 
 was a Bodhisatva he also sacrificed his eyes for a fellow- 
 creature, and on that spot too a pagoda has been built 
 adorned with gold and silver. The inhabitants of this 
 country belong principally to the Lesser Development. • 
 
 CHAPTBE XI. 
 
 From this point travelling eastwards for seven days 
 there is a country called Chu-ch'a-shih-lo, which in Chi- 
 nese means " to cut off the head."^ When Buddha was 
 
 tion for that of the bird. When Buddha had arrived at complete 
 •wisdom, he passed by this place with his disciples, on which he spalie 
 to them thus : " That is to say he puts a full stops a ■p,^, leaves out 
 ti^ altogether, and begins a new paragraph at /f^. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1. Asoka. 
 
 2. This last sentence has been inadvertently left out by Mr. Beal. 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 1. We cannot pass over this literal translation of ||j g^ with- 
 out mentioning that these words have a common metaphorical 
 meaning of " to enter the priest-hood," taken- from the custom of 
 confining the hair with a metal ring called a ^. 4 very usual 
 phrase is ^ fli SB F^ — When did you become a priest ? Priests 
 
18 REOOBD or THE 
 
 a Bodhisatva he sacrificed his head for a fellow-creature. 
 Hence the name. Again travelling eastwards for two 
 days the pilgrims arrived at the place where he gave his 
 body to feed a hungry tiger. In ' these two places there 
 are also great pagodas, adorned with all kinds of precious 
 stones. The Kings, Ministers, and people of all the neigh- 
 bouring countries vie with each other in making offerings, 
 in scattering flowers and lighting lamps* without inter- 
 mission. Together with the above-mentioned two pagodas, 
 the people of the district call these the Four Great Pagodas. 
 
 CHAPTEB XII. 
 
 From the Chien-t'o-wei country travelling southwards 
 two days, the pilgrims arrived at the country of Fo-lou- 
 sha. Formerly, Buddha visiting this nation in company 
 with all his disciples, said to A-nan, "After my Nirvana, 
 " a king of this country, by name Chi-ni-chia, ^ will build 
 " a pagoda on this spot." Subsequently, when Chi-ni- 
 chia came into the world and was making a tour of 
 inspection, = the heavenly Indra Shakra, wishing to 
 originate in him the idea, changed himself into a shepherd 
 boy building a pagoda in the road. The king asked 
 
 who do not shave the head and wear these metal (often gold) ringa 
 to confine the hair, are called Lo-hana. (Arhana). But even 
 ordinary priests with shaven heads frequently wear them. Tide 
 Shun-pao of 13th September 1876, under the heading 3S f# B^ ]^ 
 where we have "^ ^ |^ ^. 
 2. Mr. Beal translates ^ J^ by " burning incense." 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1. Kanishka. 
 
 2. We have borrowed this rendering from Mr. Beal. The text has 
 (il "fr S US- fl^ Egmusat gives "* • ae mit H voyager. Et 
 oomme il parcourait oe pays • * " 
 
BTTDDHISTIO KINaDOMS. 19 
 
 the boy, saying, " What are you doing ? " He replied 
 "I am making a pagoda for Buddha." The king said 
 " Very good," and at once built a pagoda over the boy's 
 more than 400 feet high, and adorned with all kinds of 
 precious stones. Of all the pagodas and temples the 
 pilgrims saw, not one could be compared with this for 
 solidity and beauty. ^ Tradition says that of the pagodas 
 of Ko-fu-t'i* this is the highest. When the king had 
 completed this pagoda, the small pagoda issued from the 
 south side of the great pagoda, over three feet in height. 
 Buddha's alms-bowl is in this country, and formerly a 
 king of the Yiieh-shih got together a large army to attack 
 this country, wishing to carry it off. When he had 
 subdued the country, being an ardent supporter of 
 Buddhism, he wanted to take the bowl away 
 with him ; and accordingly, having first made 
 offerings to the Three Precious Ones, he decorated 
 a huge elephant and put the bowl on its back. 
 The elephant then fell down and was unable to move. 
 Then a four-wheeled cart was made, and the bowl being 
 put in it, eight elephants were harnessed to draw it. 
 When again they were unable to move, the King knew 
 that its time had not yet come,* and was full of shame 
 
 3. Mr. Beal ia here guilty of a very serious mistranslation. Fol- 
 lowing in KSmusat's footstepa, he renders this passage, — "all who 
 passed by and saw the exquisite beauty and graceful proportions of 
 the tower and the temple attached to it, exclaimed in delight, " these 
 are incomparable for beauty." The text is )\i ^ W: ^ i^ ^ 
 
 i. " Jambudwipa, the continent to the south of Mount Sumeru, 
 which according to Chinese Buddhists includes both India and 
 China." Beal. 
 
 5. Mr. Beal says " that the destiny of the alms-bowl (in that 
 kingdom) was not completed." 3E ^D ^^ ^ ^ ^ M • 
 
20 KECOKD OP THE 
 
 and regret. Therefore he built a pagoda on that spot, 
 and also a monastery, leaving a garrison^ to guard the 
 bowl, and making all kinds of offerings. There may be 
 about 700 priests. When it is near midday, the priests 
 bring out the bowl, and together with the people make all 
 kinds of offerings. They then eat their midday meal;'' 
 and in the evening, at the time of burning incense, they 
 bring it out again. It might hold over two gallons, and 
 is of several colours, chiefly black. The four joinings are 
 clearly distinguishable." It is about | of an inch* thick, 
 and is transparent^" and bright. Poor people throw a 
 few flowers in, and it is full ; but very rich people, wish- 
 ing to make offering of a large quantity of flowers, (may 
 throw in), a hundred, thousand, or ten thousand bush- 
 els without filling it. Pao Yiin and Seng Ching mere- 
 ly made their offerings to the bowl and went back. 
 Hui Ching, Hui Ta and Tao Cheng, had previously 
 gone on to the country of Na-chieh to worship Bud- 
 dha's shadow, tooth, and skull-bone. Hui Ching fell ill, 
 and Tao Cheng remained to nurse him. Hui Ta came 
 
 literally, — "the king knew that his (connection) with the bowl (and 
 the bowl's) connection (with him) had not arrived." 
 
 6. Mr. Beal translates ff^^^hy" delayed his own de- 
 parture, and remained to guard the relic." 
 
 7. This and the following sentence have been wrongly rendered 
 by Mr. Beal : — " So again, after the midday meal, as evening ap- 
 proaches, at the time of burning incense (i, e. evening service), they 
 do likewise." — an unpardonable translation of ^ ^ tf* ^ M 
 
 8. Being originally four bowls made into one by a fiat of Buddha. 
 Mr. Beal gives " The seams where the four parts join together are 
 bright." EQ ^^ BJ^. (The italics may well be ours.) 
 
 9. The text has ~ ^. Mr. Beal says " two inches." 
 
 10. Surely this is meant by ^. Mr. Beal gives "polished." 
 
BUDDHISTIC KIMGDOMS. 
 
 21 
 
 back alone to the Fo-lou-sha country whera he met (the 
 others), and then Hui Ta, Pao Yun, and Seng Chhig, re- 
 turned to China. Hui Chiug fulfilled his destiny^ ^ at the 
 temple of Buddha's bowl and died. Thus, Fn Hsien went 
 on alone to the place of Buddha's skull-bone. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Travelling westwards 16 j/tt-t/CTi,'^ the pilgrims arrived 
 at -the frontier of the Na-ohieh country. In the city of 
 Hsi-lo there is the shrine'' of Buddha's skull-bone. It is 
 entirely covered with gold and the seven precious stones. 
 The king of the country deeply venerates this skull-bone, 
 and fearing lest it should be stolen, ^ has appointed eight 
 men of the leading families in the kingdom, who have 
 each a seal to seal it up and guard it. In the morning, 
 when the eight have all arrived, each inspects his own 
 
 11. The text reada,-g; -Ml & ^ i§ ^ ^ M "^ \ii- 
 Mr. Beal translates, " (Meanwhile) Hwui King having set out for 
 the temple of Buddha's alms-bowl, after his arrival, died there." 
 His note says " The whole of this passage is obscure, and if it were 
 not for some addenda to the work, would be untranslatable. I have 
 regarded the expression 'wou sheung' (fS ^) as equivalent to 
 ' died,' for it is used in this sense in the 20th chapter ; and for the 
 word ' shan ' ' a mountain,' which has no sense or meaning at all 
 in the connection of the text, I have substituted 'ju' (id) thus 
 forming the well-known phrase ' ju shi ' ' accordingly.' " The emen- 
 dation of ^p for [[] seems excellent, but Mr. Beal has taken no 
 notice of T^ which should here be read in the ^ ^. ESmusat 
 gives, " Hoeii king se plaisait extraordinairement dans le temple du 
 pot de Foe." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1. da ^£, or ySjana. Varies from 5 to 9 English miles. 
 
 2. J^ ^, or Vihdra. 
 
 3. Mr. Beal has in hia translation "and substitute another in 
 its place." But the text gives only |J7 ^. 
 
22 BECOKD OF THE 
 
 seal, and then they open the door. When the -door is 
 open they wash their hands in scented water and bring 
 out Buddha's skull-bone, placing it on an altar outside the 
 shrine, and using a round block of the seven precious 
 substances to support it underneath, and a glass bell to 
 cover it;* all these being richly studded with pearls and 
 precious stones. The bone is of a yellowish white colour, 
 4 inches in diameter, ° and raised in the middle. Every 
 day, after the relic has been brought out, those in charge 
 of the shrine mount up to a high tower, beat a large drum, 
 blow the conch, and clash the cymbals. When the king 
 hears this, he proceeds to the shrine and makes offerings 
 of flowers and incense. The offerings made, every one 
 bows" in his proper turn and departs. Entering by the 
 east and leaving by the west gate, the king every morning 
 makes offerings and worships in this manner, and then 
 transacts affairs of State. The scholars and elders also 
 
 4. Mr. Seal's translation gives, " On this throne there is a circular 
 table composed of seven precious substances, with a crystal bell- 
 shaped cupola on the top." We cannot congratulate him upon this 
 effort. The text reads i^-tlflJiSiTJJ^SSJ:- 
 With our translation of the second 1^, may be compared the phrase 
 
 5. Mr. Beal gives "about four inches square." The text has 
 -fe Ul no -sj" which seems to mean that taken either squarewise 
 or roundwise the skull was i inches across. Mr. Beal's note says 
 "fang-un may mean either a circle or square ; but the meaning here 
 is evidently i inches each side." 
 
 6. The text iaa ?}(J ^ 3M ^ W -^ • ^'^^ Seal says " he 
 {the king) repeatedly bows his head to the ground in adoration and 
 departs." It was something to get rid of Egmusat's absurd notion 
 of " carrying the relic to his head ; " but Mr. Beal's interpretation of 
 tJiJ ^ is quite erroneous, and his emendation of "teng-lai" for 
 "ting-tai" is as uncalled-for as it is (to us) incomprehensible. 
 ^ ^ is a common Buddhist phrase for an obeisance ; not a kotou 
 on the knees, but a profound bow until the head almost touches the 
 ground, the hands being raised to the forehead. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 23 
 
 first make offerings and then attend to their domestic 
 business. Every day it is the same ; there is never any 
 remissness,' and when all the offerings are finished, the 
 skull-bone is put back in the shrine. In the shrine there 
 is a "liberation" pagoda^ made of the seven precious 
 substances, which is sometimes open and sometimes 
 shut,^ and over 5 feet in height. In order to fill it, there 
 are regularly every morning before the gate of the shrine 
 sellers of flowers and incense, so that all who want to 
 make offerings may buy what they require. The kings 
 of these countries also regularly send officers to make 
 offerings. The place of the shrine is 40 paces square. 
 Though heaven should quake and earth gape, this spot 
 would not move. From this point travelling north one 
 
 7. The text reads Q iU :^ fd M fl? '1^ *°^ ^■■- ^^^^ 
 translates it, " this, in fact, is the first and unlailing duty of every 
 day," without making the slightest comment and leaving us to infer 
 that he only made a guess at its meaning. For ^ in this passage 
 cannot mean first, and the opposite ideas of remissness and energy 
 expressed by the two words {^ and ij^ are entirely left out of the 
 question. To arrive at our own translation we have been obliged 
 to substitute ^, which is often found joined with {^, and then 
 the rendering is simple enough. ^ |ffi is a common enough phrase 
 and gives somewhat the force of ^ ^ to the sentence. But for 
 those who object to any manipulation of the text we have still a:u 
 alternative. Put a stop after jg], and translate, " Every day begins 
 thus ; there are no (distinction of) negligence and zeal," — that is, all 
 go through exactly the same amount of religious ceremony per diem. 
 Efimusat says, "II en est ainsi tons les jours, et ce premier devoir 
 n'admet auoune difference de zSle on de relachement." Whatever 
 the real meaning may be, our readers have the thing now in their 
 own hands. 
 
 8- 't ^ ® M ^> '^^''^ ^''- -^^^^ strangely enough asserts 
 " may be translated ' seven Dagobas etc' " 
 
 9. ^ 1^ ^ p^ . Mr. Beal says " partly solid and partly hollow." 
 BSmusat makes a number of "tours de dfilivrance * * * * les uneg 
 ouverteg, les autres fermges." 
 
24 EECOKD OF THE 
 
 yu-yen, the pilgrims arrived at the capital of Na-chieh, 
 where the Bodhisatva bought some five-stalked flowers 
 for an offering to Ting Kuang^° Buddha. In this city- 
 there is also a Buddha's-tooth pagoda ; the ceremonies 
 of worship are the same as for the skull-bone. One 
 yu-yen to the north-east brought them to the mouth of a 
 valley where there is Buddha's pewter staff, and a shrine 
 in which it is worshipped. The staff is made of " bull's 
 "head"^'^ sandal-wood, and is about 16 or 17 feet in 
 length. It is in a wooden sheath, from which one hundred 
 or even one thousand men would fail to move it. Travel- 
 ling westwards for four days through this valley, there is a 
 shrine for worshipping Buddha's sSng-chia-li.^ ^ When 
 there is an excessive drought in this country the people and 
 officials,^-'' gathering together, bring out the garment and 
 worshipping make offerings to it. Eain immediately falls 
 in abundance. Half a yu-yen to the south of the city 
 there is a cave. It is at the so'ith-west of thePo'^* moun- 
 tain. Buddha left his shadow in it. Looking at it from 
 a distance of ten or more paces, it is a life-size silhouette 
 of Buddha, of a golden colour, like in features, ^ * bright 
 and shining. The nearer one goes, the more indistinct 
 
 10. Dipankara. Beal. 
 
 11. G6slrohandana. Beal — who omits the word ^S pewter in 
 the last sentence, and thus avoids an apparent anomaly. 
 
 12. The long robe or Sanghati worn by all priests. 
 
 13- ]^ S J^- Mr. Beal says " the chief personages of the king- 
 dom;" Bemusat, "les habitants." 
 
 14. ■j'^ [Jj. Mr. Beal says "a large mountain ;" Efimusat, "une 
 montagne." 
 
 15. ;fg ^J. Mr. Beal says "with all its characteristic signs," 
 which is a servile acceptation of Remusat's rendering, both given 
 without note or comment as if there was no difficulty whatever. 
 We, personally, barely profess to understand these two words and 
 leave them in our readers' hands. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 25 
 
 it gets, still appearing to be there, ^s The Kings of all 
 the neighbouring countries have sent skilful artists to 
 sketch it, but they have not been able to do so. The 
 people of the country have a tradition that the thousand 
 Buddhasi ' will all leave their shadows here. About a 
 hundred paces to the west of the shadow, Buddha, when 
 alive, shaved his head and cut his nails, and with the 
 help of his disciples built a pagoda seventy to eighty feet 
 in height, as a model for pagodas in future. It exists to 
 this day, and by its side there is a temple in which there 
 are seven hundred priests. In this place there is a 
 pagoda in honour of all the Lo-hans and P'i-chih^s Bud- 
 dhas, of whom nearly^ » a thousand have dwelt here. 
 
 OHAPTEB xrv. 
 
 In the second winter moon,'- Fa Hsien and his com- 
 panions, three in all, going south crossed the Little 
 Snowy Mountains. These mountains retain' the snow 
 
 16. Of the meaning of this passage we hold there can be no doubt 
 of any kind, grammatieal or otherwise, and we must stigmatise Mr. 
 Seal's version as faulty in the extreme. The text has ^ i£ £S ^ 
 ^K is W- Mr. Beal gives, "On turning away or going nearer, 
 the resemblance to the reality becomes less and less distinct." Now 
 without noticing his mistranslation of £S or his wholesale omission 
 of the last four characters, we would point out that it is not the 
 "resemblance" which gradually becomes less distinct, but the whole 
 shadow that loses its intensity. 
 
 17. Mr. Beal adds " of the present Kalpa." 
 
 18. Frato&ka Buddhas. 
 
 19. ^ ^. Mr. Beal says "as many as a thousand;" BSmusat 
 " mille." ' 
 
 CHAIIEB XIV. 
 
 1, That is the 11th moon, winter being reckoned to begin from 
 the 10th moon. 
 
 2. ^ Mr. Beal, copying Bemusat, makes it snow there both 
 
26 EEOOED OF THE 
 
 summer and winter alike. On the northern side, which is 
 in the shade, it is frightfully cold, and when the wind 
 gets up it makes one shiver and keep the mouth shut.' 
 Hui-ching was unable to advance farther ; he foamed at 
 the mouth, and said to Pa Hsien, " I cannot recover ; 
 " you had better go on while you can, or we shall all 
 "perish." Fa Hsien^ throwing himself over (the corpse) 
 cried out in lamentation, " The original design cannot be 
 " carried out. It is destiny.'' There being no help for it, 
 they once more exerted themselves, and having got across 
 to the south of the range, arrived at the Lo-i^ country. 
 
 summer and winter. The text means that the snow never melta. 
 
 3. Mr. Beal gives a marvellous translation of this passage : — 
 " The exceeding cold which came on suddenly in crossing the 
 northern slope of the mountain, which lies in the shade, caused the 
 men generally to remain perfectly silent (to shut their mouths) 
 through fear." The text reads thus ; — [jj •IIj 1^ *f* J^ ^ ^ 
 i|E A '^ iS ^. Eemusat merely shirks it, giving a general idea 
 of the cold. We have understood j^ with ^ as the best solution 
 of the difficulty. 
 
 4. The following difficult passage-Mr. Beal quietly translates in 
 his own way without a hint as to its obscurity. This is what he 
 makes of it : — Fa Hain cherished him (to supply warmth) and pite- 
 ously invoked him by his farniliar name, but it was all ineffectual to 
 restore life. Submitting therefore to his destiny, he once more 
 gathpred up his strength and pressed forward." The text reads. 
 
 That Mr. Beal sjiould not know the common phrase^ P lit. to 
 soothe a corpse, is remarkable ; that he should invent supplies " of 
 warmth," and Hui-ching's "familiar name" without breathing a 
 word about the forced nature of his interpretations is unfair to the 
 general reader ; and that he should translate TtC ^ /fl pjj" ■^ ^^ 
 as "it was all ineffectual to restore him to life " makes his position 
 as translator of an obscurely-worded Chinese took somewhat difficult 
 to understand. We offer our own translation with the utmost defer- 
 ence to the judgment of any one wlio will show where we have erred 
 and point out a more likely rendering. Hui Ching is a misprint for 
 Hui Yiug. See Note by Hu Cheu-hgng at the end of the translation. 
 
 5. Afghanistan," Beal. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 27 
 
 In that district there are three thousand priests, all be- 
 longing to the Greater Development. Here they passed 
 the rainy season, and when it was over they proceeded 
 southwards for ten days and arrived at the country of Po- 
 na,8 where there are also over three thousand priests, all 
 belonging to the Lesser Development. From this point 
 travelHng on for three days, they again crossed the Hsin- 
 t'ou river, on both banks of which the land is flat. 
 
 CHAPTEB XV. 
 
 On the other side of the river there is a country called 
 P'i-t'u,^ where Buddhism is very flourishing, both of the 
 Greater and Lesser Developments. "When the people of 
 the country saw Buddhist priests from China coming 
 among them, they were much affected and said, " How 
 "is it possible for foreigners to have learnt the principle 
 " of family renunciation, and to seek afar the religion ? " 
 They all gave the pilgrims whatsoever they wanted, and 
 treated them according to the law (of Buddha.) 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 From this point travelling south-east for somewhat less 
 than eighty yu-yen, the pilgrims passed many temples 
 containing nearly 10,000 priests. Having passed by all 
 these places, they arrived at a country by name Mo-t'ou- 
 
 6. Mr. Beal says this name "has been identified with Bannu." 
 
 OHAPIEK XV. 
 
 1. Mr. Beal gives two possible identifications of this place which 
 he calls Pi-cfta. The text, however, has f^ ^ Vi-t'u; and if this, 
 is correct, Mr. Beal's speculations are scattered to the winds. 
 
28 EEOOHD OF THE 
 
 lou,^ and also" crossed the Pu-na, on the banks of which 
 there are twenty monasteries with some 3,000 priests. 
 Buddhism is gradually » becoming popular. In all the 
 countries of India to the west of the Sha* river, the Kings 
 have everyone firm faith in the religion of Buddha. When 
 they make offerings to the priests, they take off their caps 
 of state ; and then all the members of the royal family 
 with the Ministers of state feed the priests with their own 
 hands." After this, they spread a carpet on the ground 
 and sit down before them, opposite the principal seat. 
 Sitting in the presence of priests they dare not use a 
 couch. The rites and ceremonies of worship in vogue 
 
 CHAPTEB XTI. 
 
 1. Matli6ura. Seal. 
 
 2. Mr, Beal translates, "Here, again, we followed the coarse of 
 the river Po-na (Jumna). [The force of ' again ' seema to be that they 
 had followed previously the course of the Indus.] " Mr. Beal is not 
 usually so particular about the meaning of every word. The text has 
 3SJ j^ ^0 J]5 ^, the first character of which does not mean 
 "again" in JMr. Beal's sense. 
 
 3. Mr. Beal translates ,f^ ^^ |0 ^ by " The Law of Buddha 
 is in a reviving condition." Both renderings seem admissible. 
 
 4. The text of this passage isjtj^?PlE,H 5C^|f 
 MM ^^ Mis i^ii- To begin with, g, is here used 
 *°^ £!• ^^- Seal translates, " all the kingdoms beyond the sandy 
 deserts are spoken of as belonging to western India." We fail to see 
 how he arrives at this. In a note he adds, " The passage may also 
 be translated thus, ' The continuation of sandy deserts being passed 
 
 (we arrived at) the various kingdoms of western India.' " which 
 
 to our mind is still more difficult to identify with the original. The 
 only point is the second g| which after all is no great obstacle. It 
 is not unusual to meet |^ ^ fn i- ^^ ^"^ i^ M i* seems 
 to be the name of a river and not " sandy deserts." 
 
 6. Mr. Beal indulges in "conduct the priests to their several 
 palaces, for the purpose of providing them with food," and all that 
 out of ^ g ^ ^_ -^e look on this as an unpardonable vagary, 
 given without note or comment of any kind. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 29 
 
 amongst all these Kings wbile Buddha was stiU alive 
 have been handed down by tradition to this day. To the 
 south of this is a country called the Middle Kingdom, the 
 climate of which is temperate without frost or snow, the 
 people well off and happy without registration or official 
 restrictions.' Only those who till the King's land pay in 
 so much. Those who want to go away, may go :' those 
 who want to stop, may stop. The King in his administra- 
 tion uses no tortures ; criminals are merely fined accord- 
 ing to the gravity of their offences. Even for a second at- 
 tempt at rebellion the punishment is only the loss of the 
 right hand. The King's body-guard have all fixed sala- 
 ries. Throughout the country no one kills any living thing, 
 or drinks wine, or eats onions or garlic ; but they keep 
 their Chan-ch'a^-los apart. Chan-ch'a-lo is the name for 
 a leper. !> They live away from other people, and when 
 they approach a city or market they beat a piece of wood 
 to distinguish themselves. Then people know who they 
 are and avoid coming in contact with them. In this 
 country they do not keep pigs or fowls, there are no deal- 
 ings in cattle, no butchers' shops or distilleries in their 
 
 6. Mr. Beal says " there are no Boards of Population and Revenue." 
 The text has ^ P ^ 'g^ ^. I' is possible that Mr. Beal could 
 think ^ meant a " Board " in this passage ? 
 
 7. We are sure Mr. Beal has given a wrong turn to this passage, 
 but it is too long and not important enough to quote. 
 
 8. In the text ^ . If necessary to be identified as in the follow- 
 ing note, we must read 'J^. Mr. Beal says " with the exceptioQ 
 of the Chandfilas, they eat neither garlic or onions." The text has 
 
 9. The text has .2 ^ ^ A) ^'^'^ ^ common meaning of 
 ^ J^ in Ch nese, as evidently here intended by Fa Hsien, is leper. 
 Mr. Beal rightly copying Eemusat, translates it " a wicked man." 
 and says in a note " The Chandfilas (Tsaud^las) were outcasts of 
 Indian society, those who had no caste, the lo-#est of mortals." 
 
30 EEOOKD OF THE 
 
 market-places. As a medium of exchange tbey use 
 cowrie shells. Only the Chan-ch'a-los go hunting and 
 deal in flesh. From the date of Buddha's Nirvana, the 
 Kings, elders, and gentry of all these countries built 
 shrines for making offerings to the priests, and gave them 
 land, houses, gardens, etc., and men and bullocks (to cul- 
 tivate them.) The title-deeds^" were written out, and 
 . subsequent Kings handed them down one to another, not 
 daring to destroy ' ^ them, in unbroken succession to this 
 day. Houses for the priests to live in,^^ beds, mattresses, 
 food, and clothes, are never wanting wherever they may go. 
 The priests usually occupy ^ ^ themselves in benevolent min- 
 istrations, in chanting the Ching, or sitting in meditation. 
 If a stranger priest arrives, the old resident priests go out to 
 meet him and carry his clothes and bowl. They give 
 him water for washing his feet and oil for anointing 
 them,^* with an extra meal."^* By and by when he has 
 
 10. The text gives Qc ^ ^ $^, B^musat says, " L'aote de oea 
 donations etait traced Bur le fer," and adds in his note " Ces dona- 
 tions dtaient gravies sur des plaques de ouivre ou d'autre mgtal." 
 Mr. Beal translates " engraved on sheets of copper," without saying 
 anything more about it. From a slight acquaintance with the ~ 
 -f- — ^, where the phrase ^ ^ often occurs, we had been 
 taught to regard ||{ merely as giving a sense of "validity" to the 
 4Sj and not as expressive of the substance on which they written. 
 
 11. |ffi ^ ^ ^'. Mr. Beal says " so that no one has dared 
 to deprive tbem of possession." 
 
 12. ^ ft li Jh S '^- M'"- Beal says .-All the resident 
 priests have chambers, etc." He also translates |S as " coverlets " 
 instead of "mattresses." 
 
 13. The expression ^ ^ may (but does not necessarily) imply 
 that the priests gain money thereby. 
 
 14. Mr. Beal is here guilty of an egregious blunder. The text is 
 as plain as possible. ^ ^ JE, pJC ^ S jft. Yet Mr. Beal goes 
 out of his way to find tne following translation : — " They then pre- 
 sent him with water to wash his feet and cleanse them from the 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 31 
 
 rested they ask him his age^ « and plaoe^ ' in the priest- 
 hood, and give him a room with sleeping appliances, all 
 according to regulation. In places where the priests reside 
 they build pagodas to She-li-fo, to Mu-lien, and A- 
 nan;^8 also towers in honour of the A-pi-t'an, Lii, and 
 Ching.^9 When they have settled down a nionth or so, 
 all the families which belong to the religion '^o organise a 
 subscription and make offerings to the priests. They ar- 
 range an extra meal at which the priests assemble and ex- 
 pound the Law of Buddha. When this is over they make 
 offerings at the pagoda of She-li-fo of all kinds of 
 incense and flowers ; they keep lamps burning all night, 
 
 mire," adding in a note, "I do not think there is any allusion to 
 oil here, as Egmnsat supposes. I take ' tsuh-yu ' to signify any pol- 
 lution of the feet, whether dirt, or the heat of travel." Thus Mr. 
 Beal writes himself down as utterly ignorant of the rhythm of Chinese, 
 composition. Eemusat's mistakes, overwhelming as they are in 
 number, do not embrace such simple passages as this. 
 
 15. That is a meal taken at other than the usual time allowed by 
 Buddhist regulations. The text has ^fc ^^ ^, and we have taken 
 our rendering direct from KSmusat who says " une collation extra- 
 ordinaire," and gives a long note in support of his translation. He 
 acknowledges, however, that the same expression " semble plus 
 difficile i, expliquer" in a subsequent passage. We leave it to our 
 readers. 
 
 16. That is, how many J^ ^, or Decembers, he has seen. 
 
 17. A priest's 5^ IS i^ "o' ^^sy to translate into English. It 
 is his number among the ^ ^ or disciples of the old priest who 
 as a spiritual father introduced h m to religious life. In answering 
 the question it is usual to give the old priest's name, and the date 
 of entry into the church. Mr. Beal gives "they ask him his age, 
 according to which they allot him a chamber, etc." E6musat is not 
 so bad as that: — "ils s'inform&rent du nombre et de I'ordre des 
 sacrifices qu'ils avaient k pratiquer." / 
 
 18. S^riputra, Mogalan, and Ananda. 
 
 19. The Abhidharma, the Disciplines, and the Sutras. 
 
 20. Literally, "those who long for happiness." ^ ^. 
 
32 EECORD OP THE 
 
 and cause those people to join in the worship.* "^ She-li- 
 fo was originally a Brahman. Once meeting Bud- 
 dha, he begged to enter the priesthood. So did the great 
 Mu-lien and the great Chia-yeh.*^ The great majority 
 of female mendicants make offerings at the pagoda of A- 
 nan, because it was A-nan who begged Buddha to allow 
 women to enter the priesthood, and therefore^^ the novi- 
 ces chiefly make offering to Lo-yiin. Teachers of the A-pi- 
 t'an worship the A-pi-t'an ; teachers of the Disciplines 
 worship the Disciplines. The time for worshipping is 
 once a year : each have their own day. The Ma-ho-yen»* 
 school worships the Pan-ja-po-lo-mi. Wen-shu-shih-li, 
 Kuan-shih-yin»5 and others. When the priests have 
 gathered in their harvest, "« the elders, gentry and 
 Brahmans, all bring various things such as clothes etc. of 
 which the Shamans stand in need, and present them to 
 the priests, who also make presents to each other. Since 
 the Nirvana of Buddha these rules of dignified etiquette 
 for the guidance of the holy brotherhood have been hand- 
 ed down without interruption. Prom the ford over the 
 Hsin-t'ou river to Southern India, down to the southern 
 sea, it is between 40,000 to 50,000 li. The country is all 
 
 21. Efemusat is justly puzzled with these four words "^ fS A ffe 
 " qui ne se lie avec ce qui prfeoede, ni aveo oe qui suit, mais qui est 
 saus diffferenoe dans les deux feditions." Mr. Beal says "throughout 
 the whole night they burn lamps provided by those men for the pur- 
 pose." We think ^ J^ must refer to |& ^g, but fail to see a 
 satisfactory solution. 
 
 22. ESsyapa. Beal. 
 
 23. The text bas j^ ^ gj? gf ^ -^ ^ j^ ^. Mr. Beal 
 says " The Saraeneras principally affect the worship of Kfthula. 
 
 24. Mahayana, or Greater Development. 
 
 25. Prftgna Paranita, Manjusri, and Aval6kitSswara. BSmuiat. 
 
 26. See Chapter 5, note 7. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 33 
 
 level. There are no big mountain streams, but only small 
 rivers, »' 
 
 CHAPTER xvn. 
 
 From this point travelling south-east eighteen yu-yen 
 there is a country called Seng-chia-shih.* It was there 
 that Buddha descended after having been three months 
 in the Tao-li' Heaven preaching the Law for the benefit 
 of his mother. When he went up to the Tao-li Heaven, 
 he used his supernatural power and did not let any of his 
 disciples know. Seven days before the time had expired 
 he cast aside his invisibility. Then A-na-lii' with his 
 divine eye saw the world-honoured One afar off, and said 
 to the venerable Mu-lien, "You can go and salute the 
 " world-honoured One." Mu-lien therefore went, and 
 prostrating himseK at Buddha's feet, they saluted each 
 other.* When the salutations were over, Buddha said, 
 " Mu-lien, after seven days I shall descend to Yen-fu-t'i." 
 Mu-Uen then returned, and at the appointed time the 
 
 27. Mr. Beal gives " There are no great mountains or valleys, 
 but still there are rivers," and justifies himself for this rendering 
 by quoting Julien. The text has ^ ic [Ij Jlj IE W M ?K> 
 and it seems to us there is a direct antithesis between ip[ •^\^ and 
 Ul ill' ^* construe jg in the unusual but not unknown sense of 
 the disjunctive O . 
 
 CHAPTER xvn. 
 
 1. The modern Sankisa. Beal, 
 
 2. " The Triyashtrinshas heaven." Beal. 
 
 3. Aniruddha. A Lo-han and cousin to Buddha. 
 
 4. Mr. Beal says " prostrated himself in adoration of the marks 
 on the foot of Buddha" — which may or may not be correct — and 
 utterly ignores the next four words, we fear, wilfully, not knowing 
 what to make of them. The text has g^ ^ |§ J£ ^ ifg ^ D^. 
 
34 RECORD OF THB ' 
 
 rulers of the eight kingdoms, withall the officers and 
 people, not having seen Buddha for a long time and being 
 very desirous of gazing upon him, collected like clouds in 
 this country to wait for the -world-honoured One. Then 
 the female mendicant Yu-po-lo communed with her own 
 heart. " To-day Kings, Ministers, and people, should all 
 "go out to meet Buddha. I am a woman : how can I get 
 " the first sight ? " Buddha at once, by the exercise of his 
 supernatural power changed her into a holy chuan-lun 
 Prince,^ the very first to salute him. "When Buddha was about 
 to come down from the Tao-li Heaven, he produced by a 
 miracle three flights of jewelled steps. Buddha came 
 down the middle flight made of the seven precious sub- 
 stances." Brahma also produced silver steps, and at- 
 tended on the right with a white dusting-brush' in his 
 hand. The divine ruler Shih produced steps of red^ gold 
 and attended on the left with an umbrella of the seven 
 precious substances. All the countless -host of gods 
 descended in Buddha's suite. When Buddha had come 
 down, the three flights entirely disappeared in the earth 
 with the exception of seven steps. Subsequently, king 
 A-yiin wanted to get to the bottom of them, and sent 
 men to dig. They got down as far as the Yellow Spring, » 
 
 but without coming to an end of them. Thereupon the 
 
 ■ ^ 
 
 6. " A Chakravarrti ESja." Beal. 
 
 . ®- •^ ^S i» Ji 'b W P§ -h ^v Mr. Beal says somewhat 
 inoorreoUy, " Buddha standing above the middle ladder which -was 
 made of seven precious substances began to descend." 
 
 7. Generally a yak's tail. 
 
 8. Stiiotiy purple ■SS. 
 
 9. Mr. Beal says " a spring of yellow water," but surely the mean- 
 ing here is the yellow spring, that is, down to the very gate of hell. 
 This rendering seems much more in accordance with the spirit of 
 the passage. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 35 
 
 king became more than ever a devout believer, and built 
 a Bhrine over the steps, and oh the middle flight made a 
 full-length image, sixteen feet in height. Behind the 
 shrine he erected a stone column thirty cubits in height, 
 and on it he placed a lion. Inside the column at the 
 four sides^" are images of Buddha. Both from inside 
 and outside it is transparent, ' ' and as clean as glass. 
 Some heretic teachers contended for this spot ■with the 
 Shamans, and the latter were getting the worst of the argu- 
 ment^ 2 when they all made this solemn statement : — " If 
 " right of residence in this place belongs to the Shamans, 
 '•there should now be some miracle (in proof thereof). 
 " When they had said this, the lion at the top of the pillar 
 roared loudly in attestation (of their right). Thereupon 
 the heretics were sore afraid, and yielding retired. Be- 
 cause Buddha had taken Divine food for three months, 
 his body emitted the fragrance of heaven, unlike that of 
 mortals, so he at once bathed himself. On the spot 
 where he did so a bath-house was subsequently built 
 which is stiU in existence. On the spot were Yu-po-lo, 
 the female mendicant, sainted him first of all, a pagoda 
 has also been lately raised. Where Buddha, when among 
 mankind, cut oS his hair and nails a pagoda has been 
 
 10. Which, consequently, we must regard as having been square. 
 
 11. Mr, Beal says " shining," here again missing the force of ^. 
 
 12. With regard to the last half of this sentence Mr, Beal makes 
 one of the most extraordinary of his numerous mistranslations. The 
 text is as simple as possible.— J^ ^ P^ S ^— which means that 
 the g of the Shamans was beginning to jg bend or give way. 
 Xet Mr, Beal on these five words perpetrates the following : — " Then 
 the Shamans agreed to any condition for settling the question that 
 might he considered reasonable." Lord Burleigh's shake of the hand 
 is nothing to it. 
 
36 RECORD OP THE 
 
 made;"'' also on the spots where the three former 
 Buddhas and Shih-chia Wen Buddha had sat down, or 
 at places where they had taken exercise;^* and also 
 where images of the various Buddhas have been made." 
 These are all in existence still, and at the spot where, 
 with the heavenly ruler Shih and Brahma in attendance, 
 Buddha descended, there is also a pagoda. Counting 
 priests and nuns there are about 1,000 here. They 
 obtain their meals from a common fund, and belong 
 some to the Greater, some to the Lesser, Development. 
 Where they live ^« there is a white-eared dragon which 
 acts as a patron to these priests by making the land 
 fertile, causing rain to fall in due season, and warding 
 off all kinds of calamities, so that the priests dwell in 
 peace. The priests out of gratitude for such kindness 
 have built a dragon shrine and have prepared a place for 
 the dragon to lie down^ ' They also make " special 
 "contributions "^8 of food offerings for the dragon, 
 
 13, This must be the meaning though it is not a translation of 
 the text.-gfe l£ -tft fl# W M S ^ f^ :^- 
 
 14, ^ it ^- To Mr. Beal is due the credit of this improved 
 rendering, 
 
 ^^- 1^ i"^ W i^ ^ ^ iM- Mr.Bealsays " also where there 
 are maris and impressions left on the stones by the feet of the different 
 Buddhas," Where he gets it all from it is not so easy to say. 
 
 16, Mr, Beal joins >f^ ^ dwelling-place on to the end of the 
 last sentence and renders it " agree to occupy the same place," This 
 was one of Efimusat's eccentricities, 
 
 17, Mr, Beal has " placed a resting place (seat) for his accom- 
 modation." The text is ^ fl; ^ /^i °* which ^ for a dragon 
 appears to have puzzled Mr. Beal, who has also failed to see the force of 
 ffl[ to spread out, 
 
 18, We have taken this from Mr. Beal as the equivalent of 
 J^ J^, tli6 first character of which that gentleman says is com- 
 mon in Buddhist works denoting that which causes " merit " and 
 therefore happiness. We have met iM ^ before in the light litera- 
 tiue of China, but have always taken it to mean simply " food," 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 37 
 
 and every day select three members of the fraternity 
 to go and eat in the dragon's shrine. At the end 
 of each rainy season, the dragon suddenly changes 
 its form to that of a small snake with white edges 
 to its ears. When the priests are aware of this 
 they fill a copper bowl with cream and throw the dragon 
 into it ; and as they proceed from the highest seat to the 
 lowest it appears as if bowing. When the dragon has 
 gone all round, it dissolYes away.^° Every year it comes 
 out once. This country is very productive ; the people 
 are flourishing, and happy ^^ beyond all comparison. 
 When men of other nations come, they invariably take 
 careofthem^^ and give them what they require. Fifty 
 
 19. Confident that Mr, Beal, who follows partially in the wake of 
 Efemusat, has utterly misrendered these last two sentences, we pro- 
 ceed to give the text and his translation for the benefit of our readers. 
 
 m ^ m ^ m^ mi^ amwrnm iMM'T ^ 
 
 a ^ -ffl ^ Fp^ fl M M -f-fc *.— "The body of priests, re- 
 cognizing him, place in the midst for his use a copper vessel full of 
 cream. The serpent then proceeds to come down from the highest 
 part of the alcove, constructed for his accommodation, to the lowest 
 part, all the while moving as though he would pay his respects to 
 all those around him. He then suddenly disappears." First of all 
 it is difficult to say why such a plain phrase as Jii fl ■^ til 
 should be slurred over by the merest tyro. " Taking the dragon, 
 they throw it into (the bowl)," where it subsequently ^ "dissolves 
 (in the cream)." The only obscure point is who "proceeds from 
 the highest seat to the lowest," though the dragon in its snake form 
 being once in the bowl we can hardly suppose it to get out for the pur- 
 pose of coming down and then get in again to be dissolved. Besides 
 ;fj ^ implies the gait of man, and not the crawling KB of a snake. 
 The bowl containing the snake is evidently carried down by a priest, 
 which would easily account for the "bowing" movement of the 
 reptile's head. There are other little inaccuracies in Mr. Seal's 
 version of this passage, which the student of Chinese cannot fail to 
 perceive. 
 
 20. Mr. Beal says "rich" for 1^. 
 
 21. ffl ;:}; ^^ Jg— the very phrase used in Chapter II. See 
 
38 RECORD OF THE 
 
 yu-yen to the north of the temple, there is a temple called 
 Huo Ching. ^ ^ Hue Ching is the name of an evil spirit. 
 Buddha formerly transformed this evil spirit, and posteri- 
 ty has buUt a shrine on the spot as a religious ojGfering to 
 him. ^2 A Lo-han took some water to wash his hands; 
 the water dripped on the ground and is still to be seen 
 there. In spite of sweeping, it still remains and cannot 
 be removed. In this place there is another pagoda to 
 Buddha. A good spirit regularly sweeps and sprinkles 
 it. No human aid is required. ' * The king of a heretic 
 country said, " As thou canst do this, I will bring a great 
 " army to quarter here. Wilt thou even then be able to 
 " keep it clean ? " The spirit caused a great wind to blow, 
 and made it clean. In this place there are one 
 hundred small pagodas, A man might spend a whole day 
 counting without finding out their number. If any one 
 is bent on knowing, then let him place a man by the side 
 of each pagoda, and when this is done let him count the 
 men. According to their number, he will be able to 
 ascertain the number of pagodas.^ ° There is a monastery 
 
 Note 10. This passage is loosely rendered by Mr. Beal. 
 
 ■^ 22. ix m.- 
 
 23- ^ ^ ^ ^ M.- '^''- ^®^^ J°^'^^ *^«^« ^"'■8 characters to 
 the next sentence, thus: — "At the time of the dedication of the 
 Vihara, (an arhat spilt, etc.") But can ^ signify " at the time 
 of ? " 
 
 24. Mr. Beal here makes a great blunder in spite of Egmusat's 
 correct translation to guide him. The text has ]^ ^ ^ A IE, 
 and Mr. Beal renders it " which at first (was built) without a human 
 architect." He seems to be quite ignorant of other uses of ^, 
 and thinks it always must mean " at the beginning." 
 
 25. Thus there is some sense in this passage ; but we must warn 
 our readers that to arrive at this we have been obliged to make a 
 trifling emendation in the text, which should read A ^ ^ !^ 
 >J? ^ /f» ^T ^ ^P . "We call particular attention to the ^ 
 not which makes nonsense of the sentence ; for surely to say thM if 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 39 
 
 ■with 600 or 700 priests, inside ■which there is a spot 
 ■where P'i-chih Buddha ate and passed" into Nirvana.^" 
 The place is as big as a cart-wheel, and all around there 
 is vegetation ; but on this spot alone there is none. The 
 place ■where he dried his clothes is also -without vegetation. 
 The marks left by these clothes have been there ever since 
 and are still to be seen. 
 
 CHAPTER x^vni. 
 
 Fa Hsien spent the rainy season at the shrine of the 
 dragon. When it ■was over he ■went seven yu-yen to the 
 south-east and arrived at the city of Chi-jao-i,^ ■which is 
 on the banks of the Ganges. There t^wo monasteries, both 
 belonging to the Lesser Development. Six or seven li to 
 the ■west of the city, on the north bank of the river, ia 
 the place ■where Buddha preached for his disciples. Tra- 
 dition says he preached on "The bitterness of Death;" 
 also on "Life is but a Bubble" and such themes.' A 
 
 any one really wants to find out the number of these pagodas, the 
 following is the way, and then to add " but you will not be able to 
 succeeds," is not such a probable text as to give the method and 
 finish with " and thus you are enabled to get at their number." 
 Those who prefer the text at all costs ■will of course adopt the former ; 
 yet our own translation ia obtainable easily enough by the mere 
 conversion of /p into "fj — in itself a very probable misprint. Mr. 
 Beal translates the above quotation, " But even in this case, it can 
 never be known how many or how few men will be required." 
 26. Mr. Beal says " ate (the fruit of NirvSna)." 
 
 CHAPIEB XVIII. 
 
 1. Kauouj. Klwproth. 
 
 2. Mr. Beal says " he preached concerning impermanency and 
 sorrow, and also on the hody being like a bubble and so on." The 
 text hs^JSL ^ % "B W. ^ WM\t 1^- JMr. Beal con- 
 strues ^ be preached |K % impermanency iff and sorrow. 
 
40 RECORD OF THE 
 
 pagoda was built in this place which still exists. Crossing 
 over the Ganges and proceeding south three yu-yen, the 
 pilgrims came to a forest named A-li. Buddha preached 
 in it ; and on all the spots where he walked or sat down 
 pagodas have been built. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Prom this point going south-east ten yu-yen, the 
 pilgrims arrived at the great nation of Sha-chih.^ Out- 
 side the south gate of the city of Sha-chih, on the east of 
 the road, is the place where Buddha formerly bit a branch 
 off a willow tree' and stuck it in the ground, whereupon 
 it grew to the height of seven feet, neither increasing nor 
 diminishing. The heretics and Brahmans in their envy 
 would have cut it down or pulled it up and thrown it to a 
 distance ; but it always came up as before on the same 
 spot. Here there are also four places where Buddha 
 walked and sat, and pagodas have been built on them 
 which still exist. = 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 From this point going south eight yu-yen, the pilgrims 
 arrived at She-wei,' the capital of the country Chu-sa-lo.' 
 
 OHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 1. Kasi. Beal. 
 
 2. Mr. Beal gives, " While here he bit off a piece from the 
 D4ntakaohta stick with which he cleansed his teeth, and fixing it 
 etc." The text has only ft 2|S ^ jH: Pg l^^ ;|^ fj ±4") 
 the first four characters which Mr. Beal has wrongly joined to the 
 end of the preceding sentence. 
 
 3. Mr. Beal says " The ruins of these still exist. But the text 
 has nothing ahout ruins. ^ Iff |K ■iS'.' The character iSJl is 
 here an illative particle. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 1. Srftvastt. Rimusat. 
 
 2. Kdsala or Oude. Eemumt. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. " 41 
 
 Inside the city the people are few and scattered, in all 
 about two hundred families. It is the city which King 
 Po-ssu-ni» governed. On the site of the old shrine of 
 Ta-ai-tao, on the site of the well and wall* of the elder 
 Hsii-ta, and on the spot where Yang-chuo Mo, who was 
 converted and. entered Nirvana, was burnt, men of after 
 ages have built pagodas, all being inside this city. The 
 heretics and Brahmans becoming envious, wished to 
 destroy them ; whereupon the heavens thundered and 
 flashed lightning with a splitting crash, so that they were 
 not able to succeed. Twelve hundred paces outside the 
 south gate of the city, on the west side of the road, the 
 elder Hsii-ta built a shrine. On the eastern face he made 
 the entrance, and on each side placed a stone pillar", the 
 
 3. PrasenSdjit. Remusat. 
 
 4. Rgmusat made a complete failnre of tLis paragraph ; and 
 .although Mr. Beal has availed himself of Julien's scholarship we are 
 not sure that he has altogether succeeded. Ta-ai-tao is MahSpra- 
 i^patl, Buddha's aunt. But Mr. Beal translates Jf S as "the 
 foundations (of the house)" of Sudatta, whom he calls somewhat 
 unnecessarily " the nobleman " ^ ^ . Now we can find no 
 authority for translating ■pf ^ as "foundations," but we can find 
 a great many for the literal rendering we have given. A recluse 
 who withdraws himself from the world in order to devote himself 
 to religion, takes up his position by the side of a well or spring and 
 there builds a small piece of wall, facing which he spends the days 
 and nights in meditation, unprotected from the wind and rain ex- 
 cept by his ^ , and Uviag on such herbs as he can gather, washed 
 down by a drink of water from his ^r- 
 
 Tang-chuo Mo = Angoulimftlya. Julien. 
 
 5. The text runs # "^ ^ |p|J ^1 P^ ^ M ffl ^ H 
 ^ ^ . Mr. Beal translates " This chapel open's towards the East. 
 The principal door is flanked by two aide chambers, in front of 
 which stand two stone pillars." Except that it is not necessary to 
 be so strictly literal with 'regard to ^ which here does duty very well 
 for ^ , Mr. Beal's rendering has just as much chance of being 
 correct as our own ; in fact, we translate it differently chiefly to show 
 
42 ■ BECOED OF THE 
 
 one to the left bearing the figure of a -wiieel, the one to 
 the right that of an ox. The water in the ponds waa 
 clear, the trees luxuriant in foliage, and the flowers of 
 various hues, truly beautiful to behold, so that it was 
 called the Ohih-hun« shrine. When Buddha went up to 
 the Tao-li heaven to preach the Law for his mother dur- 
 ing ninety days. King Po-ssu-ni longing to see him, carved 
 out of sandal-wood' an image of Buddha and placed it on 
 his (Buddha's) seat. Afterwards when Buddha returned 
 to the shrine, the image immediately quitted its place and 
 came forth to meet him. Buddha said " Return to your 
 " seat ; after my Nirvana you shall be the model for the 
 " four schools to copy." The image accordingly returned 
 to the seat. This image was the very earliest of all 
 images, and is that which later ages have copied. 
 Buddha then removed to the small shrine on the 
 south side, apart from the image and about twenty 
 paces distant. The Chih-hun shrine was originally 
 in seven compartments^. The Kings of these count- 
 ries vied with each other in making offerings, 
 hanging embroidered banners and canopies, scattering 
 
 that there are two ways, according as the stop is put after ^ 
 or after ^ . 
 
 6. IK 'iS • Mr. Beal in his Preface says " Chi-iiu grounds, i.e. 
 elaborate gardens." 
 
 7. See ante. 
 
 8. We think there has here been a general misconception of the 
 form of this shrine. Egmusat translates »ti S by "sept stages," 
 and Mr. Beal has put it into English as "seven stories" {sic). 
 Now M. ™'<^y mean a storey, but it also means a section or part of 
 a suite measured horizontally. We are further borne out in this 
 view by the occurrence of the same word in a subsequent sentence — 
 " "tg: fp M S jM. t'l^y made it of two compartments in extent," 
 not in height. If, however, Bfemusat's emendation of ji^ for ^ 
 is admitted, we shall be unable to claim this support. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 43 
 
 flowers, burning incense, and lighting lamps from dusk 
 to dawn", day by day without ceasing. A rat holding in 
 its mouthi" a lamp-wiok set fire to the embroidered ban- 
 ners and canopies, and thus it came to pass that the seven 
 compartments of the shrine were destroyed. The Kings 
 and people of these countries were all very grieved and 
 angry, saying^ ^ " The sandal-wood image has been burnt." 
 But four or five days later when they opened the door of 
 a small shrine on the east side, they suddenly beheld the 
 original image (there). They were all very much re- 
 joiced, and joining together rebuilt the shrine. They 
 made it of two compartments in extent, and removed the 
 image to its original position. Fa Hsien and Tao Ching 
 on arriving at the Chih-hun shrine reflected that formerly 
 the world-honoured One had dwelt here twenty -five years ; 
 and that since they had been risking their lives among 
 the outer barbarians, of all those who with the same 
 object had traversed all these nations together, some had 
 gone back and others were dead". And now when they 
 
 9. Mr. Beal says " while lamps shoue out day after day with 
 unfading splendor," by which he does not do justice to i^ B^ 
 which means that the lamps were kept burning all night. 
 
 10. Mr. Beal says "gnawing at the wick," but the character 
 ^ implies running off with the wick in its mouth. 
 
 11. Mr. Beal wrongly gives. " supposing that the sandal wood 
 figure had also been consumed." 
 
 12. Mr. Beal, servilely copying Bemusat, has here committed 
 one of his most glorious blunders. We will give the text of the 
 whole passage. ^ M ^ M: ^J] M M M ^ "k 1$^ "W 1& 
 
 Mr. Beal gives " When Pah Hian and To Ching arrived at this 
 chapel of Chi-^u, they were much affected to think that this was 
 the spot in which Buddha had passed twenty-five years of his life. 
 Around them stood many strangers, all occupied in similar reflec - 
 
a RECORD OP THE 
 
 saw Buddha's vacant place, their hearts were moved to 
 grief. The priests who hved there came forth and asked 
 Pa Hsien, saying, " Prom what nation do you come ? " 
 He replied " Prom the land of Han." The priests sighed 
 and said, " Good indeed ! Is it possible that foreigners can 
 " come hither seeking the Law ? " Then they spoke one 
 to another, saying, " Ever since (the Law) has been 
 " transmitted by us priests from generation to generation, 
 " no Buddhists from the land of Han have been known to 
 " come here ! " Pour li to the north-west of the shrine 
 there is a grove of trees called " Eecovered Sight." Form- 
 erly, there were five hundred blind men living at the side 
 of the shrine' '. Buddha prayed for them and they all 
 recovered their sight. The blind men were delighted, 
 and sticking their staves in the ground made obeisance. 
 These staves accordingly grew to a considerable size, and 
 as people venerated tbera and did not venture to cut them 
 down they became a grove, and obtained this name. The 
 priests of Chih-hun after their midday meal generally 
 come into this grove to sit in meditation. Six or seven li 
 to the north-east of the Chih-hun shrine, mother P'i-she- 
 chiii* made a shrine, and invited Buddha and the priests. 
 
 tions. They had traversed a succession oi strange countries. Per- 
 haps they might be spared to return home, perhaps they would 
 die I " Such a translation well deserves a dozen notes of admira- 
 tion at the end instead of the single one that Mr. Beal modestly 
 appends. Six consecutive characters are utterly ignored, and a host 
 of strangers, all making the same reflections as our two pilgrims, 
 are improvised solely as a means of attaching some signification 
 to ^. 
 
 13. ■^ ^ W a jlb- Mr. Beal gives "dwelling on this spot, 
 who were in the habit of attending the Chapel." We do not know 
 ^ in this sense, but not being quite satisfied with the literal ren- 
 dering, willingly hand over the difficulty to our readers. 
 
 14. VisSka-miltawi. Be«i!. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS, 45 
 
 It is still iu existence there^'. Tiie gve&i yuan-lo'" of 
 tlie Chih-hun shrine lias two entrances, one to the east 
 and the other to the north. This garden is on the spot 
 where the elder Hsii-ta spread gold money and hought 
 thegronnd''. The shrine is in the middle of it. Bud- 
 dha lived here a long time preaching salvation to men. 
 On all the spots where he walked and sat, pagodas have 
 been built, each with its particular name ; as, for instance, 
 the place where the Sun-to-li'" committed murder and 
 accused Buddha. Seventy paces to the north, outside 
 the east entrance of the Chih-hun, on the east side of the 
 road, Buddha formerly argued with ninety-six schools of 
 heretics. The King, Ministers, gentry, and people came 
 together in crowds to listen, when a heretic woman, 
 named Chan-che-mo-na' ', becoming envious, arranged 
 some clothes in such a manner as to make herself appear 
 enceinte, and coming into the midst of the priests accused 
 Buddha of breaking the Law. Thereupon the heavenly 
 ruler Shih changed himself into a white mouse and bit 
 her girdle in two. The clothes then fell down, and imme- 
 diately the earth gaped and she went down alive to the 
 
 15. Mr. Beal says " the ruius of this chapel still exist," and adds 
 in a note, "the word ku used in the original, although generally 
 used adverbially, denoting a con-equence of an action, has also the 
 sense of ftu, ancient or old." The text has jlt M tK Ix; or ac- 
 cording to Mr. Beal (^ tlie ruins jIt ^ of this place ^ still 
 exist. 
 
 16. The text has ^ ^. Mr. Beal translates it " Garden en- 
 closure," as if IMI) partly on the strength of the re-appearance of 
 this character in the next sentence. He is doubtless right. 
 
 17. In order to obtain a certain plot of laud on which to build a 
 shrine for Buddha, he had to cover it for the owner with gold coin. 
 
 18. U P£ f "J ^ # ff i^ ^- Mr. Beal says " the place 
 where Buddha was accused of murdering the woman Sundara." 
 
 19. Chinchimana. Beal. 
 
46 KECORD OF THE 
 
 Infernal Eegions. There is also the place where Tiao-ta'<» 
 ■with poisoned nails wished to injure Buddha and 
 went down alive to the Infernal Regions. Poste- 
 rity has marked all these spots for recognition. More- 
 over, where the argument took place a shrine has 
 been buUt, over sixty feet in height, with a sitting 
 Buddha inside. On the east of this road there is a tem- 
 ple^i belonging to the heretics, called "Ying-fou. "2" It 
 is alongside of the road, on the opposite side to the shrine 
 at the place of the argument, and is also over sixty feet 
 in height. The temple is called "Ying-fou" because 
 when the sun is in the west the shadow of Buddha's shrine 
 falls upon it; but when the sun is in the east, the shadow 
 of the temple falls northwards and thus never touches 
 Buddha's shrine. Whenever the heretics sent people, as 
 they often did, to look after the temple, sweep and sprinkle 
 it, burn incense, light lamps, and make offerings, the 
 next morning the lamps were always found in Bud- 
 dha's shrine. The Brahmans in their anger said "You 
 " Shamans are always taking away our lamps to worship 
 " your Buddha." » ' They therefore remainedin attendance 
 that night, and saw the deities they themselves worship- 
 
 20. Dgvadatta. Rimusat. 
 
 21. 5C ^- Devaiaya. RSmusat. 
 
 22. ^ ^) " shadow covered." 
 
 23. This appears to us nearer the original than Mr. Baal's 
 translation of Rfimusat's rendering "pourquoi ne nous y opposerions 
 pas ?" — " why do not we put a stop to it?" The whole sentence is 
 
 Mr. Deal make these words spuKeu by the Brabuiaus among them- 
 selves, not to the Shamans ; but the sense they give to the last four 
 characters seems to us out of the question as SH never means we, 
 and ^ jj- fits in very well with the rtB[ in the last sentence. 
 
BUDDHISnO KINGDOMS. 47 
 
 ped»* take the lamps, walk three times round Buddha's 
 8hrine, and offer them to him. When they had done 
 this, they suddenly disappeared. Thus, the Brahmans 
 came to know the greatness of Buddha's divinity, and at 
 once left their homes and entered his priesthood.''' 
 Tradition says that near about the time that this happen- 
 ed the Ghih-hun shrine was surrounded by ninety-six 
 monasteries, all inhabited by priests ''o, except one which 
 was empty. In this country" there are ninety-six 
 schools of heretics, all of which acknowledge the present 
 state of existence. 2 8 These have each their disciples, 
 who also all beg their food, but do not hold an alms-bowl. 
 They further seek salvation » » by building alongside of 
 
 24 ^ ^ 0? ^ 9c ^ ^'' ^^^^'^ translation of this is a 
 gratuitous mistake, for Eemusat gives it correctly enough. Mr. 
 Beal, however, puts a stop at ^ and renders it "saw how the thing 
 was done," joining •^ ^ on to the next sentence. We refer Mr. 
 Beal to the m ^ passim for the use of ^ as we have given it. 
 
 25. ^m'KM- 
 
 26. Literally, " aU of which had dwelling places for priests, ex- 
 cept one place which was empty." 
 
 27. The text has jlh ijl ^ ^ ^^^'t ^i"^ ^^- ^^^^ translates 
 by " In this country of mid-India," which is of course wrong, and 
 which we are ashamed to say put us temporarily off the right scent. 
 Luckily, however, we came across the very phrase some weeks later 
 iu Book II, Part II, Chapter 10, of the works of Menoius, namely 
 ^ Wi^ ^ M^3£^^, which quite disposes of Mr. 
 Beal. An analogy between tb M ^""^ *^^ Latin medio regno was 
 suggested b^ a friend, Mr. G. M. H. Playfair, who is destined some 
 day to take a high place among Sinologues. Such similarities, how- 
 ever, will hardly bear dissection, though we consider the present 
 example happy enough to deserve quotation. 
 
 28 "S* ^H "^ Ift ^^'"'isat says " qui tous oonnaissent le 
 monde actuel." Mr. Beal says " all of whom (sic) allow the reality 
 of worldly phenomena." 
 
 29. Mr. Beal has entirely omitted Jjjp ^ ^]ES ^ |g§, Puzzled 
 
48 EECORD or THE 
 
 desert roads houses of charity where shelter and food are 
 given to travellers, or to passing priests of Buddha — but 
 for a different period. Tiao-ta^" has also some priests 
 remaining. They worship the three past Buddhas, but 
 not Shih-chia-wen»» Buddha. Four li to the south- 
 east of the city of She-wei is the spot where Buddha 
 stood by the roadside when king Liu-li=* wanted to 
 destroy the She-i'^ nation. A pagoda has been built 
 there. Fifty li to the west of the city, there is another 
 city called Tou-wei.^* It is the place where Chia-yeh^o 
 Buddha was born. There where the father and son met. 
 and where he entered Nirvana, pagodas have been built, 
 A great pagoda has also been raised over the remains of 
 the body of Chia-yeh Ju-lai."" 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 From the city of She-wei travelling south-east twelve 
 yu-yen, the pilgrims arrived at a large town called Na-p'i- 
 
 probably by Efimueat's traiielati"n o{ these words, — " lis oherohent 
 aussi le bonheur dans les dfiserta et sur les routes." We submit 
 our translation to the approval of our readers, who will probably 
 agree with us that even an unsuccessful effort is better than slurring 
 over a passage as if there was no real difficulty in it. 
 
 30. DSvadatta. Bimusat. 
 
 31. Shdkya Muni. 
 
 32. ViroMhaka. Beal. 
 
 33 '^ ^- Because Mr. Beal cannot identify Sh^-i, he says it 
 must be the " country of the Sakya family." It would have been, 
 to say the least, polite to acknowledge that this speculation is more 
 correctly the property of ECmusat. Ch. xx.. Note u7. 
 
 34. Mr. Beal says " Cunningham identifies this place with 
 Tadwa." 
 
 35. Kisyapa. M^muaat. 
 
 36. Ju-lai — TathSgafii. Bimusat. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 49 
 
 chia,^ which is the place where Chu-lo-ch'in» Buddha 
 was born. On the spot where the father and son met 
 and where he. entered Nirvtina, there are also monasteries^ 
 and pagodas. From this point going north less than a 
 yu-yen, tbey arrived at the city where Chii-na-han-mou- 
 ni* Buddha was born. On the spot where the father and 
 son met and where he entered Nirvana, pagodas have in 
 both cases been built. 
 
 CHiPTBR xxis. 
 
 From this point going east one yu-yen, the pilgrims ar- 
 rived at the city of Chia-wei-lo-wei.'^ Inside the city there 
 is neither King nor people ; it is just like a wilderness. 
 There are only priests and some tens of families,* and 
 that is all. On the spot where formerly was the palace 
 of King Fai-ching a representation has been made of the 
 heir-apparent and his mother, at the moment that, riding 
 on a white elephant, he entered the womb of his mother. ' 
 
 CBAPIEB ZZI. 
 
 1. Unknown. 
 
 2. Kraknchanda. Renmsat. 
 
 3. Mr. Beal omits the " monasteries." 
 
 4. Eauakamuni. R4mmat. 
 
 [From this point Elaproth ia chiefly responsible for the notes 
 appended to each chapter o{ B€musat's translation, but for cou- 
 veuienee we shall still continue to quote them as before under the 
 name of BSmusat.} 
 
 CHAPIEB XXII. 
 
 I. Eapilavastu. Bimusat. 
 
 2' Wi'Y ^- Mr. Beal as usual says, " about ten families." 
 
 3. The following is the text of this sentence :— |^ ^ I ]fii 1^ 
 
 J^f^*^#^^;5i:^^&^A#9§Bt- Mr. 
 
 Beal gives, " In the place where stand the ruins of the palace of 
 Sudhedana, there is a picture of the Prince-apparent and his mother, 
 
50 EECOED OF THE 
 
 On the spots where the Prince issued from the east gatg, 
 saw a sick man, and turned about his chariot to go home, 
 pagodas have been raised. Also, where A-i inspected the 
 heir-apparent ;* where Nan-t'o and the others struck the 
 elephant, dragged, and threw it* (outside the city wall) ; 
 where the arrow going south-east thirty li entered the 
 ground and caused a spring of water to gush forth, which 
 posterity made into a well for travellers to drink at ; 
 where Buddha, having attained Wisdom, came back to 
 see his father the King ; where the five hundred Shih-tzu« 
 left their families and made obeisance to Yu-po-U ; where 
 the earth quaked six times;' where Buddha prayed for 
 all the Devas, and the four heavenly Kings guarded the 
 four doors so that the King his father could not get in ; 
 where Ta-ai-tao presented Buddha with a priest's robe as 
 he sat facing the east underneath the Ni-chii-lii^ tree, 
 which tree still exists ; and where King Liu-li killed the 
 Shakyas" who had all previously obtained the rank of 
 Hsii-t'o-hunio — towers have been built which are still 
 
 (supposed to be) taken at the time of his miraculous conception. 
 The Prince is represented as descending towards his mother, riding 
 on a white elephant." E6musat gives Sudhodana for Mng Fai-ching. 
 
 4. In order to tell his fortune. 
 
 5. Mr, Beal has omitted ^' threw, though he explains in his 
 note (from Julien) that Devadatta struck the elephant with his fist 
 and killed it, Nanda seized and dragged it aside, and Buddha threw 
 it outside the city walls." 
 
 6. #^. 
 
 7. >^ ® j more correctly, as Efimusat has it, " de six 
 manieres." Mr. Beal says " six times in succession." 
 
 8. Nyagrodha. . Benmsat. 
 
 9. Women whom he (Viroudhahka) had carried away for his 
 harem, but who refused to accept their position. Julien. 
 
 10. " Sr6t4panna, est le nom de la premiSre olasse dea S'ravakas 
 cu auditeurs de Bouddha." Eemusat. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 51 
 
 in existence. Several li to the north-east of tlie city 
 there is a royal field, where the heir-apparent sat under a 
 tree and watched men ploughing, i ^ Fifty li to the east 
 there is a royal garden, called Lun-min^?, where the 
 Queen, entering the pool, hathed herself, and coming out 
 twenty paces on the north side of the pool, raised her 
 hands to grasp the branch of a tree.^^ and facing the east 
 brought forth the heir-apparent. When the Prince was 
 born he walked seven steps, and two dragon-kings^* 
 washed his body. At the place where he was washed a 
 well has been made, and also at the above-mentioned 
 bathing pool,^^ from which the priests are now accustom- 
 ed to get their drinking-water. All Buddhas have four 
 places everlastingly fixed, (1). Where they attain per- 
 il. Mr. Beal saya " watched a ploughing-matoli," but gives no 
 explanation of or authority for such rendering. -E§musat says 
 " considgra des lahoureurs," and quotes a passage to shew that the- 
 young prince was invited to take an interest in agriculture " afin 
 que sea reflexions ne se portassent pas sur la doctrine." 
 
 12. Lumbini. Also expressed in Chinese by ^| JM f'J'* 
 
 13. Mr. Beal saya " holding a branch of the (Sala) tree in her 
 hand "for ^ ^ ^ © ife He has omitted the next two 
 characters altogether, ^ |^ facing the east. 
 
 14. Bemusat says in a note " Deux rois des dragons, fr6res, I'un 
 nommfe Kia lo, et I'autre Tii Kia lo." 
 
 15. A troublesome sentence to translate satisfactorily. Mr. Beal, 
 as is his wont with difficult passages, avoids exposing hia weakness 
 by taking no notice at all of the last five oharaetera. The text runs 
 ?S ;^ ^ f^ ^ ^ J: iSb i^ ;?& The difficulty is of course with 
 
 V . Does it mean literally "over (the well)," or merely "beside," 
 for which there would be sufficient authority in 3t _fc W ^' Or 
 may _fc refer to (_h ^) the bathing-place "above-mentioned?" 
 Bemusat gives the following forced translation:—" ai'endroit oi cette 
 ablution eut lieu, il se forma aussit6t un puits ; et o'est a ce puita 
 aussi Men qu'fi, I'gtang oii avait eu lieu le bain, que les religieux ont 
 ooutume de puiser I'eau qu'ila boivent." It seems to us pretty clear 
 that there were two wells, one at each place. 
 
52 RECORD OP THE 
 
 feet wisdom. (2), Where they turn the wheel of the 
 Law. ' * (8). Where they preach and refute the heretics 
 in argument (4). Where they descend after having been 
 up to the Tao-U heaven to preach the Law for the benefit 
 of their mothers. The other places are announced ac- 
 cording to circumstances.' ' The country of Ohia-wei-lo- 
 wei is very desolate and barren, with very few inha- 
 bitants. »" On the roads, white elephants and lions are 
 to be feared ; travellers must not be incautious. 
 
 OHAFIEB XXIII. 
 
 Travelling eastward ^ five yu-yen from Buddha's birth 
 place, there is a country called Lan-mo. » The king of 
 this country obtained a share' of Buddha's remains, and 
 when he got back he built a pagoda which was called the 
 Lan-mo pagoda. By the side of the pagoda is a pool, 
 
 16. " C'est une expression allfegorique employfie pour indic(uer 
 quMn Bonddba a commeucg t pr§cher la doctrine." R&musat. 
 
 IT. ^ i'J ^ K :^ IS SB- Mr. Beal gives " With respect 
 to otlier places, they are chosen according to the time when the 
 several Buddhas come into the world." But 3^ is only the com- 
 plement of 7fi. 
 
 13. Mr. Beal here makes another of his uncalled-for emendations, 
 the text is extremely simple :— A IS ^ ^ ItE S& W © 
 1^ ^ etc., but Mr. Beal must needs put a stop at ^ and render 
 it " yon seldom meet any people on the roads." 
 
 CHAFTEB XXIII. 
 
 1. Elaproth has inadvertently placed this sentence at the end 
 of one chapter and at the beginning of the next. Mr. Beal puts it 
 at the end of chapter xxii, but it seems more appropriate here. 
 
 2. ■■ This place is identical with Bfimagamo of the Mahawanso." 
 Beal. 
 
 3. One of the eight parts into which his remains wore divided 
 after cremation. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 53 
 
 and in it there is a dragon which is always guarding the 
 pagoda, and worships there day and night. When king 
 A-yii came into the world, he wanted to destroy the eight 
 pagodas* and make eighty-four thousand pagodas. When 
 he had already destroyed seven, he next wished to des- 
 troy this one ; whereupon the dragon assumed its shape,' 
 and led king A-yii into the building. Then when he had 
 seen all the implements of worship, (the dragon) said to 
 the king, " If you can worship more efiSoiently than this, 
 " then you may destroy it." (The dragon then) led him 
 forth," (saying) "I will not contend with you." King 
 A-yii, knowing that these implements of worship were not 
 of this world, at once returned home. Hereabout the 
 vegetation is rank. No one sprinkles or sweeps;^ but 
 occasionally a herd of elephants taking water with their 
 trunks, sprinkle the ground, or bring flowers and incense 
 to offer at the pagoda. Some Buddhists of these coun- 
 tries, wishing to worship at the pagoda, when they saw 
 the elephants, were very much afraid and hid themselves 
 
 4. Built over the eight portions of his remains. 
 
 5. The text bas f| @ 3^ ^. Mr. Beal says, " The Dragon 
 therefore assumed a body," and refers to Julien as liis authority for 
 stating in a note "Namely that of a Brahman." The Chinese 
 phrase, however, implies nothing beyond the sense attached to it in 
 our translation, and simply means "became visible (as a dragon)." 
 1^ ^ is a synonymous phrase. 
 
 6. The two words j^ ^ which we have thus translated are 
 considered by Mr. Beal as part and parcel of the dragon's speech, 
 his version of this sentence being, "If you can excel me in these 
 particulars, then you may destroy the tower, go and do so at once, 
 I will have no quarrel with you." The italics are our own — a tributo 
 of astonishment, if not of admiration, at this handling of the two 
 characters given above, which are undoubtedly in antithesis to 
 
 ^* * A- 
 
 7. The inside of the pagoda. 
 
54 EBCOKD OF THE 
 
 behind trees ; (then) beholding the elephants perform the 
 ceremonies according to the Law, the Buddhists were 
 overcome with sorrow and gratitude ;» (with sorrow 
 because) here there were no monks for the performance 
 of rites at the pagoda, so that the (duties of) sprinkhng 
 and sweeping devolved upon elephants. These Buddhists 
 therefore g'ave up their Five Commandments » and became 
 Shamis, themselves cutting down the grass and shrubs, 
 levelling the spot, and thus making it neat and clean. 
 They persuaded the king of the country to made dwelling- 
 places for priests, to serve as a temple, i" At present 
 there are priests in residence. The above events are 
 quite recent, and from the date of their occurrence until 
 
 8. Mr. Beal here ignores the character ^ appreciation of the 
 elephants' services, and thus escapes the somewhat clumsy con- 
 struction of the next few v.'ords. 
 
 9. Ordinary Buddhists are bound to observe only five (A) com- 
 mandments ; but for those who enter the priesthood there are five 
 (B) more, ten in all. 
 
 [1. Thou shalt not take life. 
 steal 
 
 commit adultery, 
 lie. 
 
 drink wine. 
 
 sit on a large or lofty couch, 
 have flowers or ribbons on thy dress, 
 sing, dance, or witness plays, 
 wear jewellery, 
 eat except at certain hours. 
 
 Mr. Beal says " They further stimulated the 
 King of the country to help make residences for the priests. More- 
 over, they built a temple, in which priests still reside." We fail to see 
 how Mr. Beal arrives at this very plausible rendering. To make any- 
 thing at all of it, we have been obliged as usual to change ^ into J^t . 
 Mr. Beal further leaves out altogether the next four characters 
 
 A.i3. 
 i. 
 
 
 2. 
 
 4. 
 ^5. 
 
 
 10. The 
 
 text has 
 
 ^ J| <t ft ^i. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 65 
 
 now' ', the head of the temple has always been a Shami. 
 From this point going east three yu-yen, on the spot 
 where the heir-apparent sent back his charioteer' ' and 
 got away from his white horse, a pagoda has been built. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 From this .point going east four yu-yen, the pilgrims 
 arrived at the Ashes pagoda,' where there is also a 
 monastery. Proceeding . further twelve yu-yen, they 
 arrived at the city of Chii-i-na-chieh.^ To the north of 
 the city, where between two trees, on the bank of the 
 Hsi-lien river, the world-honoured One, with his head to 
 the north, entered Nirvana; where Hsii-po'' last of all 
 attained Wisdom ; where in his golden cofSn the world- 
 honoured One was worshipped for seven days ; where 
 Chin-kang-li-shih* threw down his sceptre : and where 
 the eight kings divided the remains — in all these places 
 pagodas have been buUt, and monasteries, all of which 
 exist to this day. In this city the inhabitants are very 
 
 11. We consider that ^ 'j^ is sufficiently expressed by tliis 
 rendering. Mr. Beal says " there has been a regular succession of 
 priests till now." 
 
 12. E6nrasat says "renvoya son char et quitta soncheval Wane." 
 Mr. Beal says " dismissed his charioteer Tohandaka, and the royal 
 liorse, previous to their retura." The text has >K ■? 5el ■¥ 
 S I& M JS 1^- The fact that Buddha's horse was very anxious 
 to accompany him explains the use of ^ , but Jg seems a little 
 awkwardly placed. 
 
 CHAPIEE XXIV. 
 
 1. Built on the spot where Buddha's body was burnt. 
 
 2. "La ville de KousinSrS des livrespali." Bimusat. 
 
 3. Subhadra. Bemusat. 
 
 4. Vadjrap^ni. He threw down his sceptre and rolled on tha 
 ground for grief at the death of Buddha. Remusat. 
 
56 RSCOUD OP THE 
 
 few and scattered, and only such as are connected with 
 the priesthood. From this point going south-east twelve 
 yu-ym, they arrived at the place where all the Li-chii ' wish- 
 ed to follow Buddha into Nirvana, but Buddha would not hear 
 of it. Longing for Buddha, they were unwilling to depart ; 
 whereupon Buddha produced a great, deep stream which 
 they could not cross ; and then, giving them his alms-bowl 
 as a memorial, sent them away to their homes. A stone 
 pillar has been put up on which this is inscribed. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXV. 
 
 From this point going east five yu-ym, the pilgrims ar- 
 rived at the country of P'i-she-h. ^ To the north of the 
 capital of P'i-she-li there is a large forest and a shrine in 
 two compartments' where Buddha once dwelt ; also the 
 
 5. " Habitants de la ville de Pfti che li (Vais'Sli)." Rimusat, 
 The rest of this chapter has received severe treatment at the hands 
 of Klaproth. Hardly two consecutive words are properly translated. 
 and the sense ia completely altered. Mr. Seal has given it correct- 
 ly, but we must differ from him as to the last seven characters. He 
 says "On this they went back and erected a stone pillar, although 
 he has already used up in the preceding sentence the only character 
 jig to which such meaning could be attached. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 1. Vais'aii. ESmusat. 
 
 2. Mr. Beal gives the following somewhat confused rendering of 
 this passage : — " To the north of the city of this name (or, to the 
 North of the capital city of VaisSli) there is the VihSra of the great 
 forest (Mah&vana Vihfira) which has a double tower (or a tower of 
 two stories [sic])." The text has M 'it :h W MWi ^ ^> 
 and seems to yield more readily a forest and a shrine, as BSmnsat 
 originally took it. "M. IS ^°^^ ^o* mean either a " double tower 
 or a tower of two storeys ; but simply that the shrine was divided 
 into two ^, which character may but does not necessarily signify 
 an upper chamber. 
 
BtJDDHISTIO KINGDOMS. 67 
 
 pagoda (built over) half the body of A-nan. Inside this 
 city the woman An-po-lo' formerly build a pagoda in 
 honour of Buddha, ^rtuch is still in existence. Three U 
 to the south of the city, on the west sid^ of the road, 
 where was the garden which the woman An-po-lo gave to 
 Buddha for a dwelling-place ; and where Buddha, about 
 to enter Nirvana, issuing with his disciples from the west 
 gate of the city, turned round to the right,* and beholding 
 the city of P'i-she-li said to his disciples " This is the last 
 "place I shall visit "' — on these spots men of later genera- 
 tions have build pagodas. Three U to the north-west of 
 the «ity there is a pagoda called Fang-kung-ehang," the 
 origin of which name was as follows : — On the upper' 
 Cranges there was a Mng whose concubine was delivered 
 of an unformed foetus. The Queen in her jealousy said 
 "Your delivery is a bad omen," and accordingly enclosed 
 it in a wooden box and threw it into the Ganges. Lower 
 down the stream the king of another country was taking 
 & stroll <when he saw on the water the wooden box. He 
 opened it and found inside one thousand boys, upright 
 
 3. AinraddrikS, oi daughter pf the ;mango trea. Beal. 
 
 4. Mr. Beal adds "as a token of respect," but alludes to "an 
 ingenious note " by Mr, tajdlay, which it is to be regretted he has 
 not given. 
 
 5. ^ ^ M^ PM ft M' Mr. Beal gives " In this place I 
 have performed the last religious act of my career." But there is 
 no authority (except Klaproth's) for such an interpretation of fj. 
 Bemusat himself was very wid« of the mark ; — " C'est un lieu pft 
 je reviendrai bien longtemps aprSs ceci." 
 
 6- ^ ^ ^ = liiy down hows and (other) weapons, jjt is a 
 general term for ^ ^ ', not " clubs " as Mr. Beal chooses to 
 translate it. 
 
 V- JL ^> which Mr. Beal unnecessarily renders " On one of 
 the superior affluents of &c." But the _t merely implies that this 
 
58 EECOED OF THE 
 
 and of striking appearance." Tlie king at once took 
 them out and brought them up, and when they were 
 full-grown they were very brave and strong, so that when- 
 ever they went to war their enemies were invariably 
 compelled into submission. Subsequently, they went to 
 attack the country of the king their father, at which the 
 latter was overcome with anxiety. His concubine asked 
 the king why be was anxious. He replied, " The king 
 "of that country has one thousand sons incomparably brave 
 " and strong, and they propose coming to my country; 
 "therefore I am anxious." His concubine said, " Be not 
 "anxious; but make a lofty chamber on the east side of 
 "the city, and when the enemy" comes place me up in it. 
 "I shall be able to keep them off." The king did so, and 
 when the enemy arrived, the concubine called out to them 
 from the chamber, "You are my sons ;' ° why do you rebel 
 " against me ?" They replied " "Who are you that says you 
 " are our mother ?" The concubine said, " If you do not 
 ."believe, all look up and open your mouths." She then 
 pressed her two breasts, and each gave forth five hundred 
 
 Idng lived "higher up " than the other, in which sense we use the 
 word " upper." It might well be omitted altogether provided due 
 force were given to the following p ^. 
 
 8. SsB jE ^ W- Mr. Beal wrongly renders these words "very 
 fair and just of a size." If )6^ was to be used in its other sense, 
 it would give the exact contrary to " just of a size ;" but here it is 
 undoubtedly to be taken in its superlative sense. 
 
 9. Mr. Beal translates ^ as " robbers," apparently ignorant 
 that this is the common term applied to thieves, rebels, and hostile 
 armies alike. 
 
 10. For no earthly reason Mr. Beal elects to put this half of her 
 speech in an interrogative- form, — "Are you my ohUdreu all?"— 
 thus spoiling the whole turn of the sentence. We are occasionally 
 tempted to believe that Mr. Beal indulges in these vagaries solely 
 for the sake of differing from Eemusat, 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 59 
 
 jets of milk which fell into the mouths of her thousand 
 sons. Then they knew that she was their mother and 
 laid down their bows and other weapons. The two kings, 
 their fathers, by meditating upon these circumstances 
 attained the state of P'i-chih Buddhas, and the pagoda 
 built in memory of them is still in existence. Afterwards, 
 when the world-honoured One attained wisdom, he said 
 to his disciples " This is where formerly in my time the 
 " bows and weapons were laid down."" Thus posterity 
 came to know, and built a pagoda on the spot. Hence 
 the name. The thousand boys are the same as the thou- 
 sand Buddhas of the Kalpa of sages, i ' Buddha standing 
 by the pagoda of Pang-kung-chang said to A-nan, " After 
 " three months I must enter Nirvana" ; on which the king 
 of devils' = confused A-nan so that he did not request 
 Buddha to remain in the world. From this point going 
 east three or four K, there is a pagoda. A hundred years 
 after the Nirvana of Buddha some mendicant priests of 
 P'i-she-li having broken the Disciplines in ten particulars 
 stated that Buddha had said such was the proper prac- 
 tice ;i* whereupon the Lo-hans, the mendicants who 
 observed the Disciplines, and the lay-brothers,^^ in all 
 
 11. Arriving at this translation, which the text will only bear 
 with a strain, it was consoling to find that B^musat had come to- 
 the same conclusion, — "le lieu oii jadis on ayait d6pos6." Buddha ■ 
 said -^ ^ "m ^^ M 5i' ■M Ml and ^ is apparently the no- 
 minative case to JJ as Mr. Beal has given it : — " This is the place 
 where I formerly laid aside my bow and my club." But this does 
 not mate sense. 
 
 12. S 7»6' " Le kalpa dans lequel nous vivons, est un iJftadra- 
 kalpa ou kalpa des sages vertueux, " liimusat, 
 
 13. Mara. 
 
 14. ^ b" ft ^ ^B :^ • ''^''- 5^*1 gi'^^ *^^ last two charac- 
 ters in the oratio recta. 
 
 15. Mr, Beal has omitted all mention oi }% yi ^ which we 
 
60 EKOOED OF THE 
 
 seven hundred ecclesiastics, examined and compared the 
 Disciplines over and over again, i" Posterity has built a 
 pagoda on the spot which is also still in existence. 
 
 CHAPTEE SXVI 
 
 From this point going east four yu-yen, the pilgrims 
 arrived at the confluence of the five rivers. When A-nan 
 going from the country of Mo-chiehi to P'i-she-li wished 
 to enter Nirvana, the gods informed king A-she-shih» who 
 at once proceeded with all haste and with his soldiers 
 pursued him to the iriver . The Li-chii, hearing that A-nan 
 had arrived, also came to meet him ; and when they were 
 all* on the river (banks), A-nan reflected that by advanc- 
 ing he would incur the hatred of king A-sh6-shih, and by 
 returning, the enmity of the Li-chii. Therefore,' in the 
 middle of the river he entered the fiery state of san-mei* and 
 
 translate "lay -brothers." These last do not shave the entire head, 
 and have not been branded, i.e. ordained. 
 
 16. Mr. Beal says "afresh;" but M~M w many times. 
 Mr. Beal takes it as if the priests produced a revised copy of the 
 Disciplines ; the text, however, seems only to imply that a search 
 was made for the passages quoted by the Nonconformists. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 1. Magadha. BSmusat. 
 
 2. Ajatasatru. " O'fetait uu roi de Magadha qni vivait vers I'an 
 868 avant notre Sre." R4mmat. Mr. Beal places him, according to 
 the Hindoo records, B. 0. 560. 
 
 3. ^ 0lJ JbJ" Jt— i.e. tlie king and his soldiers on one side, the 
 Li-chii on the other. Mr. Beal ignores ^jH and says the Litohavas 
 set out to meet him " and arrived at the bank of the river." 
 
 4. S ^ " Samddhi, c'est sb dire la plus profonde mgditation 
 religieuse, laquelle sort alors du corps du ddfunt et le consume pour 
 le rfiproduire dans toute la beautfi dont il fitait orn6 pendant sa vie." 
 Bemusat. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. . 61 
 
 passed by cremation into Nirvana. His body was divided 
 into two parts, one for each side of the river ; and the 
 two kings having each obtained one half of his remains 
 returned and raised pagodas over them. 
 
 OHAPTEB XXVII, 
 
 Having crossed the river and journeyed south one yu- 
 yen, the pilgrims arrived at the country of Mo-ohieh-t'i' and 
 the city of Pa-lien- fo,* the latter of which was (formerly) 
 ruled by king A-yii. The king's palace and courts were 
 all constructed by spirits whom he employed to pile stones^ 
 build walls and gates, carve ornamental designs and en- 
 grave'— truly not the work of mortals. These still exist. 
 King A-yii's younger brother having attained the position 
 of Lo-han was in the habit of residing at the Ch'i-she- 
 chiieh hill,* his idea of enjoyment being undisturbed 
 meditation. The king very respectfully asked him ta 
 come and practise his religious ceremonies' at home; but 
 he, liking the quiet of the hill, refused to accept the invi- 
 tation. The king then said to him " If you will only 
 
 CHAPTEB XXTII. 
 
 1. Magadha. 
 
 2. Fatna. 
 
 3. The text has M S i|2 ^ ^ M 2iC ^J @ Mr. Beal 
 gives " The maegive stones of which the walls are made, the door- 
 ways and the sculptured towers, are no human woik." We can find 
 nothing about towers or ->' massive " stones in the text. For the 
 former Mr. Beal has- evidently mistaken ^. The whole sentence 
 ia moreover wrongly separated from the verb ^ on which it 
 depends. 
 
 4. Gridhrakfita or the Pic du Vantonr. Bimusat. 
 
 5. Mr. Beal here translates '@^ ^ "to receive (or present) his 
 religious offerings." But it hardly seems doubtful which must bft 
 meant in the present passage. 
 
 1/ 
 
62 EECOED OP THE 
 
 " agree to come, I will make a hill for you in the middle of 
 "the city." Accordingly he prepared food and drink, and 
 calling together all the spirits said to them, " Tomorrow 
 "when all of you accept my invitation, there being no 
 "seats,"' each bring your own." On the following day the 
 spirits arrived each carrying a huge cube' of stone some 
 four or five paces (every way). When the spirits had 
 done with them as seats, the king made them make a 
 great hill," and further at the foot of it construct a stone 
 room with five square stones, thirty feet in length, twenty 
 feet in breadth, and more than ten feet in height. There 
 was a Brahman belonging to the Greater Development, 
 named Lo-t'ai-ssu-p'o-mi," who lived in this city. His 
 intellect was vigorous and his knowledge extensive ;. there 
 was nothing that he did not understand. He led a pur© 
 and solitary life.'^" The king of the, country reverenced 
 him as his teacher, ^ and when he went to pay his re- 
 spects did not venture to sit down. If the king from a 
 feeling of affection and veneration grasped his hand, when 
 he let go the Brahman would make haste to wash it. ^ * 
 
 6. Klaproth got into a glorious state of confusion over this 
 simple sentence. 
 
 7. For the meaning oi 1^ "jj we shall look to the assistance of 
 a friendly reader. Mr. Beal avoids the difEoulty with his usual 
 skill. 
 
 8. f^ :^ ^ llj • The :/<; refers to ll| and not ^ as Mr. 
 Beal erroneously takes it. 
 
 9. Mr. Beal can give no "satisfactory opinion as to the correct 
 restoration of this name ;" and — it may be a coincidence — Efimusat 
 is equally mute. 
 
 10. &,'M ^'^ M" '^^- ^^^^ ^*y^ "^® l^^®'^ B.-^axt occu- 
 pied in silent meditation." But there is nothing here about " medi- 
 tation." He has apparently confused J^ *^^ Br ■ 
 
 11. " Eeligious superior fGuru)." Beal. 
 
 12. Mr. Beal absurdly renders this 5^ "iSE by " washed himself 
 from head to foot." 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 63 
 
 He was perhaps over fifty years of age. > ^ All the coun- 
 try looked up to and relied on this one man. He diffused 
 widely the Law of Buddha, so that the heretics were un- 
 able to discredit it.^ * By the side of king A-yii's pagoda 
 the priests bnUt a Mo-ho-yen ' * monastery, very imposing 
 in appearance. There is also a temple of the Lesser 
 Development, the two together numbering six or seven 
 hundred priests, of grave and decorous aspect, each taking 
 his proper place.' " Virtuous Shamans from all quarters, 
 
 13. Mr. Beal here falls into a gross blunder, and one which had 
 already been perpetrated by Klaproth. He joins this sentence on 
 to the next and translates it, "For something like fifty years the 
 whole country looked up to this man and placed its confidence on 
 him alone." The text has ^RTS-p^SSP^jJb 
 
 -A. 
 
 14. Here again Mr. Beal, this time difiering from Eemusat, com- 
 mits an error of liaison. This sentence ends 7(i ^ ^. fUt ^ 
 {the last character being evidently a misprint for ^) and the next 
 begins with ^ f^, but Mr. Beal gives it "were unable to obtain 
 any advantage at all over the priesthood." 
 
 15. Mahayana, or the Greater Development. 
 
 16. We cannot refrain from giving this passage with the render- 
 ings of Beal and Eemusat. /^'tl'S'fi'lfej^^j^J^'fT 
 18 K 5? I^ ^i ^ n ]K' etc. For this Eemusat gives "XX 
 six et sept cents religieux. On y voit aussi des colleges admirable- 
 ment bStis dans un style majestueux et grave. Les Cha men d'une 
 haute vertu des quatre parties du monde &o." Mr. Beal says " x x 
 six or seven hundred priests, all of them exoeadingly well conducted. 
 In the College attached to the temple one may see eminent Shamans 
 from every quarter of the world, &c." We will confine ourselves to 
 an analysis of Mr. Beal's version. He puts a comma at ^ and a 
 full stop at ^, thus producing a most un-Chinese sentence of two 
 adjectives ; and further makes {^ govern ^ f^ as its accusative 
 case. Such a bungle quite throws into the shade the French ver- 
 sion, wherein the proper division of sentences is retained, although 
 the result is fully as monstrous as Mr. Beal'a. We venture to as- 
 sert that J$ ^ has here nothing whatever to do with "colleges" 
 of any kind. The idea intended is that of 5^ jj or the "order" of 
 
64 EBCOED OP THE 
 
 and also scholars, desirous of advancing themselves in the 
 morahties, come together at this temple. The Brahman 
 teacher is called Win-shu-shih-li," and is very much 
 looked np to by the Shamans and mendicants of the 
 <jreater Development. He too resides in this monastery. 
 Of all the countries of central India, this has the largest 
 cities. The people are prosperous, and emulate each 
 other in the practice of virtue. Every year regularly on 
 the 8th of the 2nd moon they have a procession of images. 
 They make a four-wheeled ear of five storeys by lashing 
 together bamboos; and on it there are crescent-headed 
 javelins and partisans.' « It is more than twenty feet in 
 height. It is like a pagoda in appearance, and draped 
 round mth a kind of cashmere which is painted in various 
 colours. They make images of all the gods, using gold, 
 silver, and glass to ornament them, and suspending over 
 them embroidered banners and canopies. At the four 
 sides they make niches, each with a Buddha sitting inside 
 and a P'u-sa standing in attendance. There may be 
 twenty cars, every one of which is differently decorated. 
 On this day all the ecclesiastics and laymen in the district 
 assemble, and occupy themselves with singing and rare 
 music,' 9 burning incense, and making offerings of flowers 
 
 seniors and jxmiora in the priesthood. The words ^ ^ in their 
 ordinary sense will be found in one of the e&rly chapters of Menoius. 
 
 17. Manjusri. Bemusat. 
 
 18. Mr. Beal translates these last few characters W ^ fa ^ 
 ^ by " the whole being supported by a centre post resembling a 
 large spear with three points." ESmusat comes far nearer with 
 " soutenus par des lances." The allusion is to two kinds of weapons 
 ■which are often seen on these image oars. The first .^ ^ is, as 
 we have given it in the text, oresoent-headed ; the j^- ^ has the 
 crescent of metal at the side. 
 
 19. f^ f§ ^ ^. For this Mr. Beal gives » There are all 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 65 
 
 etc. The Brahmans come out to invite the Buddhas, who 
 enter the city in regular order, and in it pass two nights.*" 
 All night long there are lamps burning, music playing, 
 and offerings being made. All these nations act in a 
 similar way. The benevolent and educated persons of 
 this country have instituted a free hospital within the 
 city; and hither come all poor or helpless patients »> 
 suffering from all kinds of infirmities. They are well 
 taken care of, and a doctor attends them, food and medi- 
 cine being supplied according to their wants. Thus they 
 are made quite comfortable, and when they are well they 
 may go away. When A-yii destroyed the seven pagodas 
 to make eighty-four thousand others, the first made was 
 a great one about three li to the south of this city. In 
 front of this pagoda there is an impression of Buddha's 
 foot (over which) a shrine has been raised, the entrance 
 of which faces the north and is opposite the pagoda.** 
 
 eorta of games and amusements," and later on translates |$i by 
 "games" where it could hardly be anything but yo music. 
 
 20. -^ ?JC ^ A M A. M P^ S^ ^ Mr. Beal ignores the 
 •{IJJ, regarding it probably as an accidental repetition of the last 
 •word. He then proceeds to understand the character ^ ears, and 
 translates, " and one after the other the cars enter the city. After 
 eoming into town they take up their several positions," The italics 
 are ours, being a slight tribute to the ingenuity that could extort 
 such a meaning from the characters ^ ^, which in ordinary 
 Chinese literature, epistolary and otherwise, are understood in the 
 sense we have given. To sleep one night is ^ ^• 
 
 21. It is obviously absurd to make this "hospital" a refuge for 
 the poor, the destitute, the cripples, &o., as B6musat and Beal telie 
 this passage. The words ^ ^ Jl ^ are here used as adjec- 
 tives qualifying the classes of patients who would be admitted. 
 
 22. ^ 4fc IrJ ^' Mr. Beal ignores the last two of these 
 characters and ends his sentence with "the gate of which faces the 
 north." 
 
 y 
 
66 EECOED OF THE 
 
 To the south of the pagoda there is a stone pillar, fourteen 
 or fifteen feet in circumference, and thirty odd feet in 
 height. On it there is an inscription as follows : — " King 
 *' A-yii presented Yen-fu-t'i to the priesthood and redeemed 
 " it again with money. He did this three^ ^ times." Three 
 or four hundred paces to the north of the pagoda king 
 A-yii built the city of Ni-li."* In it there is a stone 
 pillar, also about thirty feet in height. On the top of it 
 there is a lion, and on the pillar there is an inscription 
 giving the origin of the city of Ni-li, and the year, month, 
 and day (on which the inscription was written). « ' 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 From this point going south-east nine yu-yen, the pil- 
 grims arrived at a small Ku-shih' hill, on the top of which 
 there was a stone chamber facing the south. When 
 Buddha was seated within, the heavenly ruler Shih on 
 this spot edified him with celestial music, playing there 
 for a considerable time on the lute for Buddha's enjoy- 
 
 23. in :^ H M' Mr. Beal says " four times." 
 
 24. Elapioth can find "nuUe autre mention de cette ville." Mr. 
 Beal identifies it with Nfila. 
 
 25. For this Mr. Beal says " (he) also engraved an historical 
 record on the front of the pillar, giving an account of the successive 
 events connected with the city of Ni-lS,i (sic) , with the corresponding 
 year, day, and month." The text has simply 'U Jl ^ ^ aS 
 f^^i^MH^-R^ifeH-^- Theyin-yuan of a city 
 is merely its raison d'etre, and is correctly rendered in Eemusat's 
 translation. The date given might be that of the completion of the 
 city, but is more probably that of the day on which the inscription' 
 was engraved on the pillar put up in commemoration of its comple- 
 tion. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 1. Literally, " orphan stone " ; — a common name for solitary 
 hills. Mr. Beal says " a small rocky hill." 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 67 
 
 ment''. He then proceeded to ask Buddha forty -two 
 questions, writing them all down one after another upon 
 a stone with his finger. The traces of this writing still 
 exist". Here theie is also, a monastery. From thia 
 
 2. As this passage cost us a considerable amount of time and 
 thought, and as the results obtained differ essentially from those 
 previously put forward by Messrs. ESmusat and Beal, we will place 
 all three before the indulgent reader, accompanied by the text, and, 
 in our own ease, by authorities for translating various characters as 
 wehavedone. ^ ^ ^ r^ ^ '^^ ^^^ % M ^ MW 
 ^ ^ W ^ BSmusat originally rendered this " Foe s'y gtant 
 assis, le roi du oiel Chy, avec les musioiens celestes, y fit ex.§cuter 
 le Pan tcha, et piuoer du khin en I'honneur du Bouddha." Klap- 
 roth altered this to " Foe s'y gtant assis, le roi du ciel Chy y fit 
 pincer du khin par les musioiens oSlestes Fan tcha, en I'honneur 
 du Bouddha," and states in his note that he can find no " Sclaircis- 
 sement " on the term Pan tcha. Mr. Beal now enters the field with 
 " On one occasion, when Buddha was sitting in the middle of this 
 cell, the Divine Sekra took with him his attendant musicians, each 
 one provided with a five-stringed lute, and caused them to sound 
 a strain in the place where Buddha was seated." Mr. Beal, con- 
 trary to his wont, has attempted to express the last and somewhat 
 unimportant character ^ which had been ignored by E6musat and 
 Klaproth, and of which we can offer no more satisfactory explana- 
 tion than is implied rather than expressed in our own translation, 
 namely, that where Shih played, there he asked his forty-two ques- 
 tions. But he makes a school-boy blunder over tp which only 
 means inside and not necessarily in the middle of the chamber. 
 As for the rest, Mr. Beal dances lightly over it without note or 
 comment as if there was no difficulty whatever about it. We will 
 now account for our own version : " When Buddha was seated 
 within, the heavenly ruler Shih ^ taking 5^ ^ celestial music 
 jlX gave him pleasure, y^ very much 3? striking ^ the lute Hi 
 (here le) to delight {^ Buddha." Keferenoe to K'ang Hsi's dic- 
 tionary will shew the characters ^ and 31^ used in the senses in 
 which we have ventured to understand them. 
 
 3. 5 tfiJ* S^ tt 01' " The ruins of these marks still exist," as 
 Mr. Beal should translate it if he would lay any claim to consistency. 
 We are astonished that he did not here detect his own mistake of 
 translating QSJ ruins. 
 
68 EEOOKD OP THE 
 
 point going south-west one yu-yen, they arrived at the 
 village of Na-lo«, the birth-place of She-U-fo,* and 
 the village to which he returned to enter Nirvana. 
 Therefore a pagoda was erected here, which is still in 
 existence. From this point going west one yu-yen, they 
 arrived at the new city of Wang-she « which was built by 
 king A-she-shih, and in which there are two monasteries. 
 Three hundred paces outside the west gate, king A-she- 
 shih, having obtained a share of Buddha's remains, built 
 a lofty, spacious, and handsome pagoda. Four li to the 
 south of the city they en tereda valley stretching away south- 
 wards' and arrived at (a space) within five hills. The five 
 hills surround it, giving the appearence of a walled city. It 
 was (the site of) King P'ing-sha's^ old city, which was 
 five or six li from east to west and seven or eight li 
 from north to south. The place where She-li-fo and 
 Mu-lien first saw Ngo-pi:" where the Ni-chien-tzu'" 
 made a fire-pit and, poisoning the food, invited Buddha ; 
 where king A-she-shih^ ^ gave wine to a black elephant 
 in order to injure Buddha ; where, at the north-east cor- 
 ner of the cityi^ Ch'i-chiu' ^ built a shrine in An-p'o-lo's 
 
 4. NalanclagrAma. Beal. 
 
 5. Sariputra. 
 
 6. Bajagriha. Rimusat. 
 
 7. The ^ |r] here seems to refer rather to the position of the 
 valley than to the route of the pilgrims. 
 
 8. BimbSsfira. Bimusat. 
 
 9. Asvadjit, (qui va t cheval). Rgmusat. 
 
 10. A Nigrantha, or ascetic, named Srlgupta. Beal, from Julien. 
 
 11. Hsiian Tsang ascribes this crime to DSvadatta. RSmusat. 
 
 12. The text has ;y5 ^ ;Hi ^ ft 4* • We can make nothing 
 satisfactory out of the last two characters. Mr. Beal renders them 
 by " in the middle of a crooked defile," and Klaproth skips them 
 without saying so. 
 
 13. " (The physician) Djlvaka. Beal. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. C9 
 
 garden, and having invited Buddlia with his 1250 disci- 
 ples made offerings to them; — these places still exist. ^* 
 The city is a waste ; there are no inhabitants. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Entering the valley and bearing round^ the mountains 
 to the south-west for fifteen li, the pilgrims arrived at the 
 Ch'i-she-chiieh^ hill. Three li from its summit there ia 
 a cave in the rook facing south, where Buddha formerly 
 sat in meditation. Thirty paces to the north-east there 
 is another cave in the rock in which A-nan sat in medi- 
 tation. The evil spirit Po-hsiin,' having changed himself 
 into a vulture, stood before the cave to frighten A-nan. 
 Buddha by his supernatural power pierced the rock, and 
 stretching out his hand stroked* A-nan's shoulder. His 
 
 14. " Mr. Beal still persists in talking about "ruins" which here 
 could only be those of the shrine, whereas the word " exist " in the 
 text refers to all the above-mentioned places which are still pointed 
 out. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIX. 
 
 1. The text has ifj llj ^ ]€ ± + S M- Mr. Beal 
 gives skirting the mountains along their south-eastern slope." The 
 first character seems to be a misprint for |5 J of _t we can make 
 nothing very satisfactory. 
 
 2. Chapter xxvii, note 4. 
 
 3. " XJn des noms de M&ra." Eemusat. 
 
 4. Here we have one of Mr. Seal's unaccountable aberrations 
 from sense, grammar, rhythm, and everything that should be kept 
 in view by free and literal translators alike. The text, too simple 
 to embarrass even the flighty Klaproth, is as follows : — jSj* -^ J^ 
 
 PSf H M 'Ml iP ^ it- Yet Mr. Beal has, "with his outspread 
 hand touched the head of Ananda. On this he bore up against his 
 fear and found peace."- — adding in a note to make it ten times 
 worse, " I here translate "ma" (s(c) by " touched the head," and 
 " kin " (the shoulder) by " able to bear." It may, however be 
 rendered " touched the shoulder of Ananda, on which his fear 
 
70 EECOED OP THE 
 
 fear was thus allayed. The marks of the bird and tbs 
 hole for (Buddha's) hand are still to be seen ; hence the 
 name "Vulture-cave-hill." In front of the cave is the 
 spot where the four Buddhas sat down, and also the cavea 
 where each of the Lo-hans sat in meditation, several 
 hundred in all. Also the place where Tiao-ta standing 
 among the rocks on the north of the mountain wickedly 
 wounded Buddha on the toe with a stone ^ as he was 
 walking up and down in front of the cave. The stone 
 is still in existence. The hall in which Buddha preached 
 has been destroyed ; nothing but the foundations of the 
 brick walls remain. The peaks of this mountain are 
 picturesque and imposing;" it is the highest of the five. 
 Pa Hsien having bought incense, flowers, oil, and lamps 
 in the New city, hired two mendicants, who knew the way, 
 to carry them.' He then went up the Ch'i-she-chiieh 
 
 was immediately allayed." As if there could possibly be any other 
 way of translating this passage, least of all that which Mr. Beal 
 adopts in his text. For ^ is here an active verb, J^ never means 
 " to touch the head," the rhythm of both halves of the sentence 
 would he utterly destroyed by putting on a stop at ^, the phrase 
 /3 'fijj " to bear up against fear " is unknown to the Chinese 
 language, and "found peace " is a gloss on the text which there was 
 not the slightest necessity for inserting in a plain unvarnished 
 narrative. 
 
 5. The text has M 'M M \}i 'it ^ M Fb^ tt iP 5 iU 
 i^ J£ ^H • Mr. Beal says, "Devadatta, standing on the mountain 
 between the northern eminences, rolled down athwart his path a 
 stone which wounded a toe of Buddha's foot." What authority Mr. 
 Beal has for his " northern eminences " he does not condescend to 
 tell us, and we must therefore reject his somewhat violent separation 
 of 4b from [1(. The character jlP never means " to roll down," 
 and f^ need not necessarily be taken in its literal sense " athwart." 
 
 6. An excellent rendering of i^' ill |I^ ^ j!^ J^ which we 
 have borrowed word for word from Mr. Beal. 
 
 7. Mr. Beal is quite wrong with Ms " procured the assistance of 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. . 71 
 
 hill and made offerings of flowers and incense, and burnt 
 lamps all night." (There) his feelings overcame him, 
 but he restrained his tears' and said, " Buddha formerly 
 "lived here, and delivered the Shou-leng-yen.^" I, Fa 
 " Hsien, being born (at a time when I could) not meet 
 " Buddha, can only gaze upon his traces and his dwelling- 
 " place." Whereupon he chanted the Shou-leng-yen in 
 front of the cave. He remained one night and returned 
 to the New city.^^ 
 
 ■ two aged Bikshus to accompany him to the top of the peak." The 
 text has f§ Zl M i^b ^ ^- Now ^ means " long resident," 
 and therefore may be held to imply that they knew the way : it 
 never signifies " aged," which by the way would be the very last 
 qualifieation in the world for a mountain guide, jj is to trans- 
 port things as well as to conduct people, and the former is un- 
 questionably its meaning here. Mr. Seal's error has arisen from 
 imitating Klaproth's wrong punctuation. A full stop at 3^ makes 
 the passage simple enough. 
 
 8. f^ 'M W- ^M- Mr. Beal treats us to "and lit his lamps, 
 so that their combined lustre illuminated the gloom of the cave." 
 Apart from the utter Lord Burleighism of this sentence, we may 
 remark that if Mr. Beal had read a few of the proclamations against 
 gambling, so frequently issued in China, he would have discovered 
 that if^ ™ may be roughly rendered by the words of a well-known 
 Bacchanalian lyric — " till daylight doth appear." 
 
 9. Mr. Beal has "Fah Hian was deeply moved, even till the 
 tears coursed down his cheeks," which is the exact opposite of what 
 we are told in the text. 'JH f^MiU ^MM m- 
 
 10. The name of a well-known Sutra. 
 
 11. This sentence forms a striking instance of Klaproth's ignor. 
 ance of the Chinese language and a singular want of acumen on the 
 part of Mr. Beal. We will presume that the render knows the divi- 
 sion of the Fo Ttuo chi into chapters to be purely arbitrary, and the 
 work first of Efemusat, afterwards of Haproth ; the original being 
 one continuous narrative from beginning to end. Now Elaproth 
 chose to end one chapter in the middle of a sentence, so to speak, 
 and to carry on the remainder to the beginning of the next chapter. 
 The result is Of course ludicrous, but Mr. Beal did not notice the 
 absurdity and has followed faithfully in the beaten track, The text 
 
72 , BECOKD OF THE 
 
 CHAPTEE XXX. 
 
 About three hundred paces to the north of the Old City, 
 on the west side of the road, the pilgrims arrived at the 
 Bamboo Garden shrine of Chia-lan-t'o,^ which is still in 
 existence, and is swept and sprinkled by priests. Two or 
 three li to the north of shrine is the Shih-mo-she-na or, 
 in Chinese, the field of tombs for throwing in» the dead. 
 Bounding =1 the southern hill and going three hundred 
 paces south, there is a stone chamber called the Pin-po- 
 lo* cave. Buddha frequently sat in meditation here after 
 his meals. Six li further west, on the north side of the 
 hill and (consequently) in the shade, there is a stone 
 chamber called Chii-ti,* where, after the Nirvana of Bud- 
 dha, the 500 Lo-hans compiled the Ching. When the 
 Ching were brought out,« three empty seats were prepared 
 
 gives -g Jh - ^ 5l TrJ rr M ffl » M ^b, etc. Mr. Beal 
 translates " and remained there the entire night. — Chapter XXX. 
 Eetiirning towards the New City, after passing through the old 
 town, etc." The unfortunate ending of chapter XXIX at -fg makes 
 nonsense of the beginning of chapter XXX. 
 
 CHAJPTEK XXX. 
 
 1. Kalanda, the squirrel which saved a Idug's life by making n 
 noise in his ear when a snake was approaching. Beal, quoting 
 Manual of Buddhism. 
 
 2. Mr. Beal says " laying." But ^ has a stronger and more 
 repulsive meaning than that. 
 
 3. Here we have the character ^ which we can only consider, 
 with the ^ above mentioned, as a misprint for f^' 
 
 4. Mr. Beal says Julieu renders this the " Pipal cave," but tells 
 ua nothing further as to its meaning. 
 
 5. Mr. Beal says in a note, " This is plainly the Sattapanni cave 
 of the Mahawanso.'" 
 
 6. tij ^ fl$ for which Mr. Beal.gives "At the time when the 
 books were recited." We do not know this meaning of {ij. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 73 
 
 and very handsomely decorated. The one on the left was 
 for She-li-fu, and the one on the right for Mu-lien. 
 Out of the five hundred one Lo-han was wanting, and 
 just as the great Ohia-yeh was mounting his throne, 
 A-nan was outside the door unable to enter. A pagoda 
 was built on this spot which is. still in existence. Bound- 
 ing the mountain, there are also a great number of caves 
 where the Lo-hans used to sit in meditation. Issuing 
 from the north of the old city and going east three li, 
 there is Tiao-ta's cave, fifty paces from which there is a 
 great square black rock. Formerly, a mendicant priest 
 walking backwards and forwards on the top, reflected as 
 follows :' — " The sorrows of life are of short duration. In 
 " death there is defilement. I loathe this body." Thereupon 
 he seized a knife with the intention of killing himself ; 
 but again he reflected, " The world-honoured One has 
 " set his canon against self-slaughter ;" and further " al- 
 " though this is so, I now only desire to slay the three 
 " baneful thieves."^ He then took the knife and cut his 
 throat. At the beginning of the cut' he became a Hsii- 
 
 7. Mr. Beal puts what the Bikshu said in the oratio obliqua for 
 no particular reason that we can see except the unoourteous one 
 that he did not thoroughly understand the text. We have ,§, '[|| 
 
 ^Mun'B^n^^^^mm^^M- ^or this 
 
 Mr. Beal gives the following marvellous production : — " meditating 
 on the impermanenoy, the sorrow, and vanity of his present life. 
 Arriving thus at an unsound state of mind, disgusted at the sorrows 
 of life, he drew etc." Where Mr. Beal gets his, " unsound state of 
 mind " from is more than we can say. The defilement to be feared 
 after death is of course the corruption of the body. But we must 
 refer the reader to chapters xviii and xxxii where the same phrase 
 occurs. 
 
 8. " Eaga, dwesa, moha — evil desire, hatred, ignorance." Beal. 
 
 9. Here Mr. Beal evidently mistranslates. He says " On the 
 first gash"; but it is clear from the text that there was only one cut. 
 
74 EEOOED OF TEK 
 
 t'o-hun;'^'' wlien half through, an A-na-han;^^ when 
 quite through, a Lo-han ; whereupon he entered Nirvana. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXI. 
 
 From this point going west four yu-yen, the pilgrims 
 arrived at the city of Ghia-yeh,i also a complete waste 
 within its walls. Journeying ten more li to the south, 
 they arrived at the place where Bodhisatva formerly pass- 
 ed six years in self-mortification. There is a wood there. 
 Prom this point going west three li, they arrived at the spot 
 where Buddha entered the water to bathe, and a god 
 pressed^ down the branch of a tree to pull him out of the 
 pool. Also, by going two li north, at the place where 
 the two lay-sisters' presented Buddha with mUk and rice- 
 water. Two li to the north of this, Buddha, sitting on a 
 stone under a great tree and facing the east, ate the milk 
 
 10. Srotapauna. " Class of those Buddhists who have entered 
 the stream of Buddhist conduct." Edkins. 
 
 11. Anagami. The class of those who being freed from faults do 
 not come again into the world of death and deception. 
 
 OHAPIEB XXXI. 
 
 1. Gaya. RSmusat. 
 
 2. Mr. Beal says " the D§va held out the branch of a tree," which 
 gives quite a wrong idea of what happened. The verb ix nieaus 
 to press or to bend down, and the reference here is to a branch on a 
 tree, not to a piece broken off. 
 
 3. M 'M:k M Wt '%M M- On this sentence Klaproth 
 Bays in a note, "M. Egmusat, prenant Mi kia pour un nom propre " 
 translated accordingly. He himself altered BSmusat's version into 
 " les fiUes des families retirees ", explaining in a note " qui se sout 
 61oign6es du monde." Mr. Beal gives " the village-girls," and says 
 they were the daughters of Sdj^ta, the lord of the village of Ouro- 
 vilva ; but this may be quite true and at the same time throw no 
 light on the use of the character jM* Ot"^ ow" explanation is that 
 ^ ^ is a not uncommon synonym for f^ ^, and that the two 
 women were members of a kind of religio laxa such as was proposed 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 76 
 
 and rice-water,^ The tree and the stone are both there 
 still ; the latter being about six feet in length and breadth 
 by over two feet in height. In Central India the heat and t/- 
 cold are equally divided ; trees will live" several thousand, 
 and even so much as ten thousand years. From this 
 point going north-east half a yu-yen, the' pilgrims arrived 
 at the cave where Bodhisatva, having entered, sat 
 down cross-legged with his face to the west and reflected 
 as follows : — " If I attain perfect Wisdom, there should 
 " be some miracle (in token thereof)." Whereupon the 
 silhouette of Buddha appeared upon the stone, over 
 three feet in length, and is plainly visible to this day. 
 Then Heaven and Earth quaked mightily, and the gods 
 who were in space cried out, saying, " This is not the 
 " place where past and future Buddhas have attained and 
 " should attain perfect Wisdom. The proper spot is be- 
 " neath the Pei-to tree, less than half a yu-yen to the 
 " south-west of this." When the gods had uttered these 
 words, they proceeded to lead the way with singing in 
 order to conduct him thither, Bodhisatva got up and 
 followed, and when thirty paces from the tree a god gave 
 him the Chi-hsiang grass.^ Having accepted this he went 
 
 to Queen Catharine previous to her divorce from Henry VIII. 
 These " lay sisters " do not shave their heads like the female 
 priestesses ^ ^, though they live entirely on a vegetable diet 
 and are otherwise supposed to lead religious lives. 
 
 4. Mr. Beal says that Buddha here "eat {sio) the rice and milk." 
 Egmusat gives " du riz au lait." The character ^ signifies what 
 is commonly known in China as congee. 
 
 5. Mr. Beal wrongly makes this statement a consequence of the 
 equal heat and cold, coining a conjunction that has no existence in 
 the text. 
 
 6. ■^ ^ J^. Mr. Beal gives, "the grass-mat of Ki-tseung 
 (Santi)," apparently as if E-tseung was the Chinese transliteration 
 of Santi. Taken literally it is merely the "happy omen grass," 
 
76 EEOOED OF THE 
 
 on fifteen paces farther, when five hundred dark-coloured 
 birds came and flew "three times round him, and departed. 
 Bodhisatva went on to the Pei-to tree, and laying down 
 his Chi-hsiang grass sat down with his face to the 
 east. Then the king of the devils sent three beautiful 
 women' to approach from the north and tempt him ; he 
 himself approaching from the south with the same object. 
 Bodhisatva pressed^ the ground with his toe, whereupon 
 the infernal army retreated in confusion and the three 
 woman became old. From the above-mentioned place 
 where, Buddha suffered mortification for six years (down- 
 wards^ ), — on all these spots men of after ages have built 
 pagodas and set up images, all of which are still in 
 existence. Where Buddha, having attained perfect Wis- 
 dom contemplated the tree for seven days, experiencing 
 the joys of emancipation ;^'' where Buddha walked back- 
 wards and forwards under the Pei-to tree for seven days ; 
 where the gods produced a jewelled chamber and wor- 
 shipped Buddha for seven days ; where the beautiful- 
 given to Buddha, as Mr. Spenoe Hardy tells us, by the Brahman 
 Santi. 
 
 7. — ^ sCi for which Mr. Beal gives " three pleasure girls." 
 We suspect this to be a gloss of his own. ^ is invariably used, 
 as far as we know, in a good sense ; it is even occasionally taken as 
 a synonym of J^ ^t and here seems to express simply the good 
 looks of the three women without reference to their morals. In 
 this view we are borne out by the use of the character ^ old in 
 the next sentence. 
 
 8. Here again Mr. Beal mistranslates iK " strucli the ground 
 with his toe ." 
 
 9. That is, through the text. We have translated this sentence 
 too literally for the general reader, but perhaps not too much so for 
 the student who would understand the original word for word. 
 
 10. We have borrowed Mr. Beal's happy rendering of ^ ^ ^ 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 77 
 
 scaled blind dragon" walked round Buddha for seven 
 days; where Buddha sat facing the east on a square 
 stone beneath the Ni-chii-lii tree and Brahma came to 
 salute him ; where the four heavenly kings offered their 
 alms-bowls ;12 where the five hundred traders gave him 
 cooked rice^^ and honey ; where he converted Chia-yeh 
 and his brothers, master and disciples to the number of 
 one thousand souls :'^^ — on all these spots pagodas have 
 been raised. At the place where Buddha attained perfect 
 Wisdom there are three monasteries, all inhabited by 
 priests. The priests and people gave (the pilgrims) what 
 food they required without stint.^^ The strictness with 
 
 11. So Bgmusat has it. Mr. Beal, however, strikes out a path 
 for himself with "where the blind dragon Manlun." The text has 
 3!C S$ a Si' and therefore Mr. Seal's "Manlun" must be re- 
 presented in the text by the first two characters wS-n lin. At the 
 same time, Manlun seems much more like the last two characters 
 which are actually read mang lung, but of course mean " blind 
 dragon." 
 
 12. "Which he changed, by a miracle, into one, so as to cause no 
 disappointment by his acceptance of either. See ante. 
 
 13. Or " cooked wheat." This passage is quoted in K'ang Hsi's 
 dictionary under the character gi?, explained by ^ or ^ Tit ^/- 
 Efemusat gives "riia grille" which is the first of these two; Mr. 
 Beal says "wheat" which is neither. 
 
 14. The text has M M M 5t M ^ ^ =^ A M- Mr. 
 Beal has apparently takes pip as a verb, — " each of whom was at 
 the head of 1,000 disciples." Whatever the facts of the case may 
 be, the text seems to point only to a total of 1,000 men. 
 
 15. The text has ^ ft ^ J^ &.^ B & M B{ ^ >Jf- 
 For this Mr. Beal, following Efemusat, gives " All the ecclesiastics 
 are supplied with necessaries by the people, so that they have 
 sufl&cient and lack nothing." That is to say, Mr. Beal makes 
 ^ ft the dative case and ^ P the nominative, picking them 
 out much as if the sentence was a Latin verse, and utterly ignoring 
 the fundamental principle that " the whole of Chinese grammar de- 
 pends upon position." Pa Heien is evidently, as elsewhere, alluding 
 to the help given to himself and his companion. 
 
78 RECORD OP THE 
 
 which, while Buddha was still alive, the holy brotherhood 
 observed the Disciplines and a decorous manner of sitting, 
 rising, and entering the company of others, is the same 
 to this dayi8. Prom the Nirvana of Buddha to the pre- 
 sent time, the sites of the four great pagodas have been 
 handed down^' (by tradition) without a break. The four 
 great pagodas were (1) on the spot where Buddha was 
 born, (2) where he attained perfect Wisdom, (3) where 
 he turned the wheel of the Law.^^ and (4) where he enter- 
 ed Nirvana. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Formerly, when king A-yii was a boy, and was playing 
 in the road, he met Shih-chia Buddha out begging. The 
 boy was pleased, and gave him a handful of earth a a 
 alms. Buddha took it and threw it down^ on the ground 
 where he exercised himself. In return for this act the 
 
 16. The unusually long protasis of this sentence has been cur- 
 tailed by Mr. Beal. He makes a separate clause of the first half. 
 
 17. The text has simply 'I@ ^ /p !§. For this Mr. Beal 
 gives " have always been associated together," which, apart from its 
 erroneousness, is more difficult to understand than the very text 
 itself. 
 
 18. That is, preached. 
 
 CHAPTEB XXXII. 
 
 1. The text has -f^ # jl ^ J^ fj Jfi. Mr. Beal gives 
 " Buddha received it, and on his return sprinkled it on the ground 
 on which he took his exercise." He thus takes j^ in its sense of 
 " going home," and makes a verb of tflo. This seemed so plausible 
 that we were nearly adopting it without question. On reconsidera- 
 tion, however, we prefer to submit another version so that the 
 reader may choose for himself, In this ?S i?£ is taken to signify 
 "returned it to the dirt." 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 79 
 
 boy became an " iron-wheel "^ king and ruled over Yen- ^' 
 u-t'i. On assuming the iron-wheel he made a royal pro- 
 gress* through Yen-fu-t'i, and saw between the two hills 
 T'ieh and Wei* a hell for punishing wicked people. The 
 king then asked his suite " What is the meaning of this ?" 
 They answered " It is Yen-lo, the king of the devils, 
 " punishing wicked people." The king, having reflected, 
 said " So even the king of the devils can make a hell for 
 " punishing wicked people.^ I am a ruler of men, why 
 " should hot I make a hell for punishing wicked people — 
 " eh ?" He then asked his officers " Who is able to make 
 " a hell for me, and to superintend the punishment of the 
 " wicked ? " They rephed " Only a very bad man could 
 " do this." The king accordingly sent officers to search 
 in all directions for a bad man. They saw^ by the side of 
 
 V 2. A Chakravarti. 
 
 3- ^ 'fJ* ^'^^ ^8*" s^ys " goiiig (through Jambudwlpa) in 
 the administration of justice." But the words we have italicised do 
 not convey the correct meaning of ^ fj which thus applied, as 
 now to the Governor of a province, would merely mean a tour of 
 inspection and not a judicial circuit. 
 
 4. Mr. Beal, copying Bemusat, and regardless of the great prin- 
 ciple we alluded to in note 15 of the last chapter, translates the 
 nam?s of these hills by " surrounded by an iron wall " — meaning, 
 of course, the hell. The text has E ^ B M ill f4 M ^ 
 ^ ^ A • If the meaning were what Mr. Beal gives ^ H 
 would immediately precede J^ 3wt ^^^ '^ot be separated as they now 
 are. 
 
 6. The text has J^ I f^ ]^ Jfi Ji ?& p A, the force of 
 which is quite lost in Mr. Beal's " The Demon king, in the exercise 
 of his function, requires to have a place of punishment for wicked 
 men." The important character f^ is thus totally ignored. 
 
 6. This elliptical abruptness is one among many specimens of 
 the terse ruggedness of Pa Hsien's style which we have endeavoured 
 to preserve in our translation rather than indulge in more elegant 
 tournures which have no existence in the original. 
 
80 EECOED OP THE 
 
 the F a tall, burly man, of a black colour, with yellow 
 hair and dark eyes.s He used his feet to hook up fish, ^ 
 and his mouth to -whistlo to birds and beasts ; and when 
 they came he would shoot or slay them ; none ever 
 escaped him. When they had got this man, he was 
 brought before the king who secretly instructed him as 
 follows : — " You make a square of four high walls, and in 
 " it plant all kinds of flowers and fruit, with beautiful 
 " vales and pools, and decorate it so exquisitely that people 
 " shaU long to gaze upon it. Make a gate to the enolo- 
 " sure,^" and when any one enters, seize him directly and 
 " administer punishment according to his deserts. -"^^ Do 
 " not let him get out. If you catch me going in, punish 
 " me in the same way, and do not let me go. I now 
 " salute you as the ruler of hell." A mendicant going 
 round collecting alms, entered this door, and when the 
 
 7. M fit 7K jS- Mr. Beal givea, " They saw, by the side of 
 a running stream." But Jjg is more probably the name of the 
 stream ; at any rate, some authority would be necessary to sanction 
 Mr. Seal's (and Eemusat's) rendering. 
 
 8. Mr. Beal says " red hair and light eyes." The text has 
 ^& ^ HK pT' ^^^ ^s the last character expresses several shades 
 it is only fair to translate it, in a doubtful case, by the most common 
 of its meanings, which would be dark green. 
 
 9. Closely translating Efimusat's translation, Mr. Beal has made 
 a mess of a not very difficult passage -^U M §-^ M M P P?'^ 
 g)j — as follows : — •' x x with feet like talons, and a mouth like that 
 of a fish. When he whistled to the birds and beasts, etc." That is 
 to say, Mr. Beal puts a full stop at P , instead of a comma at @,, 
 making P dependant on J^. There can be doubt about the cor- 
 rectness of our reading. 
 
 10. Mr. Beal says, " Then, having made a wide gate." — 
 
 ^ S PI ^;^ 
 
 11. ^ fg Vp fp, which Mr. Beal erroneously renders " sub- 
 ject him to every kind of infernal torture. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 81 
 
 attendants'^ saw him they at ianee seized him in order 
 to administer punishment. The mendicant was very 
 frightened, and pleaded " Give me a few moments that I 
 " may eat my midday meal." Meanwhile, some one came 
 in, and the attendants threw him into a mortar and 
 pounded him till he foamed bloodis (at the mouth). The 
 mendicant, seeing this, reflected : — " The sorrows of life 
 " are of short duration : dying, it is like a bubble or like 
 " froth.i*" Thereupon he became a Lo-han, and'' when 
 the attendants seized him to throw him into a cauldron 
 of boiling water, the mendicant's heart was exceeding 
 glad, the fire was extinguished and the hot water became 
 cold, a lotus-flower growing up in the middle on which 
 the mendicant sat down. The attendants at once went 
 and said the king, " Something wonderful has occurred 
 "in the hell; we pray Your Majesty to go and see." 
 The king said, " I formerly made an agreement ; now I 
 " dare not go." The attendants said " This is no small 
 " matter : Your Majesty ought to go at once ; the former 
 " agreement is cancelled." The king therefore entered 
 in, and the mendicant having prayed for him, he believed 
 and was made free (of sin). Thereupon he destroyed 
 
 12. JgS 2^— a common phrase for the attendant devils who carry 
 out the punishments of Purgatory. Vide the HE i^ Jp- Mr. Beal 
 takes it to mean the lately-appointed keeper. 
 
 13. ^ ^ 'w i!^ tU' which Mr. Beal translates "till a red 
 froth formed on the surface of the mass." 
 
 14. Begarding this sentence, which we have been much tempted 
 to translate it la Beal — vaguely, we must refer the reader to Chapter 
 XXX, Note 7. 
 
 15. Mr. Beal puts a full stop at Lohan, and translates the next 
 two characters |JE W by "This having trara^ired," evidently having 
 no very clear idea as to the meaning of the word we have italicised, 
 which, if anything, should have been occurred or taken place. 
 
82 RECORD OP THE 
 
 the liell and repented of all the wiokeduesses he had 
 previously committed, and from that time forth believed 
 in and venerated the Three Precious Ones.i* often going 
 beneath the Pei-to tree to repent him of his faults, to 
 reproach himself, and pass the time in fasting.i'? The 
 queen asked where her husband went so frequently and 
 the coartiers replied, " He is frequently under the Pei-to 
 " tree.'' The queen waited until the king was away from 
 the tree, and then sent men to out it down. When the 
 king came and saw this, stupified with grief he fell down 
 on the ground. His ministers threw water on liis face, 
 and after a long time he came round. Thereupon, he 
 banked it up on all sides with bricks, ^8 and poured a hun- 
 dred pitchers of cow's-milk on the roots, throwing himself 
 at full length on the ground and making this vow : — " If 
 " the tree does not live, I will never rise." When he had 
 thus vowed, the tree began to grow at the top of its 
 roots,i8 and exists to this day. It is now rather less than 
 100 feet high. 
 
 CHAPTEB XXXIII. 
 
 From this point going south three U, the pilgrims ar- 
 
 16. The Buddhist Trinity. See ante. 
 
 17. The text has ^ 7\ ^, the second character being pro- 
 bably a misprint for 7*v- At the same time, wG may mention that 
 a category of "eight abstinences" does actually exist. 
 
 18. U- Not "piled np the earth'' as Mr. Beal gives it. 
 
 19. ^ Jl M ^- Mr. Beal has " (the tree immediately) be- 
 gan to force up small branches from its roots,"— according to which 
 the original tree must be supposed to die, to save which was the 
 king's object in bricking and watering. The text is inadequate, but 
 the meaning is clear. When the part out off was replaced over its 
 roots still in the ground, in which position it was maintained by the 
 bricks, the whole tree miraculously went on growing from the top 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 83 
 
 tWed at a mountain called Chi-tsuA The great C!hia-yeh 
 is at present in this mountain. He split tlie mountain 
 to get in. The place where he entered will barely admit 
 a man. 2 Going down to a great distance there is a 
 nioheS in which stands a full-length image of Chia.-yeh, 
 Outside the niche is the place where he used to wash his 
 hands, and the people of the district, if they have the 
 headache, use the earth (fi'om that spot) for plasters, and 
 are at once cured. Therefore, since that time* there 
 have been Lo-hans on this mountain, and when the de- 
 votees of the neighbouring countries come yearly to make 
 their offerings to Chia-yeh, the IJohans appear by night 
 to the steadfast^ ones, converse with them, and resolve 
 
 ol its old roots upwards througli tjie joining, as if nothing had hap^ 
 pened. 
 
 CHAPTBR SXXIII. 
 
 1- §11 JS or "Cock's Fpot. " (Kukutfipadagiri. Seal.) 
 2. The text has A ^ -^ S A, which Mr. Beal cautiously 
 and erroneously paraphrases by "This entrance ia now closed up." 
 First of all this is not the meaning, and secondly Mr. Beal has been 
 led astray by Klaproth's false punctuation, thereby including the 
 first two characters ("p yv) of the following sentence . 
 
 3- ^ ?L or "side hole," out of which Mr. Beal gets "a deep 
 " chasm," and in which he places "entire body of KSsyapa." But 
 the words we havp italicised are in the original ^ Jg* — ^a common 
 term for a " fuU-length " image. 
 
 4. The text has ^b llj 4' BH H iK W etc. Klaproth trans- 
 lates B bK by " a. I'ouest," and takes good care to say nothing 
 about it. Mr. Beal gives " as soon as the suji begins to decline," 
 adding in a note that the phrase JU H WC "is a most unusual ex- 
 pression." We venture to go farther and doubt its existence alto- 
 gether. 5P El is cei-tainly not " unusual " ; neither is WC/W > 
 and we deem it safer to translate aocordiugjy, without seeking for 
 more than lies upon the very surface of the text. 
 
 5. HJ '{m ^ ^f which Mr. Beal, translating Rem:U?a^ readers 
 
84 RBCOED OF THE 
 
 their doubts. They then suddenly vanish. On this 
 mountain there are quantities of trees ; also a great many 
 lions, tigers, and wolves, so that travellers have to be 
 cautious. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Fa Hsien returning to the city of Pa-lien-fo, followed 
 the Ganges ten yu-yen to the west and arrived at a 
 shrine called Kuang-yeh,^ where Buddha formerly lived, 
 and which still has its priests. Again following the Gan- 
 ges twelve yu-yen towards the west, the pilgrims arrived 
 at the country of Chia-shih^ and the city of Po-lo-nai. 
 About ten li to the north-east of the city is the wild-deer 
 park of the Immortals.* A P'i-chih Buddha once lived 
 here, and wild deer often came* hither to pass the night. 
 When the world-honoured One was about to attain perfect 
 Wisdom, the gods in space sang these words : — " The son 
 " of king Pai-cheng left his home to learn Wisdom ; seven 
 " days hence he will become a Buddha." The P'i-chih 
 Buddha, hearing this, immediately entered Nirvana ; 
 hence this place was named the wild-deer park of the 
 Immortals. When the world-honoured One had entered 
 Nirvana, a shrine was subsequently raised upon this spot. 
 
 " distressed with doubts," or the exact opposite of the real meaning. 
 The principle here expressed is the same as that of modern spiritualism, 
 namely, that manifestations are only discernible by believers. The 
 " doubts " mentioned lower down are such as might ocoui- to any one 
 without impugning his fidelity to the creed. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXXV. 
 
 1. mw- 
 
 2. Kasi, and its city of Benares. lUmusat. 
 
 3. lllj yV> or Eishis. 
 
 4. Mr, Beal wrongly puts this in the present tense. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 85 
 
 Buddha wisliing to convert Chii-lin and the others, five 
 in all,5 these five said among themselves, " The Shaman 
 " Ch'ii-t'an^ practised self-mortification for six years, living 
 " on a single hemp-seed' and one grain of rice daily, but 
 " was unable to attain perfect ■wisdom. Moreover,^ he has 
 " gone back into the world and given himself up to lust, 
 " evil-speaking, and evil scheming. What Wisdom is there 
 " in this ? When he comes to-day, let us carefully avoid 
 " speaking with him." On the spot where when Buddha 
 arrived the five men all got up and saluted him ; also, 
 sixty paces to the north where Buddha sat facing the 
 east, and by his preaching converted Chii-lin and the rest 
 of the five ; where, twenty paces to the north of this, 
 Buddha communicated the prophecy concerning Mi-lo ; ^ 
 and where, fifty paces to the soutji, the dragon I-lo-po 
 asked Buddha "When shall I be freed from this dragon 
 "body?" — on all these spots pagodas have been raised. 
 There are now two monasteries in the (park), both inha- 
 bited by priests. Journeying thirteen yu-yen to tho 
 north-west of the deer-park shrine, there is a country 
 
 5. The ascetics who had remained with him during the six years 
 mentioned below. 
 
 6. Gautama. 
 
 7. Mr. Beal says "one grain of millet." But the text has 
 
 ~- S- 
 
 8. The following sentence reads <JJ y^ A ^ ^ J^ D ^^ 
 The last three characters are often collectively expressed, as in chapter 
 XXX, hy ^ II^, or by r: ^ or ^ ^. For the above text Mr. 
 Beal gives an almost exact translation of E^musat : — " how much less 
 shall he now Obtain that condition, by entering into men's society and 
 removing the checks he placed upon his words and thoughts and ac- 
 tions.'' But for "how much less" we should require 1^ ^ and 
 not simply ^• 
 
 9. That he, Maitr§ya, should succeed him, Seal. 
 
86 RECORD or THE 
 
 called Chu-shan-mi.M The shrine there is called the 
 " garden of Chii-shih-lo,"" and was formerly inhabited 
 by Bxiddha ; for which reason^^ there are priests there, 
 now, chiefly of the Lesser Development. Going east- 
 wards eight yu-yen is the place where Buddha converted 
 the evil spirits ;18 also the spots where he walked 
 and sat down when he dwelt here, on all of which pago- 
 das have been raised. There are also monasteries with 
 perhaps over a hundred priests. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 From this point travelling south two hundred yu-yen^ 
 there is a country called Ta-ch'in.^ Here is a monastery 
 of the former Buddha Chia-yeh, made by hollowing out 
 a great rock. It has' five storeys in all ; the lowest being 
 made in the form of an elephant, with five hundred stone 
 chambers ; the second like a lion, with four hundred ; the 
 "third like a horse, with three hundred ; the fourth like an 
 ox, with two hundred ; and the fifth like a dove, with one 
 hundred. At the very top there is a spring of water which 
 
 10. KSusambi. Bimumt. The second character is read slum 
 ( ~ P^)> ^ii<i °ot chang as Mr. Beal gives it. 
 
 11. Gochira. Beal. 
 
 12. Here we Jiave Mr. Seal's favourite blunder in a most outrage- 
 ous form. Apropos of the garden we have ^ H 1x M '^ IK 
 ^ 1§. For this Mr. Beal gives "** in which Buddha formerly 
 dwelt ; it is now lying in ruins. There are congregations here, -etc."" 
 But he has to forge the adverb " here " to make sense, there being 
 no "here" in the text. 
 
 13. Or " aa evil demon," as Mr. Beal renders it. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 1. Decoan. IKmusrtt, 
 
BUDDHISTIO KINGDOMS. 87 
 
 runs in front of each chamber and encircles each storey 
 round and round, in and out, untU it reaches the bottom 
 storey where, following the configuration^ of the building, 
 it flows out at the door. In the chambers^ on every storey 
 windows have here and there been bored in the rook to 
 admit light, so that it is ^uite bright in them and no- 
 where dark. In the four corners of this building the rook 
 has been bored and steps made in the stone for getting 
 to the top. At present* people ascend by a small flight 
 of steps made in a similar way, and thus reach the spot 
 where some one in olden times left a footprint. Therefore 
 this temple was named Po-lo-yiieh, which is the Indian 
 name for a dove. In it there are constantly Lo-hans 
 residing. The land^ is uncultivated and there are no 
 
 • 
 
 2. IM ^' ^^- ^2*1 ^^ys " (flowing) past the chambers as 
 before." 
 
 3. Mr. Beal gives " ia various parts of the building," which is not 
 an accurate rendering of ^ tp ^ ^• 
 
 4. This sentence i» worth transcribing : — -^ J\ jff t}^ ^ i^ 
 ±'iE%^'W A-^MSiM M- For this Mr. Beal gives, 
 " Men of the present time point out a small ladder which reaches up 
 to the highest point (of the rock) by which men of old ascended it, one 
 foot at a time." He adds in a note " Eemusat seems to have mistaken 
 the wording of this passage, but the translation I have given is not 
 satisfactory to myself . " We should imagine this last sentiment will 
 be warmly echoed by all students of Chinese ; and that such as possess 
 a copy of Remusat's translation will see at a glance that his rendering 
 is much nearer the mark than Mr, Seal's. The real difliculty is 
 with j^ which is here used in its less common sense of "imitation." 
 ♦!■* 1^ W is "a small cKwiSmgi flight," the second character being 
 a kind of numerative or classifier. The reader will perhaps recall 
 Menoius' celebrated saying i^ * ^ ^, — cHmi a tree to catch fish. 
 
 6. The text has jfu i .ro Jm' R^musat says " Cette coUine 
 est d&erte, " with which Mr. Beal would have made a better show 
 than with his own "The land is hiUy and barren," where he takes 
 ^ as an adjective. First of all the "dissyllable" f^ Jro is not 
 
88 KECOED OF THE 
 
 inhabitants. Only at a good distance from the mountain 
 are there villages, all (the inhabitants) of which are here- 
 tics, and ignorant alike of the Law of Buddha, of Shamans, 
 of Brahmans, and the various sects. They frequently see 
 people come flying and enter the temple ; and when some 
 devotees of the neighbouring countries came to pray at 
 this temple, these village-people said to them, " Why do 
 " you not fly ? All the pilgrims we see here, fly 1"^ The 
 devotees retorted' " Because we have no wings." The 
 country of Ta-ch'in is mountainous and the roads difficult 
 to travel ; ^ even those who know the way, if they want to 
 go, should send a present of money or goods to the king 
 of the country, who will thereupon depute men to escort 
 them, these passing them on from one (stage) to another 
 and shewing them the short cuts.^ Pa Hsieu was unable 
 to go thither ; he states what he heard from the people 
 of the country. 
 
 Chinese; secondly 5Ii> or £, or JE, is a classifier of land and 
 gives the force of extent. Had Eemusat changed " coUiue " into 
 "terre" he would have been all right. The rhythm of the next 
 four characters exactly corresponds : — ^ J\ !Si IB- 
 
 6. A simple enough sentence :— ^f^jlfc^ji^Ae'^^- 
 Yet Mr. Beal goes out of his way, and, we hope, out of everybody 
 else's, to concoct the following : — AVe behold the religious men who 
 occupy those chambers constantly on the wiug." And this merely 
 because ^ happens to be the numerative of chambers I 
 
 7. J^ A ^ 'M ^" E6musat wisely, if disingenuously, omit- 
 ted the two characters which give the whole point to the devotees' 
 reply. Mr. Beal says "answered by way of excuse.'' But jj Til ^ 
 means a quick answer, spoken to the point, a repartee ; or as we have 
 expressed it "retorted." Mr. Beal further translates their answer 
 too literally — " Because our wings are not yet perfectly formed," 
 
 8. Mr. Beal, closely following Remusat, has here made another 
 wrong liaison. The text has J^ ^ 1^ ^ M ^U y^^ fi ^ 
 ^ *g etc. Mr. Beal says "the roads dangerous and difficult to 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 89 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Journeying eastwards from the country of Po-lo-nai, 
 the pilgrims came again to Pa-lien-fo. Fa Hsien's object 
 was to get the Disciplines, but in the various countries 
 of' northern India they were handed down orally from 
 teacher to teacher, there being no written copy to refer 
 to ; and therefore he extended his journey as far as Cen- 
 tral India, where in a monastery of the Greater Develop- 
 ment he obtained a copy of the Disciplines according to 
 the Ma-ho-seng-chihi school, as practised by the first 
 congregation of priests while Buddha was still alive. 
 At2 the Chih-hun shrine eighteen and more copies have 
 
 find. Those who wish to go there ought, etc,'' whereby, besides his 
 own blunder of making 3^0 depend on |P j he slurs over a very neat 
 Chinese idiom. HD is liere the exact equivalent of "et quand 
 in§me " in French ; and the ^ makes a substantive of SD • 
 
 ^J3^ ^ jS SSr. For this Mr. Beal has "each party pointing 
 cut their own roads and intricate bye-paths. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 1. "School of the MahSsangikas." Beal. 
 
 2 "We are bound to trouble the reader with the text of this pas- 
 sage:-J5a « jl i^ -§- « ^ * t €* + A il5 ^ W 
 
 m'U:kmx^m-mA>ih^^m^nWim- Mr. 
 
 Beal gives, " In the chapel of Chi-un (Jetavana) there is a tradition 
 that this was originally their copy, or, that this school originally 
 sprung from them. The eighteen sects in general have each their 
 own Superior, but they are agreed in their dependence on the Great 
 Refuge (found in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha). In some minor details 
 of faith they differ as well as in a more or less exact attention to some 
 matters of practice." How Mr. Beal gets at this result is to us a 
 great mystery. He might at any rate have hinted at the difficulty of 
 the passage. We have since referred it to several eminent sinolo- 
 gues ; and from one— Mr. Mayers, H. M. Chinese Secretary at Pe- 
 king — we have received an exhaustive analysis and final settlement 
 of this very puzzling paragraph. See Appendix. 
 
90 BBCOED OF THE 
 
 been handed down, each of which has its commentary. 
 The great Jcuei is not different from the small, any trifling 
 discrepancies being rectified by omission or addition. At 
 the same time these are the most comprehensive and 
 complete. He got moreover a manuscript copy of the 
 Disciplines, containing seven thousand stanzas, as used 
 by the Sa-p'o-to* assembly, and practised by the priests 
 in China. This also has been handed down orally from 
 teacher to teacher without being committed to writing. 
 He further obtained from this assembly extracts from the 
 A-pi-t'an,* amounting to six thousand stanzas; also a 
 copy of the Yen^ Sutra, amounting to two thousand five 
 hundred stanzas ; also a roll of the Pang-tlngS Pan-ni-hun 
 Sutra, amounting to five thousand stanzas ; and also a 
 copy of the Ma-ho-seng-chih A-pi-t'an. Therefore Fa- 
 Hsien stopped here three years to study the written and 
 spoken languages of Brahma and to copy the Disciplines. 
 Now as to Tao Cheng, when he arrived in the Middle 
 Kingdom and observed the regulations of the Shamans 
 and the grave decorum of the priests, finding them so 
 worthy of notice,' he reflected with a sigh, " In the outer 
 
 3. SarvSstivSdas . Beal. 
 
 4. Abhidharma, 
 
 5. 151 ^ Mr. Beal says " Sutras in their ahireviated form. '' 
 But K'ang Hsi's dictionary tells us that |ji = fjj, and the latter 
 means amplified or expanded. 
 
 6. Here Mr. Beal says " an expanded volume (V^ipoulya) of the 
 Pariniryana Sutra'" But the text has — ^R "JJ ^ J|x vu 
 'is. ®> and yf ■^ being part of the title (see K'ang Hsi), we 
 have no character left for " expanded." 
 
 7. M^PiM> out of which Mr. Beal gets "even in the 
 midst of worldly influences," the same heing a gloss of his own and 
 leading to the conclusion that he did not understand the first two 
 characters. 
 
BTJDDHISTIO KINGDOMS. 91 
 
 " land of Ch'in (China) the priests have the Command- 
 " ments and Disciplines imperfect.''^ He then made this 
 vow, " From this time until I become a Buddha, may I 
 " never be born again in a foreign^ land." He therefore 
 continued to remain and did not go back. But Fa Hsien's 
 original object was to diffuse a knowledge of the Com- 
 mandments and Disciplines throughout the land of Han ; 
 he therefore went back alone» 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVn. 
 
 Following the course of the Ganges eighteen yu-yen to 
 the east, there is on the south bank the large country of 
 Chan-po.i Where Buddha's shrine was and where he 
 walked up and down, as well as on the spots where the 
 four Buddhas sat down, pagodas have been built, and 
 priests now live. From this point going east about fifty 
 yu-yen, Fa Hsien arrived at the country of To-mo-li-ti,^ 
 where there was a sea-port.^ In this country there are 
 
 8. Mr. Beal puts this in the oratio obliqua. "We believe this is, 
 strictly speaking, incorrect. 
 
 9. 53 JiB, i.e., anywhere hut in India. Mr. Beal insists on 
 translating these words " a frontier country." 
 
 CHAPTBli xxxvii. 
 
 1. "Tchampa, le nom de I'ancienne capitale de Kama, roi du 
 pays d'Angadesa." Eemusat, — from which source Mr. Seal's note is 
 evidently condensed, but without acknowledgment. 
 
 2. "Tamralipti, la moderne Tamlouk, situfie sur la droite de la 
 riviSre Hougli, un peu au dessus de son embouchure dans la mer," 
 Mmusat, — with the same comment that we made in the last note. 
 
 3. iP 7E ^ D ' which taken literally and grammatically would 
 mean that the ^ country just mentioned "was a sea-port,'' but 
 which has evidently the signification given in our text. Mr. Beal 
 translates these four characters " Here it is the river empties itself 
 into the sea," as already rendered by Eemusat. 
 
92 BECOBD 01' THE 
 
 twenty-four monasteries, all with resident priests. The Law 
 of Buddha is also flourishing. Pa Hsien remained here 
 two years copying the Ching and drawing pictures of the 
 images.* He then took passage on a large merchant 
 vessel, and setting sail proceeded towards the south-west 
 with the first^ of the winter monsoon. After fourteen days 
 and nights, he arrived at the land of Lions,^ said by the 
 inhabitants to be seven hundred yu-yen distant (from In- 
 dia). This country is on a great island, and is fifty yu-yen 
 from east to west, thirty yu-yen from north to south. The 
 small islands round about are nearly one hundred in num- 
 ber, and distant one from the other ten, twenty, and two 
 Hundred li. They are all subject to the mother island, 
 and produce chiefly'' pearls and precious stones. There 
 is one part where the Mo-ni beads^ are found ; it is about 
 
 4- S ^> for which simple phrase Mr. Beal gives " and taking 
 impressions of the figures (used in worship)." What this means we 
 are unable to divine, hut the original makes it clear enough that he 
 wanted dirawings of the images to take back with him to China. 
 
 5. ^ -^ % "ffll JSl) for which Mr. Beal gives " catching the 
 first fair wind of the winter season,'" evidently taking ^ with S 
 instead of with ^- The last two characters are transposed in con- 
 versation. 
 
 6. Ceylon. 
 
 7. ^ttl i^ ® etc. for which Mr. Beal gives " Most of 
 them produce precious stones, etc.," which is quite as inaccurate 
 as Etousat's "On en tire beaucoup de choses pr^cieuses." 
 
 S. M)BM- Mr. Beal gives " The Mani gem" which 
 amounts to saying "the gem gem," for this is the signification of 
 Mani. Klaproih had already stated in a note that Ijt meant " en 
 gfinSral un joyau ;" .and also that the jewel intended was a carbun- 
 cle and not a pearl, which Mr. Beal re-states as if an independent 
 conjecture of his own. In support of this theory we may add the 
 usual name for a carbuncle, namely, ^ HB ^' On the other 
 hand, we do not think that ^ here means either a pearl or a car- 
 buncle, but simply a bead as in ^ ^ or ^ ^ a Buddhist rosary 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 93 
 
 ten U in extent. The king has men to guard it ; and if 
 any one finds any, the king takes three out of every ten, 
 
 CHAPTER xxxvm. 
 
 This country had originally no inhabitants ; only devils 
 and spirits^ and dragons lived in it, vfith whom the mer- 
 chants of neighbouring countries came to trade. When 
 the exchange of commodities took place the devils and 
 spirits did not appear in person, but set out their valuables 
 with the prices attached. Then the merchants, according 
 to the prices, bought the things and carried them off. 
 But from the merchants going backwards and forwards 
 and stopping^ (on their way), the attractions of the place 
 became known to the inhabitants of the neighbouring 
 countries who also went there, and thus it became a great 
 nation. The temperature is very agreeable^ in this coun- 
 try ; there is no distinction of summer and winter. The 
 trees and plants are always green, and cultivation of the 
 
 though we do not mean to imply that they were found already shaped 
 in the form of beads. Mr. Beal makes one point by calling to the 
 recollection of his readers the formula " Om mani padme hum ! " 
 
 CHAPTEU xxxvm. 
 
 1. Mr. Beal omits ^T» probably considering it a part of ^. 
 
 2. '^ A J^ fi {i- Mr. Beal makes ^ "the sojourn 
 of the merchant in the country," that is, in Ceylon. But this 
 would not have caused "the attractions of the place "to become 
 known, fj is awkwardly placed, and only seems intelligible in 
 the sense in which we have taken it. 
 
 3. ^ W %i 'M- Mr. Beal gives, "This country enjoys an 
 equable climate" which is the same translation that he gives in 
 another place of fH^ ?D though the two phrases differ widely in 
 meaning. ^ jS means what suits people, something like '^ ^, 
 as we see in such phrases as }§ ^ M '^' 
 
94 EECOED OF THE 
 
 soil is carried on as men please, without regard to seasons. 
 Buddha came to this country desiring to reform a wicked 
 dragon, and by his supernatural power placed one foot to 
 the north of the royal city, and the other on the top of a 
 mountain, being fifteen yu-ym apart. Over the impression 
 to the north of the royal city a great pagoda has been 
 built, 400 feet in height, decorated with gold and silver 
 and all the precious substances combined.^ By the side 
 of the pagoda a monastery has also been built, called 
 Wu-wei-shan.B where there are five thousand priests ; be- 
 sides which there is a Chapel of Buddha of gold and sUver 
 carved work with all the precious substances, and in it an 
 image made of dark jade,^ over twenty feet in height, the 
 whole of which glitters with the seven preciosities, the 
 countenance being grave and dignified beyond all expres- 
 sion,'' and on the right palm a priceless pearl. Fa Hsien 
 had been many years from the land of Han ; the people 
 with whom he had been thrown into connection had all 
 been foreigners ; the hills, streams, plants, and trees on 
 which his eyes lighted were not those of former times . 
 moreover, those who had travelled with him were separat- 
 ed from him — some having remained behind, and others 
 having died. Now, beholding only his own Bhadow,^ he 
 
 4. ^ K '^ J®^' wMoli Mr. Beal glosses thus: — "and every 
 precious substance combines to make it per/eet, " the italicised words 
 being evidently extracted from ^. 
 
 5. ^^ ill— "No fear hill." 
 
 6. Serpentine. 
 
 7. The text has J^ # ^ 1^ # s ^ IS- Mr. Beal gives 
 " whilst the various characteristic marks are so gloriously portrayed, 
 that no- words caa describe the effect." Where this comes from we 
 are unable to say ; in our opinion, ?fi seems clearly to signify the 
 face of the image. 
 
 8. Mr. Seal's translation of the four characters we have thus 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 95 
 
 was frequently sorrowful at heart ; and when suddenly 
 by the side of this jade image he saw a merchant make 
 offering of a white silk fan from China, his feelings 9 
 overcame him and his eyes filled with tears. A former 
 king of this country sent envoys to Central India to get 
 seedsi" of the Pei-to tree, which he planted by the side of 
 the Chapel of Buddha, (and which grew) to the height of 
 two hundred feet.ii As the tree bent over to the south- 
 east, the king feared it would fall, and therefore 
 placed a prop of eight or nine wei^^ in circumference 
 
 rendered is sufficient to repel any claims he may advance to te 
 considered an authority on the Chinese language. The 'text has 
 ™H ^ ''H S> ^iid for this Mr. Beal gives us as the meaning, 
 — "to think upon the past was all that was left him ! " — with a few 
 more notes of admiration of our own. It is true Mr. Beal has founded 
 his own upon E6musat's unlucky version "en rM^chissant au pass§," 
 but the French translation was published in 1836 and Mr. Seal's in 
 1869. We consider that the idea of Fa Hsien finding only his own 
 shadow remaining out of all those he had been so long accustomed to 
 see, deserved abetter treatment than it received at the hands of Mr. 
 Beal. 
 
 9. The text has ^ jS IS J« etc., over which Mr. Beal makes 
 the blunder of an unfledged student interpreter. He says " Vh- 
 perceived (Fa Hian) gave way etc. " But ^ ^, we may inform 
 Mr. Beal— for hardly anyone else can need the information — is sub- 
 jective and not objective. The idea here is that of involuntariness, 
 or spontaneity, and can hardly be translated into English. It occurs 
 again in the last chapter, and there Mr. Beal takes notice of it at all. 
 
 10. ^ ^ -J. Mr. Beal says "a slip of the Pei-to tree." 
 
 11. It is somewhat tempting to take the tail end of this paragraph 
 and make it the beginning of the next, as Mr. Beal does :— " When 
 it was about 220 feet high, the tree began to lean etc."— but we do 
 not consider that the text admits this reading. 
 
 12. Mr. Beal makes a general bungle of this paragraph. The text 
 
 has here "t Kl A il ® ^1i±Wi- ». Beal says _ " (The 
 king) placed eight or nine props round the tree to support it.'' First 
 of all, if a tree is falling it would be useless to put props all round it. 
 Secondly, H placed as it is, could not possibly give this significa- 
 
96 BECOED OF THE 
 
 to support it. Where the tree and prop met, the 
 former shot out and piercing the prop right through 
 to the ground, took root, (the shoot) being about 
 four wei in circumference. Although the prop was 
 spHt, it still encu'cles the shoot and has not been taken 
 away. At the foot of the tree a shrine has been built 
 with a sitting Buddha which ecclesiastics and laymen 
 worship without ceasing. In the city a Buddha's-Tooth 
 shrine has also been built, made entirely of the seTen 
 precious substances. The King strictly observea the rites 
 of Brahma, and the religious sentiments of the population 
 inside the city are also firmly established i^. Ever since 
 this country has been under a Government i*, it has 
 
 tion ; and thirdly a wei is admeasure, being either a span with the 
 fingers or with the arms, in which sense it is perfectly intelligihle 
 here. Moreover, Mr. Beal has eight or nine props but only ojie shoot, 
 though he states that ' ' the props " (in the plural) were pierced 
 though the centre, showing clearly that he got into hopeless confusion 
 and slurred over the text as best he could. 
 
 13. Thetexthas ^'^^^fl M ^HM^ 'W W^M- 
 
 For this Mr. Beal gives ' ' The king purifies himself according to the 
 strictest Brahmanioal rules, whilst those men within the city who 
 reverence (this relic) from a principle of belief, also compose their 
 passions according to strict rule." In translating this passage we 
 should have gladly availed ourselves of some friendly assistance ; but 
 we have been quite unable to harmonise Mr. Beal's rendering with 
 the text, not to mention that we should have found it difiScult to 
 divest ourselves of a prejudice that those who are not faithful over 
 small matters can hardly be looked up to as authorities when greater 
 issues are at stake. 
 
 14. In continuation of which apparently violent remarks as to 
 Mr. Beal's powers aa a translator, we have only to quote a few simple 
 words in his very next sentence which would amply justify even the 
 the severest strictures. The text has ^ S Si fp Gi ^ (the £» 
 being written as usual for ii), and for this Mr. Beal gives us 
 " This kingdom, from the time when (this chapel) was erected," — 
 thus referring ^ back to the shrine of which we had already taken 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 97 
 
 known neither famine, revolution i^, nor rebellion. In the 
 treasury of the priests there are many precious stones and 
 priceless Mo-nis. When the King went in to see this 
 treasury, the sight of the Mo-ni beads made him envious, 
 and he wanted to carry them off by force i^. At the end 
 of three days he came to his senses, and going to visit the 
 priests knocked his head on the ground in repentance of 
 his former errors, saying to them, " I desire you priests 
 " to make a regulation, namely, that from this time forth 
 " you do not permit a King to enter this treasury until he 
 " has been a mendicant for forty years ", when he may 
 " be allowed to enter." In this city there are many 
 scholars and rich people. The dwellings of the Sa-pu is 
 merchants are very elegant : the streets and roads are 
 level and well kept. At the heads of four streets there 
 are preaching Halls, and on the 8th, 14th, and ISfh of 
 each month, a high platform is prepared, and ecclesiastics 
 and laymen come together from all quarters ^^ to hear the 
 
 a final leave, and ignoring j(p as if its occurrence in the text had no 
 meaning whatever. We commend to Mr. Beal's attention the com- 
 mon phrase ^ M M ^• 
 
 15. These last two are ^ ^j translated by .Mr. Beal "calamity 
 or revolution." But 5I must here be read in the •^ ^ with the 
 meaning disruption of the government (uovse res). 
 
 16. ^ ^. The sense of the first character is lost in Mr. Beal's 
 ' ' take it away with him," 
 
 17. S J^li B ii + 11- Mr. Beal gives, " except he is 
 a member of the fraternity and of forty years of age." But the gram- 
 mar of tbe words will not allow of this separation into two clauses. 
 Literally, it would be "until (he is) a full forty-year Bikshu,"^ 
 whatever that may mean. 
 
 18. IS. ^' Mr. Beal translates this "Saboean," or merchants 
 of Saba. Rfimusat throws no light on it. 
 
 19- JE "^ 1^) for which Mr. Beal gives, "the religious 
 members of the community of the four classes," to which we are 
 
98 KECOED OF THE 
 
 Law. The people of the country say there are between 
 fifty and sixty thousand priests altogether, all of whom 
 obtain their food from a common fund 20. The King se- 
 parately provides a common stock of food inside the city 
 for five or six thousand (more) 21, and those who want 
 some take their bowls in their hands and go to fetch it, 
 returning with them filled according to the capacity of 
 each. Buddha's tooth is usually brought out in the naid- 
 dle of the third moon. Ten days previously the King 
 decks out a large elephant and deputes some one who 
 speaks well to dress up in royal clothes and ride the 
 elephant, beating a drum and proclaiming in a loud 
 voice, " The Bodhisatva for three a-seng-chih ^a kalpas 
 " practised self-mortification without sparing himself; ho 
 " gave up his country, wife, and child ; he took out his 
 " eyes to give to a fellow-creature ; he cut off his flesh 
 
 irmch tempted to add — " of nonsense." For it is only by utter viola- 
 tion of all rule that Mr. Beal can arrive at the above meaning. If 
 anything, it must he " ecclesiastics CMit? laymen of the four classes," 
 and then the question would arise what are the four classes to 
 which ecclesiastics and laymen belong. We have preferred to take 
 123 ^R as the common contraction of E3 JJ jK -f^i and thereby 
 escape the difficulty of classes altogether. 
 
 20. The absurdity of "take their meals in common" for ^ ^ 
 here begins to dawn upon Mr. Beal. He has changed his text to 
 "live in community," the vague meaning of which he explains in 
 parentheses by the old incorrect translation quoted above. 
 
 21. Apparently because the term here employed is A and not f^, 
 Mr. Beal has chosen to translate it by "persons," as if priests were 
 not meant, which is quite against the spirit of the passage as implied 
 in the character J'J- 
 
 22. L'asankya fequivaut k cent quadrillions." Udmusat. Mr. Beal 
 tells us that it takes twenty antah-kalpas to make one asankya-kalpa, 
 and that were the .surface of the earth to increase in elevation at the 
 rate of only one inch in one thousand years, it would reach the height 
 of 28 miles before the nntah-kaJ.pa was finished. 
 
BUDDHISTIC ICINGDOMS. 99 
 
 "to save a dove, his head to give as alms ; he 
 " gave his body to a hungry tiger ; he did not stiut his 
 " marrow and brains. Tlius in various ways he suffered 
 " for the benefit of living creatures^ and accordingly became 
 " a Buddha tarrying forty-nine years on earth to preach 
 " and convert (sinners), giving rest to the weary, and 
 " saving those who knew not salvation. When his relations 
 "with living creatures had been fulfilled,^^ Jie entered Nir- 
 " vana, and since that time^*, 1497 years, the Eye of the 
 " world has been put out and all living creatures have 
 " sorely grieved. Ten days hence Buddha's tooth will be 
 " brought forth and be taken to the Wu-wei-shan shrine. 
 " Let all those ecclesiastics and laymen of this country who 
 " wish to lay up happiness for themselves, help to level the 
 " roads, adorn the streets, and prepare flowers, incense, 
 " and the implements'^ of worship." When he has recited 
 these words, the king then proceeds to make on both 
 sides of the road'^ representations of the five hundred 
 different forms under which the Bodhisatva successively y 
 
 23. The text haa ^ ^ ^ ^, for which Mr. Beal gives us 
 " Having passed through countless births," not one single word of 
 which are we able to identify with the original. Efimusat was much 
 nearer with " Tous les Stres vivants fitant ainsi sauv6s," though he 
 (or Klaproth) evidently did not quite grasp the meaning of i^. 
 
 24. Mr. Beal quite spoils this sentence by almost exactly copying 
 ESmusat's inoonect rendering. He says, " Since that event is 1497 
 years (sic). The eyes of the world were then put out, etc." 
 
 25. The text has ^ ^ ^ # §t ^ ;^ ^, for which Mr. 
 Beal gives " scatter every kind of flower, and offer incense in religious 
 .reverence to the Relic." ^ is thus utterly ignored, as it had pre- 
 viously been by Efemusat. 
 
 26. '^M M M- Mr. Beal takes no notice of ^. A Chinese 
 definition of the first two characters is M^.^'^'f*!^®"* 
 & Jki ^ J\ fJ — which we leave to the ingenious reader. 
 
100 REOOBD OF TEE 
 
 appeared ; for instance, as Hsii-ta-na^v, or as a flash of 
 lightning, as the king of the elephants, as a stag, or as a 
 horse. These representations are all beautifully painted 
 and have a life-like appearance. The Tooth is then 
 brought out and passes along the centrales street, 
 receiving homage all the way along. Arriving at the 
 Hall of Buddha^s in the Wu-wei-shan shrine, ecclesiastics 
 and laymen flock together in crowds, burn incense, light 
 lamps, and perform the various religious ceremonies day 
 and night without ceasing. After nineteen days they 
 return it to the shrine in the city. This shrine is opened 
 on fast-days for worship according to the Law. Forty 
 li to the east of the Wu-wei-shan shrine there is a hUl 
 with a shrine on it called Po-t'i,80 where there are about 
 two thousand priests. Among them there is a distin- 
 guished^i Shaman named Ta-mo-chii-ti^^, whom all the 
 people of this country respect and look up to. He has 
 lived in a stone cell for more than forty years. By 
 
 27. Mr. Beal says "The French edition gives Sou-ta-nou, "but 
 mine has Su-jin-ndu." He might have guessed that the middle 
 character J^ was a misprint for y^> as othenvise it would not he so 
 readily identified with the Sanscrit sutana, 
 
 28. fp 7S M fif' Mr. Beal's " along the principal street," is 
 an improvement on ESmusat's "par le mUieu de la route," but wo 
 see no reason why the text should not be literally translated . 
 
 29. Mr, Beal misunderstands the grammatical relationof these words. 
 The text has M% ^\i\\%^ Si' but Mr. Beal gives "When 
 they arrive at the Abhayagiri Vihara, they place it in the Hall of 
 Buddh-a.'' E6musat was equally inaccurate in his rendering of the 
 last three characters — " on monte k la sallc de Foe," Wu-wei-shan is 
 evidently in the genitive case. 
 
 30. BSdhi. " Fah Hian no doubt refers to the celebrated Mahin- 
 tald, eight miles due east of Anuradhapura." Beal. 
 
 31. yC 1® — " useA iov Ihadanta, a title like Reverend, given to 
 Buddhist priests," WilUa'nis. 
 
 32. Dharmakoti or Dharmagupta, Beal. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 101 
 
 constant exercise of kindness he has succeeded in influen- 
 cing snakes and rats so that they will live together in the 
 same celP without hurting one another. 
 
 OHAPTEE XXXIX. 
 
 Seven U to the south of the city there is a shrine, 
 called Mo-ho-pi-ho-Io,i with three thousand resident 
 priests. Among them was one distinguished Shaman who 
 was so pure in his conduct that all suspected him of being 
 a Lo-han. When he was at the point of death the king 
 came to see him, and when the priests were assembled ac- 
 cording to regulation he asked^ " Has the Bikshu attain- 
 ed perfect Wisdom ?" They then spoke out the truth 
 and replied " He is a Lo-han." When he was dead the 
 king buried him with the ceremonies of a Lo-han as laid 
 down in the Sacred Books. Kfty U to the east of the 
 shrine a great pile of wood was collected, over thirty feet 
 square and about the same height. Sandal-wood, gar- 
 roo-wood, and all kinds of scented woods were placed at 
 
 33. 1^1 ic ""^ M — evidently in his own cell. Yet Mr. Beal 
 says "so that they stop together in one habitat." The use of a 
 " tall " term like lutbilat ought to carry conviction with it, but un- 
 fortunately the Chinese word ^ has not that signification, and more- 
 over has just been used to express the cell in which the old priest 
 lived. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXIX. 
 
 1, ' ' C'est le Sanscrit mahdmh&ra, le grand temple, ou plutSt lo 
 grand monast&re. " Rimusat. 
 
 2. As far as grammar is concerned this paragraph might be 
 rendered " asked the Bikshu, ' Hast thou attained perfect Wisdom V 
 He then spoke out the truth and said he was a Lo-han." 
 
102 EECOED OF THE 
 
 the top,' and at the four sides steps were made.* Over it 
 was spread a piece of clean white cashmere, which sur- 
 rounded and quite covered the pyre, and on the top^ of 
 this a car was made, in form like the hearses used here, 
 but without the dragon.fi At the time of the sM-wei' the 
 king and hia subjects from all quarters^ collected together, 
 and with offerings of flowers and incense, followed the 
 
 3. Mr. Beal says, "iVcar the top they placed iiera of sandal-wood, 
 etc.;" but neither of the words we have italicised has any existence 
 in the text, 
 
 4. Mr. Beal takes the Jl. from the heginning of the next sen- 
 sence and adds it on here— "by which to ascend it." But this 
 though not necessarily erroneous, spoils the rhythm of the first 
 sentence and leaves the second bald. 
 
 5. We should like to relegate this troublesome _L , as Mr. Beal 
 does, to the end of the last sentence, but such violation of grammar 
 and rhythm, '' non di, non homines," and certainly not the ordinary 
 rules of Chinese composition would permit. _t is troublesome 
 because it would appear that the car is made on the top of the pyre, 
 whereas it is only hoisted up at the time of the crematioji . 
 
 6. The text has iB ^ gl Sl 3' ^^'^ these words were a 
 great puzzle to Klaproth and Landresse who finally left them un- 
 translated, addiug in a note that no " renseignement " on the subject 
 could be obtained, but that probably they signified a bier without any 
 ornaments of dragons or fishes. This was a very creditable surmise. 
 Mr. Beal, however, rushes into the field with ' ' except that therd are 
 no dragon-ear handles to it," thus avoiding the French translator's 
 mistake of regarding ^ as fishes, but committing the more 
 egregious blunder of rendering the final particle H- by ' ' ear, " and 
 further iutroduoing the idea of "handles" which has no existence in 
 the text. Had Mr. Beal ever' watched a funeral procession in China 
 he would have observed that the bier on which the coflin is carried to its 
 final resting-place has a figui'e-head of a dragon striving to swallow an 
 enormous pearl strung on a cord, one end of which is fastened in the 
 dragon's throat and the other held by a man who precedes the bier . 
 The character HI i* of cotirse uBtranslateable. 
 
 7. Cremation. 
 
 8. We have here the same characters ^ as in chapter xxxviii 
 (see note 19), but Mr. Beal now says nothing about "the four classes." 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 103 
 
 car to the burial ground, the king himself making offer- 
 ings of flowers and ineense. When these were finished, 
 the car was placed on the top of the pyre ; lophantus oil 9 
 was poured all over it, and a light applied. As the fire 
 was burning up every one was moved by a feeling of re- 
 verence, and each took off his upper garment and, with 
 the feather fans^" and umbrellas, threw them from a dis- 
 tance into the midst of the flames, so as to help on the 
 cremation. When it was all over, the bones were collected 
 and a pagoda raised. Fa Hsien did not arrive while 
 he was still aUve, but only in time to see his funeral. 
 The king being steadfast in his belief in Buddhism wished 
 to make a new shrine for the priests. He therefore gave 
 them a great banquet, and when they had finished he 
 selected a couple of fine oxen" and decorated their horns 
 
 9- S W' Oil of sweet 1)3811. Mr. Beal gives " oil of cinnamon. " 
 
 10. The text has ^ ^ ^ ^, for which Mr. Beal gives us, 
 " their wing-like fans, which they use as sun-shades," the ahsurdity of 
 which we need not stop to point out. In modern times 3^ ^ 
 has come to mean the paraphernalia (^ ^) of a mandarin, but 
 formerly its signification was that given in. the text, namely, large 
 feather fans which wore carried in front of every petty prince or 
 chieftain. This of course applies to China ; but whether the same 
 custom of carrying these fans existed in Ceylon or whether in the 
 time of Fa Hsien these two characters had already acquired their 
 general sense of ^ ^> we must leave to the researches of the 
 reader. A survival of the " feather fans " may be traced in the huge 
 wooden (?) fans carried before the emperor at the present day. 
 
 11. The text has ^ ^ i ^ — M- The reader will observe 
 we have left the word Jl untranslated. Messrs. Efemusat and Beal 
 render the sentence respectively "un couple de bons bceufs de labour'' 
 and " a pair of strong working oxen," There are three other ways of 
 expressing i , all of which have more claim to correctness than the 
 above : — 
 
 1. — Oxen of the country, or ^ J|B ^. 
 
 2. — Oxen as opposed to ?J? fp or water-bufFaloSi 
 
104 BEOOED OF THE 
 
 with gold, silver, and other valuables. He also made a 
 golden plough.ia and with his own hands ploughed the 
 four sides of a ch'ing,^s which he subsequently ceded, po- 
 pulation, fields, houses and all,i^ writing out title- 
 deedsis for the same. Everts since that time, these 
 have been handed down from generation to genera- 
 tion, and no one has dared to destroy or alter 
 them. When Pa Hsien was in this country he heard 
 a Buddhist pilgrim from India reciting the cJdng from a 
 lofty dais, say, " Buddha's alms-bowl was originally in 
 Pi-shS-li. It is now in the country of Chien-t'o-wei, 
 
 3. — Oxen made of clay, like those used by the Emperor when ho 
 
 goes through the form of breaking the soil at the Temple of 
 
 Earth. 
 
 Mr. Beal makes J; equivalent to ^ H ^> which is therefore 
 
 not the same as our No. 2, for water buffalos are commonly employed 
 
 in agriculture all over the East. 
 
 12. f^ ^ ^ ^-^ Mr. Beal says "a beautifully gilded plough." 
 But }^, which here equals ^, belongs to f^, and has nothing to 
 do with the appearance of the plough. Taking it erroneously, as Mr. 
 Beal does, it could still never mean "beautifully gilded," but a 
 plough of good gold. K6musat has " une belle charrue d'or." 
 
 13. 3E S ^ M E9 S- Mr. Beal says "the four sides of 
 the allotted space." But the character i^ is a land measure equal 
 to about fifteen square acres and tells us-exactly how large the allotted 
 space was. Its size tempts us to believe that tho oxen were of clay 
 and that the king did not actually go round it himself. 
 
 14. Meaning that the revenue derived therefrom should in future 
 belong to the priests. 
 
 15. ^ §^, which Mr. Beal again renders by " a metal plate.'' 
 See ante. 
 
 16. In defiance of all laws, syntactical and otherwise, Mr. Beal 
 makes this sentence a kind of legend engraved on the " metal plate." 
 The first four characters will be enough to convince the ordinary 
 student of the gross inaccuracy of such a rendering. They are 
 
 @ :^ B ?^— translated by Mr. Beal "From this time." The 
 ^ would have been ■^. 
 
BTJODHISTIO KINGDOMS. lOS 
 
 After a certam number of years,*' (Fa Hsien, at tlie time 
 when he heard the recitation, had the exact number, but 
 has ndw forgotten it) it will be taken on to the western 
 Yueh-shih country; after another period, to the land 
 of Yu-t'ien ; after another, to tho country of Ch'ii- 
 tz'u ;i3 after another, back again to China ; after another 
 on to Ceylon ; and after another, back again to Central 
 India. When it has arrived in Central India, it will then 
 , be taken np to the Tou-sha heaven, and Maitreya Bod- 
 dhisatva, seeing it, will exclaim with a sigh, " The alms- 
 bowl of Shih-chia-wen has arrived." Thereupon all the 
 gods will make offerings of flowers and incense for seven 
 days, and when these have expired it will be returned to 
 Yen-fu-t'i where a sea-dragon king will take it into his 
 dragon palace. Then when Mi-lo attains perfect Wisdom, 
 it will again be divided into four and revert to its original, 
 position on mount P'in-na. After Mi-lo has attained per- 
 fect wisdom, the four heavenly kings will proceed to re- 
 cognise him as Buddha with the same ceremonies as in 
 
 17. We are now "treading on thin ice." The text has 
 jj§ ^ ^, and Mr, Beal renders it "la somewhat like » 
 hundred years," adding in a note " M. Jufien has pointed out in his 
 preface to the life of Hiouen Thsang, the mistake in the Chinese Text 
 throughout this passage — the word 'tsien' a thousafid, heing mis- 
 printed for * kan.' " The name of Stanislas Julien is enough to com- 
 mand the respect and attention of all readers ; hut the authority of 
 no one should be allowed ta interfere with freedom of thought and 
 speech, or hind down the disciple to an unwilling aoqniesoenoe in the 
 dictum of the master. We da not eonsider that ^ is a misprint for 
 ~^- We have no difficulty in understanding "f* as a vague term 
 of years, the exact number of which Fa Hsien had forgotten ; and, 
 moreover, the sentence seems to require some initial particle, sach as 
 :g£f to make it intdligible. If after all ^ "|? H ^ is right, then 
 we should say it must mean "so many hundred years," and not 
 •" about a hundred years, ^' as Mr. Beal gives it. 
 
 18. This country is that known as Kharachar. " Seal 
 
106 KEOOED OP THE 
 
 the case of former Buddhas. The thousand Buddhas of 
 this kalpa of sages will all use this alms-bowl ; and when 
 it is gone the Law of Buddha will gradually die out. 
 When the Law of Buddha is extinct, the life of man will 
 decrease in length to about five or ten years' duration ; 
 rice and butter will both disappear ; mankind will be very 
 wicked ; the sticks they grasp will change into knives and 
 clubs :i8 they will wound and slay each other. Those 
 amongst them who have done any good works will flee up 
 into the mountains, and when the wicked have killed 
 each other to the last man, they will again come forth 
 and say among themselves, ' Of old men lived to a great 
 age ; but because of the great wickedness (of this genera- 
 tion) and constant violation of the law, our term of years 
 has thus been shortened to only ten years. Let us now 
 one and all practise good works ; let us raise within 
 ourselves a spirit of compassion and mercy ; let us cul- 
 tivate humanity and justice.so Thus, with the general 
 practice of sincerity and justice, the duration of life will 
 continually be doubled until it reaches 80,000years,' When 
 Mi-lo enters the world and begins to turn the wheel of the 
 Law, he will first saveTihose disciples to whom Shih-chia 
 bequeathed the Law, those^i who have entered the priest- 
 
 19. The text has t£ TfC H'] ^ ^ !7J tit. and the translation 
 we have given is anything hnt satisfastory . Wi might possibly he 
 a misprint for ^J • Mr. Beal translates the last two characters by 
 " sharp cluhs (or, knives and clubs) ." "We object to an alternative 
 on such a simple phrase. 
 
 20. Mr. Beal here strangely brings what men " say among them- 
 selves to" an abrupt close, making the next sentence part of Fa 
 Hsien's narrative. 
 
 21. This passage is quite misrendered by Mr. Beal. He says "his 
 earliest converts will be the followers of the bequeathed law of Sakya 
 Buddha, who have forsaken their families, and sought refuge in the 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 107 
 
 hood, and^those who hold to the three refuges, the five 
 commandments, and the rules for fasting, as well as 
 making offerings to the Three Precious Ones. Secondly, 
 and thirdly, he will save those whose destiny^^ it is (to be so 
 saved)." Pa Hsien thereupon wished to write down these 
 sayings, but the man said "There is no text of this: I 
 merely repeat what I have heard. "^^ 
 
 CHAPTEE XL. 
 
 Fa Hsien remained in this country for two years. 
 After repeated search he obtained a copy of the Mi-sha- 
 saii Disciplines. He first got the Great A-han^ and the 
 
 three sacred names, and observed the five gi'eat commandments, and 
 attended to their religious duties in making continued offerings to the 
 three precious objects of worship." But it seems clear to us from the 
 syntax of the original that three distinct classes are spoken of,, and 
 not one as Mr. Beal would make out. If his single class were 
 Oj ^ yVj the mention of only five commandments would be in- 
 correct ; but aj^lied to the laity as distinguished from the clergy, it . 
 becomes intelligible and correct. The text has 5u * w ifiS iS iS 
 
 22. The text has W !^ ^' Mr. Beal says "those who, by 
 their previous conduct, have put themselves in a condition for salva- 
 tion." This is not a bad amplification of f^, but is too difiuse for a 
 professedly literal translation. 
 
 23; The text has jlfc ^ g }$: f?! ih 13 tS B- Mr. Beal 
 says, " This is no sacred book, but only what I have learnt by 
 memory, and repeat verbally." We should like to see how Mr. Beal 
 adapts his text to the original, and also to hear him " repeat " any- 
 thing otherwise than "verbally." The latter half of the sentence is 
 strikingly elliptical. In full it would be something like ^ .?> ^ 
 
 A ^ P ^ M 1 3. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 1 . School of the Mahisasikas. Bm,l. 
 
 2. Agama. Landresse. 
 
108 RECORD OF THK 
 
 Miseellaneons A-ban, an3 subsequently a set of miscella' 
 neous Tsang, all of which China was without. When he 
 had obtained these in their original tongue, he took 
 passage on board a large merchant-vessel, on which there 
 were over two hundred souls, and astern of which there 
 was a s^m^all vessel in ease of accident at sea a^d the 
 destrraetion of the big vessel. Catching a fair wind, they 
 proceeded east for two days when they encouiitered a 
 heavy gale, and the ship sprung a leak. Th© merchants 
 wished to pass on to^ the small vessel, but the men on 
 her, afraid that too many would come, cut the rope in 
 two.* The merchants were very frightened, for death was 
 close at hand ; and fearing that the ship would £11, 
 immediately took what balky goods there were and threw 
 them into the sea. Fa Hsien also took his pitcher and 
 ewer with whatever else he could spare'' and threw them 
 into the sea ; but he was afraid that the merchants would 
 throw over his books and images, and accordingly^ fixed 
 his whole thoughts on Kuan-shih-yin and prayed to the 
 sainted priests of the land of Han, (saying,) " I have 
 journeyed far in search of the Law. Oh that by your 
 awful power you would turn back the flow (of the leak), 
 that we might arrive at some resting-place ?" Thus'' the 
 
 3> The t&xt has IS- Mr. Beal says "haul up,'' which would 
 necessitate his saying a little farther down " to haul up Canton " 
 instead of " to arrive at " that place. 
 
 ^ • iP Wt *-B. yf' for which Mr. Beal gives " cut the towing- 
 cahla ami fell off," as if he had quite mis»nderstood the meaning of 
 the last character. 
 
 6. This seems to he the force of f^ ^ ! not simply " othsr 
 portions of his property " as Mr. Beal renders it. 
 
 6. We have here following- a sentence which seems worth the 
 passing attention of the reader. The text has I'll "^ *L? i& M 'K 
 'e 'j^%% ^ MM ^if:- Ignoring laaproth's version, as 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 109 
 
 gale blew on for thirteen days and nights when they 
 arrived alongside of an island, and then, at ebb" tide, 
 they saw the place where the vessel leaked and forthwith 
 stopped it np, after whieh they again proceeded on their 
 way. This sea is infested by pirates ; to meet themS is 
 death. The expanse of ocean is boundless; east and 
 
 being merely a wild guess at the meaning withorat reference to the 
 syntax, w&pasa on to Mr. Seal's. He says, "And so with earnestness. 
 of heart he invoked Av^okitlswara, and paid reverence to the 
 Buddhist saints (the priesthood) of the land of Han." He further 
 gives two notes explaining (1) that " the phrase yih-mv one heart, is 
 a veiy usual one in Buddhist liturgical works," and we might add in 
 almost every Chinese work that ever was put together. Mr, Beal 
 then tells us "it denotes, the union of the soul of the supplicant with 
 the ideal object of worship, what we should call, perhaps, spiritwii 
 worship " — all of whieh we must take leave to designate in the forcible 
 slang of the United States- as "high falutin'," The character — * 
 is simply a common intensive : '—' *Lf vpitb the whole h«art, ~" ^ 
 very early in the morning, etc. ,, etc. The second note informs us tha^j 
 the phrase hvicei min^ is equivalent to the Sanscrit Nama, a term of 
 invocation in prayer ; also th^t there is a corresponding expression 
 hwa4i i (? Ili ^)) sometimes used. Thus we have Stf W a verb 
 joined to the preceding J^ by the copulative ^j where we most 
 certainly should have looked for sSL- We prefer "prayed" as the 
 translation of |^ W. 
 
 7. The text has here the usual SD ^- We must protest strongly 
 against Mr. Beal's rendering of these two words. He says " Never- 
 theless, the hurricane, etc.," which of course seems like a Jesuitical 
 sneer at Fa Hsien's prayers, though it is the height of absurdity to put 
 the remark into Fa Haen's own mouth. We gladly accept the 
 alternative that " nevertheless " was a mere slip of the pen. 
 
 8. Here Mr, Beal fells into a grave error. The text has 
 j^ ^ ^ ^' ^o" which Mr. Beal gives "who, coming on yoa 
 suddenly, destroy eveiything." But IQE has not here its common 
 meaning " suddenly f it stands for the more usual ^J. The sen- 
 tence is literally " meeting (the pirates),, then none saved" — to keep 
 the same number of words as in the original. Moreover, the last two 
 characters refer to life and not to property. Klaproth's translation ia 
 correct. 
 
110 EECOED OF THE 
 
 west are not distinguishable ; only by observation of tLff 
 Bun, moon, and Btars.^ is progress to be made. In cloudy 
 and rainy weather, (the ship) moved according to the 
 wind without keeping any definite course.''^'' In the dark- 
 ness of night nothing was to be seen but the great waves 
 beating upon each other and flashing forth light Uke fire, 
 huge turtles, sea-lizards, and such Uke monstersii of the 
 deep. Then the merchants wouldia lose heart, not know- 
 ing whither they were going, and the sea being deep with- 
 out bottom they had moreover no place where they could 
 cast anchor and stop.i^ When the sky cleared up, they 
 were then able to tell east from west and again to proceed 
 on their proper course. Had they struck a hidden rock, 
 there would have been no way of escape. Thus it was 
 for more than ninety days until they reached a country 
 
 9. Mr. Beal here adds " in their motions," which is either super- 
 fluous or else a mistranslation of the two concluding characters 
 
 MM- 
 
 10. g It M fit ^ 5S ® * ?IP ^ ?i ^. Mr. Bears 
 translation of this passage is imworthy an officer who has sailed in 
 Her Majesty's leet, and is most certainly not the meaning of the text.. 
 He says " If it is dark, rainy weather, the only plan is to steer by 
 the wind without guide. " Can this he the explanation of the loss of 
 the Vanguard ? — substituting foggy for rainy weather. 
 
 11. " Monstra uatantia." 
 
 12. Mr. Beal puts this in the wrong tense. He says, " The mer- 
 chant men were now much perplexed," as if Fa Hsien was alluding 
 to one particular occasion, though we are told plainly in almost the 
 next sentence that this went on for 90 days. 
 
 13. These last few words are R MT ^ ii M- Mr. Beal 
 quite mistakes the grammar of this passage. He says "so that there 
 wasnot even a rock for anchorage." But ^ is the anchor itself, 
 stones being used for that purpose even in the present day. Only a 
 week ago we noticed some fishermen weigh anchor near Ch'ao-chou 
 Fu, and up came two large blocks of stone lashed to a couple of sharp- 
 pointed stakes in such a manner as to make a very good hoklfast. 
 
 y is of course a verhi. 
 
1-' 
 
 BUDDHISTIO KINGDOMS. Ill 
 
 tsalled Yeh-p'o-t'i,i* where there were plenty of heretics 
 and Brahmans but not enough Buddhism to be worth 
 mentioning. After having stopped in this country five 
 months,!^ Fa Hsien again shipped on board another large 
 merchant vessel which also carried over two hundred 
 persons. They took with them provisions for fifty days 
 and set sail on the 16th of the 4th moon. Fa Hsien 
 settled himself on board^^ and a north-east course was 
 taken in order to arrive at Canton." Over a month had 
 elapsed when one night in the second watches they en- 
 countered a violently gale with tempestuous rain, at which 
 
 14. HR ^ SG' Java. While putting the notes to this last chap- 
 ter we have received a copy of Mr. Groeneveldt's Notes on the Malay 
 Archipelago amd Malacca, in which he gives a translation of a part of 
 this chapter. He has made Mr. Beal's version his basis, correcting 
 the most glaring, but we are bound to say not all, of Mr. Beal's many 
 errors. From him we learn that "Yava Dwipa does not mean, as 
 has been thoughtlessly said and repeated, the cotmtry of the Iwrley, for 
 the simple reason that barley could not grow there." 
 
 15. S n — a not uncommon phrase equivalent to 3x ^ SB 
 ® ^ 65 ■?■ Mr. Beal improvises "the best portion of iive 
 months." 
 
 16. ^ M JK fiS Jl :S Jp- Mr. Beal gives "Fah Hian 
 was very comfortable on board this ship," which of course is absurd. 
 Mr. Groeneveldt says " While Fahien was on board of this ship ; " 
 but this is not quite accurate when taken with the context. 
 
 17. ^ /'I'r Messrs. Beal and Groeneveldt both make this 
 " the province of Canton," as if any part of it would do equally well 
 with another. It seems clear to us that the port of Canton is meant. 
 
 18. ^ ^ — BIf) for which Mr. Beal (and Mr. Groeneveldt) 
 gives " at the stroke of two in the middle watch of the night." First 
 of all we can hardly believe that a gale of wind burst upon them 
 exactly at the stroke of two ; and secondly, we fail to discover any- 
 thing about the " middle " watch. From time immemorial the Chi- 
 nese night has been divided into five watches, and it was dwrmg the 
 second of these — say about 10 p.m.— that the storm broke. The 
 text is literally "night di'um second (watch) time." Klaproth was, 
 right enough. 
 
112 EEOOED OP TUB 
 
 tlae merchants tod others were v«ry mUch frightened, but 
 Fa Hsien again fixed his whole thoughts upon Kuan-shih- 
 yiu and the (sainted) priests of the land of Han, and was 
 accorded^o th« protection of their awful power until day 
 broke. When it was light, the Brahmans took counsel, 
 saying, " Taking this Shaman on board has been to our 
 disadvantage, causing us to get into this great trouble. 
 We ought to land the mendicant on an island ; it is not 
 right to endanger all our lives for one man." To which 
 Fa Hsien's patron*^ replied, " If you land this mendicant, 
 yon shall also land me with him ; if not, you had better 
 kill me, for supposing you land this Shaman, when I 
 reach China I will report you to the King of the Country 
 who is a supporter of Buddhism and honours the 
 priesthood." The merchants wavered and did not daro 
 to land him just then. At this time the sky was con- 
 etantly clouded, and the captain of the ship kept losing 
 his reckoning.23 go they Went on for seventy days ttntil 
 
 19. Literally, "a black wind," or as Mr. Beal translates it "a 
 black squall.^' But ^ can kardly be taken here in its primary sense. 
 
 20. ^ j^ ?# ^ ^ S 5C 9f . which Mr. Beal (and Mr. 
 Groeneveldt, though in different words) most erroneously renders 
 " to exert their Divine power in his favour, and bring them daylight." 
 Ho thus ignores ^ with its special meaning of " reedving from a 
 superior " altogether, though it clearly implies the response of the 
 higher powers to his prayer, carried out in the fjy protection afford- 
 ed through the night Sueh translation as "bring them daylight'' 
 is positively beneath notice. 
 
 21. i|g M Sis diUapati. 
 
 22. Mr. Beal translates this last sentence " the pilots began to 
 look at one another in mutual distrust," wisely adding — o utinam 
 saepiusl — " This passage is obscure." Mr. Groeneveldt makes a faint 
 effort at improvement by changing Mr. Beal's last three words into 
 "without knowing what to do." The text has ^M^MM^> 
 and the key-move is to read TO in the ^ ^ meaning to see, to 
 subserve. Our rendering is perhaps too free. Literally, it should read, 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 113 
 
 the provisioas, water^ and congee, were nearly esihausted, 
 and they had to mse sea water for .coolung, diyiding the 
 fresh water amongst them so that each man got about 
 two pints.23 When ali was nearly consumad, ihs mer- 
 chants constaiLted and said, " The ordinary time for the 
 voyage to Canton is exactly fifty days. We have now 
 exceeded that limit by many, days : can we have don« 
 otherwise than go wrong?"^ Thereupon they proceeded 
 north west in search of land, and after twelve ^days and 
 nights arrived south of the Lao^* mountains in the 
 £)h'ang-kaang district, ^s where they jobtain^d fresh water 
 and vegetables. And now,^^ after having passed through 
 much danger, difficulty, sorrow, and fear, suddenly reach- 
 
 "The aailing-master in his obseryations kept going astray." A, 
 W- SM is a land-mark, or guide of any kind. We are fully justified 
 by the context in using the imperfect tense. 
 
 23 . It is somewhat tempting to tack these opening words on to 
 ihe last aentenee and with quite a different meaning, namely, -' ' for 
 each to use up as he pleased. " The text has ^ ,@ ^ ^, which 
 would almost bear such interpretation ; hut the next sentence would 
 then he left without " a head."' 
 
 28. ^ ^ 1^ HB"^a simple sentence which Mr. Beal insults 
 his readers by translating ".Shall we then undertalie the naviga,tion 
 oursdves T' This is truly more ridiculous than Klaproth's ^' nous 
 u'avons plais de ressouices." 
 
 24. Mr, Beal says in a note '" The mountains of Lau— for there 
 are two — are situated in the southern portion of the Shantung pro- 
 montory in the department of Lai-chow," — ^all of which, by the way, 
 as well as his following note, is taken from the French edition with- 
 out acknowledgment. 
 
 25. '^ !M ^- Of course we do not use district in its modem 
 sense. 
 
 26. The following exquisite passage is badly mutilated both by 
 both Mr. Beal and Mr. G-roeneveldt. The text is too long to quote, 
 but we may mention for the benefit of students of the original that 
 we put a stop after the ^ of ^ ^, and not before fi^. We 
 cannot find the English equiyalent of ^ S Zi huo. 
 
114 EEOOKD OF THE 
 
 ing this shore and seeing the old familiar Li huo, they 
 knew it was their fatherland, but not observing either 
 inhabitants or any traces of such, they did not know what 
 part it was. Some said they had not got as far as Can- 
 ton ; others said they had already passed it Being in a 
 state of uncertainty^ some of them got into a small boat 
 and went up a creek to search for someone whom they 
 might ask about the place. These secured two hunters 
 ^nd brought them baek^T (to the ship), telling Fa Hsien 
 -to act as interpreter and question them. Fa Hsien began 
 by reassuring them and then quietly^s asked " What 
 people are you?" They replied "We are followers of 
 Buddha." He further asked " What is it you go among 
 the hills to seek ?" They then began to lie, saying, 
 " To-morrow is the 15th of the 7th month i^ we wanted 
 to get something to sacrifice to Buddha." Fa Hsien then 
 asked " What country is tjtiis ?" They answered " This 
 is Ch'ang-kuang in Gh'ing-chou, belongingso entirely to 
 the Liu family." When they heard this, the merchants 
 were very glad, and at once requested that their goods 
 
 27. The text has ^ M 31 A ^P lif ^. Mr. Beal trans- 
 lates it ■" Just at this momeat, two men who had been hunting were 
 returning home." It would be superfluous to point out to the intel- 
 ligent student of the text the utter inaccuracy and want of meaning 
 in such a rendering. 
 
 28. f^ ^- Mr. Beal thinks proper to take no notice of the 
 first character here given. 
 
 29. The festival of 4* !JC- 
 
 30. Mr. Beal says ' ' dependent on the Leaou family." But what 
 is meant is the very common phenomenon of a large tract of coun- 
 try helonging to a family or clan, all the members of which bear the 
 same name and live in the same village, being unable, according to 
 Chinese law, to intermarry amongst themselves, but each obliged to 
 seek a^wife with a different surname from one of the neighbouring 
 hamlets. 
 
BTTDDHISTIO KINGDOMS. 115 
 
 (might be lanided) and sent men with them to Oh.'ang- 
 kuang. The Prefect, Li I, who was devoted to the Law 
 of Buddha, when he heard that a Shaman had arrived 
 who had brought Sacred Books and images with him in a 
 ship^i from beyond the sea, immediatly proceeded with 
 his retinue to the sea-shore to receive these books and 
 images and take them back to his city. The msrchants 
 then went off on their way to Yang-chow, * * * * pa], 
 invited Fa Hsien to remain a winter and a summer. 
 When this period was over. Fa Hsien, far separated from 
 the assembly of ecclesiastics for many years, was desirous 
 of reaching Ch'ang-an, but because of the great impor- 
 tance of his undertaking, he accordingly proceeded south 
 towards the capital, and handed over to the ecclesiastics 
 (there) the Sutras and Precepts (he had brought back). 
 Fa Hsien spent six years in travelling from Oh'ang-an 
 to Central India. He stayed there six years, and took 
 three more to reach Ch'ing-chou. The countries he 
 
 31. Mr. Beal here makes a most lamentable mistake, though the 
 text is as simple as it well could be. He says that this Li I " took 
 a ship and embarked and came on board to see (Fa Hian). Then, 
 immediately engaging men from the nearest shore, he dispatch- 
 ed the books etc. " But we are getting weary of pointing out Mr. 
 Beal's endless mistakes which come thicker and faster as we ap- 
 proach the end. In fact, we will now take our final leave of Mr. 
 Beal, just warning the reader that from this point to tha conclusion 
 of the so-called fortieth chapter his translation is one extraordinary 
 tissue of blunders, to do justice to which it would be necessary to 
 quote every word of the original Chinese; He has quite misunder- 
 stood the grammar and meaning of the whole of the last page, and 
 has shewn himself utterly incompetent to translate a far easier 
 volume than the Fo Kuo CM. We have heard of other and similar 
 works by Mr. Beal, but we solemnly trust it will never be our mis- 
 fortune to see them. 
 
 32. Here occur four characters of which we can make absolutely 
 aothing. They are III ^ ff ilfl. 
 
116 EBOORD OF THE 
 
 passed through amounted to rather less than thirty. 
 From the west of the Sandy Desert all the way to India, 
 the dignified position of the priesthood and the good 
 i?estflts of religious influence were beyond all expression^ 
 As, however, the ecclesiastics had no means of hearing 
 about th«se things, he gave no thought to his trifling life, 
 coming home across the sea and encountering all kinds 
 of difficulties. Happily, he' was accorded the awful pro- 
 teetioK of the' Three' Honoured Ones, and was thus pre- 
 served in his hour of danger. Therefore he wrote down 
 on baimboo slips and silk what he had done, desiring that 
 the worthy *ead«r^* should share this information. 
 
 [End of Fa Hsien's Narrative.] 
 It was in the year Ohia Yin, the twelfth of the reigJi of 
 I Hsi of the (Eastern) Chin dynasty, when' the star of 
 longevity was ruling,^ in the summer, that I,^^ Ngan Chii, 
 went out to meet Fa Hsien, the Buddhist, and when he 
 arrived kept him with me in the Winter suite.^B Because 
 when diseoflrsing together, to repeated questions about 
 his travels he answered affably and without hesitation, in 
 every way in keeping with the truth, I therefore urged 
 him to write out in detail that which he had previously 
 sketched. Fa Hsien again told the whole story from 
 
 33. SS ^. Here it appears ta us and to the Chinese commen- 
 tator, ends the narrative of Fa Hsien, the following passage having 
 been added by an anonymous hand during the Chim -^ dynasty. 
 Mr. Beal, however, says that Fa Hsien's words end at " brought 
 back," a few lines higher up, but gives no authority. 
 
 34. ]^ ffi ^ M • Ganopus. 
 
 35. ^ ^ ^- ^0 is commonly used in this way. It is ap- 
 parently the name of some brother priest. 
 
 36. S ®. A fanciful name, somewhat corresponding to our 
 Blue Room, Oak Room, and such terms. 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 117 
 
 beginning to end, and said " Looking back on what I have 
 gone through, involuntarily my heart throbs and a per- 
 spiration breaks out. That, in the dangers I encountered 
 on foot or otherwise, I did not spare this body, is because 
 I devoted my energies wholly to this one object ; therefore 
 I risked my life in places where there was no certainty of 
 escape, in order to accomplish even a fraction of what 
 I hoped for." Thereupon I was much affected, and 
 sighing (said), " This kind of man is rarely seen. From 
 the time that the Great Teaching'' began to flow east- 
 wards, there has been no one forgetful of his life in the 
 cause of religion to be compared with Fa Hsien." Then 
 I knew that sincerity never fails to move (the gods) ; for 
 if it had not (moved them in the present instance), then 
 Fa Hsien would not have received the reward for his 
 exertions. There cannot be good service without success, 
 and the man who brings his labours to a successful issue 
 is he not the man who neglects that which is gene- 
 rally prized, '8 and values that which is generally ne- 
 glected ?»" 
 
 37. Buddhism. 
 
 38. Namely, life. 
 
 39. The Law of Buddha. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 HOIE BY SHfiN SHIH-LUNG. 
 
 As regards records of the bringing back of Sacred Book* 
 from India, we have only the narratives of the two priests 
 Fa Hsien and Yiian Chuang'- in the Buddhist collections, 
 and the accounts of Sung Yiin and Hui Sheng in the An- 
 nals of the Lo-yang monastery, which have any claim 
 upon our attention. Yet although the Annals of the 
 monastery are exact and agreeably written, the narratives 
 in the Tsang« go more into detail and are more elegant 
 in style. Preeminently so is the Eecord of the Buddhistio 
 Kingdoms, which in general scope, elegance, terseness, 
 comprehensiveness of style is not inferior to the models of 
 the Chin dynasty. These narratives differ somewhat as 
 to the places visited. Pa Hsien travelled from Tun-huang 
 westwards, and returned by sea from Ceylon ; Yiian 
 Chuang left Liang-chou by the Jade Gate* and came 
 bask by way of Khoten ; but Sung Yiin went from Ch'ih- 
 
 1. The celebrated Buddhist priest ^C i« '^^ ^^nt to India in 
 the seventh century. 
 
 2- ^-^ „« 
 3. UJ^PI. 
 
120 EECOED OF THE 
 
 ling" to Mang-ku-hun,5 and back by the same route, thus 
 exempHfying the apophthegm of Shakya Muni that " the 
 ways« are many : they cannot be all enumerated." With 
 regard to the Desert, the Onion range, Hsuan-tu,' and 
 the Snowy mountains, these were visited by all alike. 
 
 Further, with regard to the passage in Lu Shih's" 
 *' Notes " giving the quotation from the Fo Euo Chi as 
 found in the Commentary to the "Water Classic," namely 
 that " the Ganges flows south-east, passing through 
 the city of Chii-i-na-chieh. To the north of the city 
 between the two trees etc," I have been unable to find 
 these words in the original work. They have probably 
 bean omitted in the process of copying, and Shan Ch'ang 
 has undoubtedly some grounds for what he says. " 
 
 From my early youth I have ever had a deep venera- 
 tion for the Gospel of Mercy .^^ though myself grovelling 
 in thfi dust and abominations of this world ; and though 
 neither my teachers nor my friends have any of them been 
 great travellers, and I myself have been averse to leaving 
 home, — yet whenever I hear of others risking their lives 
 in dangerous places or seeking the Truth^'"' in strange 
 
 4- Si' M- Mr. Beal says " Barren Ridge.'' 
 ■ 5. Our transliteration of these cbaraoters is strictly according to 
 the text which gives |1J; -6" }¥• Mr. Beal writes it " To-ku-wan," as 
 if the first character was 3X' ^^^ tsUs us in a note that the people 
 intended were " Eastern Turks." We leave the point to our 
 readers. 
 
 6. This is intended as a play upon the word j^. 
 
 7. mm. ^_ 
 
 8. S .K ^ sB- We have been unable to identify this Q- 
 
 9. What those last few words refer to, and who Shan Ch'ang 
 ^ ^ was, we have been hitherto unable to discover. 
 
 10. Buddhism—^ •^• 
 
 11. it- 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 121 
 
 lands, I feel what a dull, useless creature I am, and my 
 tears begin to flow. 
 
 Done at Hsin-shui, by Shen Shih-lung.^ = 
 
 12. j5C i Si- We can discover nothing about this individual 
 from the very slender sources at our command. 
 
 Mr. Wylie, in his Notes on Chinese Literature, mates the very 
 singular mistake — for a scholar — of always reading the surname 
 Jjt Ch'in, instead of Shin according to the old orthography, or 
 Shen, according to Sir Thomas Wade's. 
 
 NOTE BY HU CH£n-HENG. 
 
 The old title of this work was " The Narrative of Fa 
 Hsien." According to a Buddhist priest of the Sung 
 dynasty it should be called the " Eecord of the Buddhistic 
 Kingdoms." The " Eecord of the Buddhistic Kingdoms," 
 in one volume, occurs only in the geographical section of 
 the History of the Sui dynasty : so that the above state- 
 ment does not seem to have sufficient foundation. There 
 were, however, originally two "Narratives of Fa Hsien," 
 the first of which in two volumes has been lost, and the 
 second of which, in one volume, is the work we have now. 
 At the end of the narrative, a man of the Chin dynasty 
 added " being asked to write down in detail what he had 
 previously sketched. Fa Hsien again went over the whole 
 from beginning to end." Hence the single volume, which 
 was afterwards expanded into a more detailed account in 
 two volumes, but never became popular in, that form and 
 accordingly disappeared. Hui Chiao, ^ a Buddhist priest 
 of the Liang dynasty, states that there was another and 
 
 1. Lived under the Liang dynasty, and published an enlarged 
 edition of the 1^ fW JlE) mentioned below. 
 
122 KECOKD OF THE 
 
 more extensive " Narrative" of the travels of Fa Hsien in 
 these countries which should be called "The Greater 
 Narrative of Fa Hsien" by way of distinction. 
 
 With regard to the text of the " Eecord," there are 
 certain points that deserve some attention. For instance, 
 " the second year of Hung Shih" is, according to Yao 
 Hsing's* Chronology, the fourth year of the style Lung 
 Ngan in the reign of the emperor Ngan Ti of the Chin 
 dynasty. Again, " the nation of Ch'ien Kuei" is the fief 
 of Wan-ch'uan,' governed by Ch'i-fu-ch'ien-kuei. Simi- 
 larly, " the prince of Chang-yeh" is Tuan yeh, prince of 
 Liang. And " the prefect of Tun-huang, named Li Kao" 
 (^ f§)) is the Wu Chao* prince of Liang, named Li 
 Kao (^]^), for the latter in the third month of that 
 year received instructions from Tuan Yeh to take charge 
 of Tun-huang, and as Fa Hsien spent the rainy season at 
 Chang-yeh before going on to Tun-huang, it is evident 
 that his Kao (j^^) should be Kao (]^), the fact that the 
 two words are pronounded alike being the reason of his 
 orthographical mistake. So with his " kingdom of Nou 
 T'an;" for in the year he passed through, Li-lu-ku the 
 Bald* had but just usurped the throne, and did not die 
 till two years afterwards when Nou ^T'an reigned in his 
 stead. Thus he was wrong in speaking of Nou T'an, 
 probably because his memory failed him when he subse- 
 quently (wrote his narrative). Further, the Shamans 
 who started with him from Ch'ang-ngan were Hui Ching, 
 Tao Cheng, Hui Ying, and Hui Wei, and those he met 
 
 2. WS M' We can find nothing about him. 
 
 3. ^)\\. 
 
 4. A title ^ BS- 
 
 5. This is all we can make of 5^ ^ M M SK- 
 
BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 123 
 
 at Chang-yeh were CMh Yen, Hui Chien Seng Shao, 
 Pao Yiin, and Seng Ching, making nine in all (including 
 Fa Hsien). When they arrived at the land of Wu-i, 
 Chih Yen, Hui Chien, and Hui Wei, went back to Kao- 
 ch'ang ; and when the others arrived at the Wang-hsin 
 temple ia Khoten, Seng Shao left them and went to Chi- 
 pin. Then again at Peghawur, Hui Ta, with Pao Yiin, 
 and Seng Ching, returned to China, and Hui Ching died 
 at the temple of Buddha's alms-bowl, so that the indivi- 
 duals meant in the passage^ " Fa Hsien and the others, 
 three in all, went south and crossed the lesser snowy 
 mountains," must be Tao Cheng and Hui Ying. How 
 then do we find' " Hui Ching was unable to go on"? 
 The collection of Ecclesiastical Biographies by Hsiao 
 Liangs also gives Hui Ching, which should be Hui Ying 
 — a mistake which has been made ever since the epoch 
 of division between the north and south, Tao Cheng 
 remained finally in India ; but Hui Ta's name does not 
 occur among the nine mentioned above. Was he then 
 " travelling with them by a different road" ?^ 
 Done at Wu-yiian 
 
 by Hu Chen-heng.'o 
 
 6. Chapter xiy. 
 
 7. As in Chapter xiv ad init. 
 
 8- M "^ iS fi' Hf- We pass the first two characters over to 
 our readers. 
 
 9. A proverbial expression : fffi ;& tB ■tob- 
 
 10. A celebrated scholar of the Ming dynasty. See Wylie's 
 Notes p. 194. 
 
Translation of a Passage from Chapter XXXVI. 
 
 BY W. p. MAYERS. 
 
 At this Sangharama of the Mahayana order he ob- 
 tained a copy of the Precepts (Vinaya), to wit, the Pre- 
 cepts, of the assembly of the Mahasangika, ■which were 
 those observed by the first great assembly, convened 
 during the lifetime of Buddha. This work was given 
 forth (or, handed down, promulgated^) at the Jetavana 
 temple. Besides this,^ the eighteen schools' each have 
 
 1. The character ^, here translated " work," might possibly 
 also be held to signify " commencement," or " original," but the 
 context seems to forbid such a rendering. The construction of the 
 sentence is so peculiar as to leave the meaning, in any case, obscure, 
 even to a Chinese reader. It should be noted that pen, in the sense 
 of " work " or " volume," is a word found in use on the same page 
 of Fah Hien's narrative. The writers of the T'ang dynasty speak 
 of the 7£ !^ or Sanskrit works brought to China by Fah Hien. 
 
 2. The expression @ '^ is perhaps the most puzzling of all in 
 this extremely obscure extract. It is a compound unrecognized by 
 any Chinese authority, but it can scarcely be intended to convey 
 any other meaning than that given to it in the translation. 
 
 3. For the eighteen schools of ancient Buddhism see A. Csoma 
 de Koros, As. Bes. xx, p. 298, and- Koeppen, Die Religion des Bud- 
 dha, p. 152 ; also Wassilief, Le Bouddhisme, passim, and p. 62, 
 " le Vinaia commun ^ toutes les fecoles." Kumaradjlva, quoted in 
 
126 RECORD OP THE BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS. 
 
 canons* of their own, which are identical in their main 
 tenour." In minor points of difference they may treat the 
 subject with different degrees of freedom.^ This, how- 
 ever, is the most comprehensive and complete of all (the 
 treatises). 
 
 the Fan Yih Ming I Tsi, refers to eighteen pu or schools, but these 
 appear to be rather the heretical schools than those which would be 
 recognized by Fah Hieu as appertaining to Buddhism proper. 
 Kumfiradjlva remarts that the eit;hteen pu are derived from the six 
 Bin or Tirthya, of whom Purana Kfi,shyapa was the first. Each of 
 these six heretical teachers, he states, combined in himself three 
 qualities, viz., universal knowledge, supernatural endowments, and 
 a knowledge of the Vedas. Thrice six are eighteen, and thus arose 
 the eighteen sects or classes of doctrine. Of. Eitel, Manual of 
 Chinese Buddhism, p. 147. 
 
 4. The compound expression ijj ^ may mean either teacher 
 or teachings, i.e. doctrine in a religious sense. It is illustrated by 
 by seven quotations in the P'ei Wen Yiin Fu, of which the first is 
 extracted from the commentary on the Kuh-liang Ghwan. It is 
 there defined as H .ffl j^ ^— the fixed rule of daily observance. 
 Upon this the translation given above is based. In sundry passages 
 from writings of the T'ang dynasty, the compound obviously signi- 
 fies a Teacher. In the following passage from the ^ ^ 'tj i^ 
 it apparently means "teachings":— gig Jg if B 5^ 4p if! /f! M- 
 
 5. The expression :^ %% is identical in meaning with ^^ §.^ 
 the "upshot" or main tenour of a proposition. It has no con- 
 ceivable connection with the dogma of the 3 IS or Trisharana, — 
 the Three Refuges, and the earlier translators are mistaken in ac- 
 cepting it in this sense. 
 
 6. The expression ^ ^, literally signifying " to open and to 
 close," is quoted in the P'ei Wen Yiin Fu from six different authors, 
 commencing with the ^ ffi and extending to the Poema of Su 
 She. In the writings of Hwai Nan Tsze it is used as a parallel to 
 WJJ ^—movement and repose, or simply " motion ;" and a writer 
 named Luh Ktieh employs it, in a similar manner, as a parallel to 
 *& fm — union and separation, or point of junction or resemblance. 
 (Of. T. T. Meadows on the " Synthesis of Contradictories." In the 
 text, the expression appears to signify the degree of harmony with, 
 or departure from, the prescriptions of the Vinaya obtained by Fah 
 Hien, which the various schools indulge in. 
 
LIST OF , 
 
 COUNTEIES, TOWNS, &c. 
 
 VISITED BY FA HSIEN. 
 
 Chan-po |§ -^ 91. 
 
 Chang-yell \%\% 2. 
 
 Ch'ang-an ^^ 1,115, 
 
 Ch'ang-kuang ^ J^ 113,114,115. 
 
 Chi-jao-i ^ ^'^ 39. 
 
 Chi-ni-chia M\M<U 18. 
 
 Chi-pin ^ % 10. 
 
 Chi-tsu II J£ 83. 
 
 Ch'i-sh§-oliueh •^ ^ || 69. 
 
 Chia-shih *|g /? 84. 
 
 Chia-wei-lo-wei... ^g iH M 1^ 49- 52. 
 
 Chia-yeh §] ^15 74. 
 
 Chieh-oh'a %^ 7, 10. 
 
 Chien-to-wei ^i P£ ® 17, 18. 
 
 Ch'ing-chou %% 114,115. 
 
 Chii-i-na-ohieh ■•. ^ H iJ ^ 55. 
 
128 RECOBD OF THE 
 
 Chu-sa-lo ^HH 40. 
 
 Ch'u-tz'u ^ ^ 105. 
 
 Chu-oh'a-shih-lo,. ;^ |:il /? i^ 17. 
 
 Chung-kuo 4*11 ^^• 
 
 Fo-lou-sha ^S^ 18, 21. 
 
 Hsiao-hsiieh shan...^|% g llj 25. 
 
 Hsi-lo ® JH 21. 
 
 Hsin-t'oii fjf |i|j 14, 27, 32, 
 
 Kao-ch'ang 'jS ^ 5. 
 
 Ko-fu-fi ^ ^ ^ 19. 
 
 Lan-mo ^^ ^^* 
 
 Lao Mouutaius ^ [[] 113. 
 
 Lo-i ^^ 26. 
 
 Lun-min |^ J^ 51. 
 
 Lung Mountains ... m [[j 1. 
 
 Ma-t'oii-lo Jp 5| j^ 27. 
 
 Mo-chieh-t'i MM% ^1- 
 
 Na-chieh % ^ 16, 20, 21. 
 
 Na-lo gI5p 68. 
 
 Na-p'i-chia ^ [JJfc ^ 49. 
 
 Ni-li '^^ 66. 
 
 Pa-lien-fo E 3^ ^ 61, 89, 
 
 P'i-she-li It -^11 56, 57. 
 
 Fi-t'u m^ 27. 
 
 P'in-na ^%^ 105. 
 
 Po-lo-nai m^i^^ 84, 89. 
 
 I'o-iia ^itiJ 27. 
 
 P"-iia iii5 28. 
 
 Sha (river) ^ 28. 
 
 Sha-cHh J* jilE 40. 
 
BUDDHISTIO KINGDOMS. 
 
 129 
 
 % 
 
 Bhan-shan ^ ^g 
 
 She-i ^ H 
 
 She-wei -^ ^ 
 
 Shih-tzu p ^ 
 
 Su-ho-to ?|PrI 
 
 Ta-ch'in jg |^_ 
 
 To-mo-li-ti % WW^^ 91- 
 
 T'o-U |5g^ 13. 
 
 Tou-wei nm 48. 
 
 Ts'ung-ling ^ ^ 10, 
 
 Tun-huang %%^^ 2. 
 
 Tzu-ho ^ ^ 
 
 Wang-she ^ "^ 
 
 Wu-oh'ang '^ If. 
 
 . m-i i,| ^ 
 
 Yang-chou ^ i)'!! 
 
 Yang-lou (M'ntains) ^ ;|g 
 
 Yeh-p'o-t'i ^^ ^ 
 
 Yen-fu-t'i ^^ \ 
 
 Yii-hui J^ ^ 
 
 Yii-t'ien ^^ 
 
 Yiieh-shih ^ _p5 
 
 8. 
 
 48. 
 
 40, 48. 
 .92, 105. 
 16. 
 86. 
 
 12. 
 
 10. 
 
 
 68. 
 
 
 15, 
 
 16. 
 
 4, 
 
 5. 
 
 115. 
 
 
 2. 
 
 
 111. 
 
 
 83, 
 
 66. 
 
 10. 
 
 
 5, 
 
 105. 
 
 19, 
 
 105. 
 
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gia3^'Ov>«= =-<'<xf<}^m 
 
 ^ » B IE f 
 
 ^ ^.- ^ H« ^_ 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS: 
 
 Tra V a J a ted fro m th e Ch in ese 
 
 BY 
 
 HEBBEBT A. GILES, 
 
 Of H. M.'s Consular Service. 
 
 ^ - i 
 
 London': TEUBNEE & CO. .C 
 
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 •Shanghai; KELLY & WALSH. 
 
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