A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms

PREFACE

Several times during my long residence in Hong Kong I endeavoured to read
through the “Narrative of Fâ-Hien;” but though interested with the
graphic details of much of the work, its columns bristled so
constantly—now with his phonetic representations of Sanskrit words, and
now with his substitution for them of their meanings in Chinese characters, and
I was, moreover, so much occupied with my own special labours on the Confucian
Classics, that my success was far from satisfactory. When Dr. Eitel’s
“Handbook for the Student of Chinese Buddhism” appeared in 1870,
the difficulty occasioned by the Sanskrit words and names was removed, but the
other difficulty remained; and I was not able to look into the book again for
several years. Nor had I much inducement to do so in the two copies of it which
I had been able to procure, on poor paper, and printed from blocks badly cut at
first, and so worn with use as to yield books the reverse of attractive in
their appearance to the student.

In the meantime I kept studying the subject of Buddhism from various sources;
and in 1878 began to lecture, here in Oxford, on the Travels with my Davis
Chinese scholar, who was at the same time Boden Sanskrit scholar. As we went
on, I wrote out a translation in English for my own satisfaction of nearly half
the narrative. In the beginning of last year I made Fâ-Hien again the subject
of lecture, wrote out a second translation, independent of the former, and
pushed on till I had completed the whole.

The want of a good and clear text had been supplied by my friend, Mr. Bunyiu
Nanjio, who sent to me from Japan a copy, the text of which is appended to the
translation and notes, and of the nature of which some account is given in the
Introduction, and towards the end of this Preface.

The present work consists of three parts: the Translation of Fâ-Hien’s
Narrative of his Travels; copious Notes; and the Chinese Text of my copy from
Japan.

It is for the Translation that I hold myself more especially responsible.
Portions of it were written out three times, and the whole of it twice. While
preparing my own version I made frequent reference to previous
translations:—those of M. Abel Rémusat, “Revu, complété, et
augmenté d’éclaircissements nouveaux par MM. Klaproth et Landress”
(Paris, 1836); of the Rev. Samuel Beal (London, 1869), and his revision of it,
prefixed to his “Buddhist Records of the Western World”
(Trübner’s Oriental Series, 1884); and of Mr. Herbert A. Giles, of
H.M.’s Consular Service in China (1877). To these I have to add a series
of articles on “Fa-hsien and his English Translators,” by Mr. T.
Watters, British Consul at Î-Chang (China Review, 1879, 1880). Those articles
are of the highest value, displaying accuracy of Chinese scholarship and an
extensive knowledge of Buddhism. I have regretted that Mr. Watters, while
reviewing others, did not himself write out and publish a version of the whole
of Fâ-Hien’s narrative. If he had done so, I should probably have
thought that, on the whole, nothing more remained to be done for the
distinguished Chinese pilgrim in the way of translation. Mr. Watters had to
judge of the comparative merits of the versions of Beal and Giles, and
pronounce on the many points of contention between them. I have endeavoured to
eschew those matters, and have seldom made remarks of a critical nature in
defence of renderings of my own.

The Chinese narrative runs on without any break. It was Klaproth who divided
Rémusat’s translation into forty chapters. The division is helpful to the
reader, and I have followed it excepting in three or four instances. In the
reprinted Chinese text the chapters are separated by a circle in the column.

In transliterating the names of Chinese characters I have generally followed
the spelling of Morrison rather than the Pekinese, which is now in vogue. We
cannot tell exactly what the pronunciation of them was, about fifteen hundred
years ago, in the time of Fâ-Hien; but the southern mandarin must be a shade
nearer to it than that of Peking at the present day. In transliterating the
Indian names I have for the most part followed Dr. Eitel, with such
modification as seemed good and in harmony with growing usage.

For the Notes I can do little more than claim the merit of selection and
condensation. My first object in them was to explain what in the text required
explanation to an English reader. All Chinese texts, and Buddhist texts
especially, are new to foreign students. One has to do for them what many
hundreds of the ablest scholars in Europe have done for the Greek and Latin
Classics during several hundred years, and what the thousands of critics and
commentators have been doing of our Sacred Scriptures for nearly eighteen
centuries. There are few predecessors in the field of Chinese literature into
whose labours translators of the present century can enter. This will be
received, I hope, as a sufficient apology for the minuteness and length of some
of the notes. A second object in them was to teach myself first, and then
others, something of the history and doctrines of Buddhism. I have thought that
they might be learned better in connexion with a lively narrative like that of
Fâ-Hien than by reading didactic descriptions and argumentative books. Such
has been my own experience. The books which I have consulted for these notes
have been many, besides Chinese works. My principal help has been the full and
masterly handbook of Eitel, mentioned already, and often referred to as E.H.
Spence Hardy’s “Eastern Monachism” (E.M.) and “Manual
of Buddhism” (M.B.) have been constantly in hand, as well as Rhys
Davids’ Buddhism, published by the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, his Hibbert Lectures, and his Buddhist Suttas in the Sacred Books of
the East, and other writings. I need not mention other authorities, having
endeavoured always to specify them where I make use of them. My proximity and
access to the Bodleian Library and the Indian Institute have been of great
advantage.

I may be allowed to say that, so far as my own study of it has gone, I think
there are many things in the vast field of Buddhist literature which still
require to be carefully handled. How far, for instance, are we entitled to
regard the present Sûtras as genuine and sufficiently accurate copies of those
which were accepted by the Councils before our Christian era? Can anything be
done to trace the rise of the legends and marvels of Sâkyamuni’s history,
which were current so early (as it seems to us) as the time of Fâ-Hien, and
which startle us so frequently by similarities between them and narratives in
our Gospels? Dr. Hermann Oldenberg, certainly a great authority on Buddhistic
subjects, says that “a biography of Buddha has not come down to us from
ancient times, from the age of the Pâli texts; and, we can safely say, no such
biography existed then” (“Buddha—His Life, His Doctrine, His
Order,” as translated by Hoey, p. 78). He has also (in the same work, pp.
99, 416, 417) come to the conclusion that the hitherto unchallenged tradition
that the Buddha was “a king’s son” must be given up. The name
“king’s son” (in Chinese {…}), always used of the Buddha,
certainly requires to be understood in the highest sense. I am content myself
to wait for further information on these and other points, as the result of
prolonged and careful research.

Dr. Rhys Davids has kindly read the proofs of the Translation and Notes, and I
most certainly thank him for doing so, for his many valuable corrections in the
Notes, and for other suggestions which I have received from him. I may not
always think on various points exactly as he does, but I am not more forward
than he is to say with Horace,—

“Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri.”

I have referred above, and also in the Introduction, to the Corean text of
Fâ-Hien’s narrative, which I received from Mr. Nanjio. It is on the
whole so much superior to the better-known texts, that I determined to attempt
to reproduce it at the end of the little volume, so far as our resources here
in Oxford would permit. To do so has not been an easy task. The two fonts of
Chinese types in the Clarendon Press were prepared primarily for printing the
translation of our Sacred Scriptures, and then extended so as to be available
for printing also the Confucian Classics; but the Buddhist work necessarily
requires many types not found in them, while many other characters in the
Corean recension are peculiar in their forms, and some are what Chinese
dictionaries denominate “vulgar.” That we have succeeded so well as
we have done is owing chiefly to the intelligence, ingenuity, and untiring
attention of Mr. J. C. Pembrey, the Oriental Reader.

The pictures that have been introduced were taken from a superb edition of a
History of Buddha, republished recently at Hang-châu in Cheh-kiang, and
profusely illustrated in the best style of Chinese art. I am indebted for the
use of it to the Rev. J. H. Sedgwick, University Chinese Scholar.

JAMES LEGGE.

Oxford:
June, 1886.

Sketch Map Of Fâ-Hien’s Travels

The accompanying Sketch-Map, taken in connexion with the notes on the different
places in the Narrative, will give the reader a sufficiently accurate knowledge
of Fâ-Hien’s route.

There is no difficulty in laying it down after he crossed the Indus from east
to west into the Punjâb, all the principal places, at which he touched or
rested, having been determined by Cunningham and other Indian geographers and
archaeologists. Most of the places from Ch’ang-an to Bannu have also been
identified. Woo-e has been put down as near Kutcha, or Kuldja, in 43°
25′ N., 81° 15′ E. The country of K’ieh-ch’a was
probably Ladak, but I am inclined to think that the place where the traveller
crossed the Indus and entered it must have been further east than Skardo. A
doubt is intimated on page 24 as to the identification of T’o-leih with
Darada, but Greenough’s “Physical and Geological Sketch-Map of
British India” shows “Dardu Proper,” all lying on the east of
the Indus, exactly in the position where the Narrative would lead us to place
it. The point at which Fâ-Hien recrossed the Indus into Udyâna on the west of
it is unknown. Takshasila, which he visited, was no doubt on the west of the
river, and has been incorrectly accepted as the Taxila of Arrian in the Punjâb.
It should be written Takshasira, of which the Chinese phonetisation will
allow;—see a note of Beal in his “Buddhist Records of the Western
World,” i. 138.

We must suppose that Fâ-Hien went on from Nan-king to Ch’ang-an, but the
Narrative does not record the fact of his doing so.

INTRODUCTION

Life of Fâ-Hien; Genuineness and Integrity of the Text of his Narrative;
Number of the Adherents of Buddhism.

1. Nothing of great importance is known about Fâ-Hien in addition to what may
be gathered from his own record of his travels. I have read the accounts of him
in the “Memoirs of Eminent Monks,” compiled in A.D. 519, and a
later work, the “Memoirs of Marvellous Monks,” by the third emperor
of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1403-1424), which, however, is nearly all borrowed
from the other; and all in them that has an appearance of verisimilitude can be
brought within brief compass.

His surname, they tell us, was Kung, and he was a native of Wû-yang in
P’ing-Yang, which is still the name of a large department in Shan-hsi. He
had three brothers older than himself; but when they all died before shedding
their first teeth, his father devoted him to the service of the Buddhist
society, and had him entered as a Sramanera, still keeping him at home in the
family. The little fellow fell dangerously ill, and the father sent him to the
monastery, where he soon got well and refused to return to his parents.

When he was ten years old, his father died; and an uncle, considering the
widowed solitariness and helplessness of the mother, urged him to renounce the
monastic life, and return to her, but the boy replied, “I did not quit
the family in compliance with my father’s wishes, but because I wished to
be far from the dust and vulgar ways of life. This is why I chose
monkhood.” The uncle approved of his words and gave over urging him. When
his mother also died, it appeared how great had been the affection for her of
his fine nature; but after her burial he returned to the monastery.

On one occasion he was cutting rice with a score or two of his
fellow-disciples, when some hungry thieves came upon them to take away their
grain by force. The other Sramaneras all fled, but our young hero stood his
ground, and said to the thieves, “If you must have the grain, take what
you please. But, Sirs, it was your former neglect of charity which brought you
to your present state of destitution; and now, again, you wish to rob others. I
am afraid that in the coming ages you will have still greater poverty and
distress;—I am sorry for you beforehand.” With these words he
followed his companions into the monastery, while the thieves left the grain
and went away, all the monks, of whom there were several hundred, doing homage
to his conduct and courage.

When he had finished his noviciate and taken on him the obligations of the full
Buddhist orders, his earnest courage, clear intelligence, and strict regulation
of his demeanour were conspicuous; and soon after, he undertook his journey to
India in search of complete copies of the Vinaya-pitaka. What follows this is
merely an account of his travels in India and return to China by sea, condensed
from his own narrative, with the addition of some marvellous incidents that
happened to him, on his visit to the Vulture Peak near Rajagriha.

It is said in the end that after his return to China, he went to the capital
(evidently Nanking), and there, along with the Indian Sramana Buddha-bhadra,
executed translations of some of the works which he had obtained in India; and
that before he had done all that he wished to do in this way, he removed to
King-chow (in the present Hoo-pih), and died in the monastery of Sin, at the
age of eighty-eight, to the great sorrow of all who knew him. It is added that
there is another larger work giving an account of his travels in various
countries.

Such is all the information given about our author, beyond what he himself has
told us. Fâ-Hien was his clerical name, and means “Illustrious in the
Law,” or “Illustrious master of the Law.” The Shih which
often precedes it is an abbreviation of the name of Buddha as Sâkyamuni,
“the Sakya, mighty in Love, dwelling in Seclusion and Silence,” and
may be taken as equivalent to Buddhist. It is sometimes said to have belonged
to “the eastern Tsin dynasty” (A.D. 317-419), and sometimes to
“the Sung,” that is, the Sung dynasty of the House of Liu (A.D.
420-478). If he became a full monk at the age of twenty, and went to India when
he was twenty-five, his long life may have been divided pretty equally between
the two dynasties.

2. If there were ever another and larger account of Fâ-Hien’s travels
than the narrative of which a translation is now given, it has long ceased to
be in existence.

In the Catalogue of the imperial library of the Suy dynasty (A.D. 589-618), the
name Fâ-Hien occurs four times. Towards the end of the last section of it
(page 22), after a reference to his travels, his labours in translation at
Kin-ling (another name for Nanking), in conjunction with Buddha-bhadra, are
described. In the second section, page 15, we find “A Record of
Buddhistic Kingdoms;”—with a note, saying that it was the work of
the “Sramana, Fâ-Hien;” and again, on page 13, we have
“Narrative of Fâ-Hien in two Books,” and “Narrative of
Fâ-Hien’s Travels in one Book.” But all these three entries may
possibly belong to different copies of the same work, the first and the other
two being in separate subdivisions of the Catalogue.

In the two Chinese copies of the narrative in my possession the title is
“Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms.” In the Japanese or Corean
recension subjoined to this translation, the title is twofold; first,
“Narrative of the Distinguished Monk, Fâ-Hien;” and then, more at
large, “Incidents of Travels in India, by the Sramana of the Eastern
Tsin, Fâ-Hien, recorded by himself.”

There is still earlier attestation of the existence of our little work than the
Suy Catalogue. The Catalogue Raisonné of the imperial library of the present
dynasty (chap. 71) mentions two quotations from it by Le Tao-yuen, a
geographical writer of the dynasty of the Northern Wei (A.D. 386-584), one of
them containing 89 characters, and the other 276; both of them given as from
the “Narrative of Fâ-Hien.”

In all catalogues subsequent to that of Suy our work appears. The evidence for
its authenticity and genuineness is all that could be required. It is clear to
myself that the “Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms” and the
“Narrative of his Travels by Fâ-Hien” were designations of one and
the same work, and that it is doubtful whether any larger work on the same
subject was ever current. With regard to the text subjoined to my translation,
it was published in Japan in 1779. The editor had before him four recensions of
the narrative; those of the Sung and Ming dynasties, with appendixes on the
names of certain characters in them; that of Japan; and that of Corea. He
wisely adopted the Corean text, published in accordance with a royal rescript
in 1726, so far as I can make out; but the different readings of the other
texts are all given in top-notes, instead of foot-notes as with us, this being
one of the points in which customs in the east and west go by contraries. Very
occasionally, the editor indicates by a single character, equivalent to
“right” or “wrong,” which reading in his opinion is to
be preferred. In the notes to the present republication of the Corean text, S
stands for Sung, M for Ming, and J for Japanese; R for right, and W for wrong.
I have taken the trouble to give all the various readings (amounting to more
than 300), partly as a curiosity and to make my text complete, and partly to
show how, in the transcription of writings in whatever language, such
variations are sure to occur,

“maculae, quas aut incuria fudit,
Aut humana parum cavit nature,”

while on the whole they very slightly affect the meaning of the document.

The editors of the Catalogue Raisonné intimate their doubts of the good taste
and reliability of all Fâ-Hien’s statements. It offends them that he
should call central India the “Middle Kingdom,” and China, which to
them was the true and only Middle Kingdom, but “a Border
land;”—it offends them as the vaunting language of a Buddhist
writer, whereas the reader will see in the expressions only an instance of what
Fâ-Hien calls his “simple straightforwardness.”

As an instance of his unreliability they refer to his account of the Buddhism
of Khoten, whereas it is well known, they say, that the Khoteners from ancient
times till now have been Mohammedans;—as if they could have been so 170
years before Mohammed was born, and 222 years before the year of the Hegira!
And this is criticism in China. The Catalogue was ordered by the
K’ien-lung emperor in 1722. Between three and four hundred of the
“Great Scholars” of the empire were engaged on it in various
departments, and thus egregiously ignorant did they show themselves of all
beyond the limits of their own country, and even of the literature of that
country itself.

Much of what Fâ-Hien tells his readers of Buddhist miracles and legends is
indeed unreliable and grotesque; but we have from him the truth as to what he
saw and heard.

3. In concluding this introduction I wish to call attention to some estimates
of the number of Buddhists in the world which have become current, believing,
as I do, that the smallest of them is much above what is correct.

i. In a note on the first page of his work on the Bhilsa Topes (1854), General
Cunningham says: “The Christians number about 270 millions; the Buddhists
about 222 millions, who are distributed as follows:—China 170 millions,
Japan 25, Anam 14, Siam 3, Ava 8, Nepal 1, and Ceylon 1; total, 222
millions.”

ii. In his article on M. J. Barthelemy Saint Hilaire’s “Le Bouddha
et sa Religion,” republished in his “Chips from a German
Workshop,” vol. i. (1868), Professor Max Muller (p. 215) says, “The
young prince became the founder of a religion which, after more than two
thousand years, is still professed by 455 millions of human beings,” and
he appends the following note: “Though truth is not settled by
majorities, it would be interesting to know which religion counts at the
present moment the largest numbers of believers. Berghaus, in his
‘Physical Atlas,’ gives the following division of the human race
according to religion:—‘Buddhists 31.2 per cent, Christians 30.7,
Mohammedans 15.7, Brahmanists 13.4, Heathens 8.7, and Jews 0.3.’ As
Berghaus does not distinguish the Buddhists in China from the followers of
Confucius and Laotse, the first place on the scale really belongs to
Christianity. It is difficult to say to what religion a man belongs, as the
same person may profess two or three. The emperor himself, after sacrificing
according to the ritual of Confucius, visits a Tao-sse temple, and afterwards
bows before an image of Fo in a Buddhist chapel. (‘Mélanges Asiatiques de
St. Pétersbourg,’ vol. ii. p. 374.)”

iii. Both these estimates are exceeded by Dr. T. W. Rhys Davids (intimating
also the uncertainty of the statements, and that numbers are no evidence of
truth) in the introduction to his “Manual of Buddhism.” The
Buddhists there appear as amounting in all to 500 millions:—30 millions
of Southern Buddhists, in Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Anam, and India (Jains); and 470
millions of North Buddhists, of whom nearly 33 millions are assigned to Japan,
and 414,686,974 to the eighteen provinces of China proper. According to him,
Christians amount to about 26 per cent of mankind, Hindus to about 13,
Mohammedans to about 12 12, Buddhists to about 40, and Jews to about 12.

In regard to all these estimates, it will be observed that the immense numbers
assigned to Buddhism are made out by the multitude of Chinese with which it is
credited. Subtract Cunningham’s 170 millions of Chinese from his total of
222, and there remains only 52 millions of Buddhists. Subtract Davids’
(say) 414 12 millions of Chinese from his total of 500, and there remain
only 85 12 millions for Buddhism. Of the numbers assigned to other
countries, as well as of their whole populations, I am in considerable doubt,
excepting in the cases of Ceylon and India; but the greatness of the estimates
turns upon the immense multitudes said to be in China. I do not know what total
population Cunningham allowed for that country, nor on what principal he
allotted 170 millions of it to Buddhism;—perhaps he halved his estimate
of the whole, whereas Berghaus and Davids allotted to it the highest estimates
that have been given of the people.

But we have no certain information of the population of China. At an interview
with the former Chinese ambassador, Kwo Sung-tao, in Paris, in 1878, I begged
him to write out for me the amount, with the authority for it, and he assured
me that it could not be done. I have read probably almost everything that has
been published on the subject, and endeavoured by methods of my own to arrive
at a satisfactory conclusion;—without reaching a result which I can
venture to lay before the public. My impression has been that 400 millions is
hardly an exaggeration.

But supposing that we had reliable returns of the whole population, how shall
we proceed to apportion that among Confucianists, Taoists, and Buddhists?
Confucianism is the orthodoxy of China. The common name for it is Ju Chiao,
“the Doctrines held by the Learned Class,” entrance into the circle
of which is, with a few insignificant exceptions, open to all the people. The
mass of them and the masses under their influence are preponderatingly
Confucian; and in the observance of ancestral worship, the most remarkable
feature of the religion proper of China from the earliest times, of which
Confucius was not the author but the prophet, an overwhelming majority are
regular and assiduous.

Among “the strange principles” which the emperor of the
K’ang-hsi period, in one of his famous Sixteen Precepts, exhorted his
people to “discountenance and put away, in order to exalt the correct
doctrine,” Buddhism and Taoism were both included. If, as stated in the
note quoted from Professor Muller, the emperor countenances both the Taoist
worship and the Buddhist, he does so for reasons of state;—to please
especially his Buddhist subjects in Thibet and Mongolia, and not to offend the
many whose superstitious fancies incline to Taoism.

When I went out and in as a missionary among the Chinese people for about
thirty years, it sometimes occurred to me that only the inmates of their
monasteries and the recluses of both systems should be enumerated as Buddhists
and Taoists; but I was in the end constrained to widen that judgment, and to
admit a considerable following of both among the people, who have neither
received the tonsure nor assumed the yellow top. Dr. Eitel, in concluding his
discussion of this point in his “Lecture on Buddhism, an Event in
History,” says: “It is not too much to say that most Chinese are
theoretically Confucianists, but emotionally Buddhists or Taoists. But fairness
requires us to add that, though the mass of the people are more or less
influenced by Buddhist doctrines, yet the people, as a whole, have no respect
for the Buddhist church, and habitually sneer at Buddhist priests.” For
the “most” in the former of these two sentences I would substitute
“nearly all;” and between my friend’s “but” and
“emotionally” I would introduce “many are,” and would
not care to contest his conclusion farther. It does seem to me preposterous to
credit Buddhism with the whole of the vast population of China, the great
majority of whom are Confucianists. My own opinion is, that its adherents are
not so many as those even of Mohammedanism, and that instead of being the most
numerous of the religions (so called) of the world, it is only entitled to
occupy the fifth place, ranking below Christianity, Confucianism, Brahmanism,
and Mohammedanism, and followed, some distance off, by Taoism. To make a table
of percentages of mankind, and assign to each system its proportion, is to seem
to be wise where we are deplorably ignorant; and, moreover, if our means of
information were much better than they are, our figures would merely show the
outward adherence. A fractional per-centage might tell more for one system than
a very large integral one for another.

THE TRAVELS OF FÂ-HIEN
or RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS

CHAPTER I.
FROM CH’ANG-GAN TO THE SANDY DESERT

Fâ-Hien had been living in Ch’ang-gan.(1) Deploring the mutilated and
imperfect state of the collection of the Books of Discipline, in the second
year of the period Hwăng-che, being the Ke-hâe year of the cycle,(2) he entered
into an engagement with Kwuy-king, Tâo-ching, Hwuy-ying, and Hwuy-wei,(3) that
they should go to India and seek for the Disciplinary Rules.(4)

After starting from Ch’ang-gan, they passed through Lung,(5) and came to
the kingdom of K’een-kwei,(6) where they stopped for the summer
retreat.(7) When that was over, they went forward to the kingdom of
Now-t’an,(8) crossed the mountain of Yang-low, and reached the emporium
of Chang-yih.(9) There they found the country so much disturbed that travelling
on the roads was impossible for them. Its king, however, was very attentive to
them, kept them (in his capital), and acted the part of their danapati.(10)

Here they met with Che-yen, Hwuy-keen, Sang-shao, Pao-yun, and Sang-king;(11)
and in pleasant association with them, as bound on the same journey with
themselves, they passed the summer retreat (of that year)(12) together,
resuming after it their travelling, and going on to T’un-hwang,(13) (the
chief town) in the frontier territory of defence extending for about 80 le from
east to west, and about 40 from north to south. Their company, increased as it
had been, halted there for some days more than a month, after which Fâ-Hien
and his four friends started first in the suite of an envoy,(14) having
separated (for a time) from Pao-yun and his associates.

Le Hao,(15) the prefect of T’un-hwang, had supplied them with the means
of crossing the desert (before them), in which there are many evil demons and
hot winds. (Travellers) who encounter them perish all to a man. There is not a
bird to be seen in the air above, nor an animal on the ground below. Though you
look all round most earnestly to find where you can cross, you know not where
to make your choice, the only mark and indication being the dry bones of the
dead (left upon the sand).(16)

NOTES

(1) Ch’ang-gan is still the name of the principal district (and its city)
in the department of Se-gan, Shen-se. It had been the capital of the first
empire of Han (B.C. 202-A.D. 24), as it subsequently was that of Suy (A.D.
589-618). The empire of the eastern Tsin, towards the close of which Fâ-Hien
lived, had its capital at or near Nan-king, and Ch’ang-gan was the
capital of the principal of the three Ts’in kingdoms, which, with many
other minor ones, maintained a semi-independence of Tsin, their rulers
sometimes even assuming the title of emperor.

(2) The period Hwang-che embraced from A.D. 399 to 414, being the greater
portion of the reign of Yao Hing of the After Ts’in, a powerful prince.
He adopted Hwang-che for the style of his reign in 399, and the cyclical name
of that year was Kang-tsze. It is not possible at this distance of time to
explain, if it could be explained, how Fâ-Hien came to say that Ke-hae was the
second year of the period. It seems most reasonable to suppose that he set out
on his pilgrimage in A.D. 399, the cycle name of which was Ke-hae, as {.}, the
second year, instead of {.}, the first, might easily creep into the text. In
the “Memoirs of Eminent Monks” it is said that our author started
in the third year of the period Lung-gan of the eastern Tsin, which was A.D.
399.

(3) These, like Fâ-Hien itself, are all what we might call
“clerical” names, appellations given to the parties as monks or
sramanas.

(4) The Buddhist tripitaka or canon consists of three collections, containing,
according to Eitel (p. 150), “doctrinal aphorisms (or statements,
purporting to be from Buddha himself); works on discipline; and works on
metaphysics:”—called sutra, vinaya, and abhidharma; in Chinese,
king {.}, leuh {.}, and lun {.}, or texts, laws or rules, and discussions. Dr.
Rhys Davids objects to the designation of “metaphysics” as used of
the abhidharma works, saying that “they bear much more the relation to
‘dharma’ which ‘by-law’ bears to ‘law’ than
that which ‘metaphysics’ bears to ‘physics’”
(Hibbert Lectures, p. 49). However this be, it was about the vinaya works that
Fâ-Hien was chiefly concerned. He wanted a good code of the rules for the
government of “the Order” in all its internal and external
relations.

(5) Lung embraced the western part of Shen-se and the eastern part of Kan-suh.
The name remains in Lung Chow, in the extreme west of Shen-se.

(6) K’een-kwei was the second king of “the Western
Ts’in.” His family was of northern or barbarous origin, from the
tribe of the Seen-pe, with the surname of K’eih-fuh. The first king was
Kwo-kin, and received his appointment from the sovereign of the chief
Ts’in kingdom in 385. He was succeeded in 388 by his brother, the
K’een-kwei of the text, who was very prosperous in 398, and took the
title of king of Ts’in. Fâ-Hien would find him at his capital, somewhere
in the present department of Lan-chow, Kan-suh.

(7) Under varshas or vashavasana (Pâli, vassa; Spence Hardy, vass), Eitel (p.
163) says:—“One of the most ancient institutions of Buddhist
discipline, requiring all ecclesiastics to spend the rainy season in a
monastery in devotional exercises. Chinese Buddhists naturally substituted the
hot season for the rainy (from the 16th day of the 5th to the 15th of the 9th
Chinese month).”

(8) During the troubled period of the Tsin dynasty, there were five (usurping)
Leang sovereignties in the western part of the empire ({.} {.}). The name Leang
remains in the department of Leang-chow in the northern part of Kan-suh. The
“southern Leang” arose in 397 under a Tuh-fah Wu-ku, who was
succeeded in 399 by a brother, Le-luh-koo; and he again by his brother, the
Now-t’an of the text, in 402, who was not yet king therefore when
Fâ-Hien and his friends reached his capital. How he is represented as being so
may be accounted for in various ways, of which it is not necessary to write.

(9) Chang-yih is still the name of a district in Kan-chow department, Kan-suh.
It is a long way north and west from Lan-chow, and not far from the Great Wall.
Its king at this time was, probably, Twan-yeh of “the northern
Leang.”

(10) Dana is the name for religious charity, the first of the six paramitas, or
means of attaining to nirvâna; and a danapati is “one who practises dana
and thereby crosses {.} the sea of misery.” It is given as “a title
of honour to all who support the cause of Buddhism by acts of charity,
especially to founders and patrons of monasteries;”—see Eitel, p.
29.

(11) Of these pilgrims with their clerical names, the most distinguished was
Pao-yun, who translated various Sanskrit works on his return from India, of
which only one seems to be now existing. He died in 449. See Nanjio’s
Catalogue of the Tripitaka, col. 417.

(12) This was the second summer since the pilgrims left Ch’ang-gan. We
are now therefore, probably, in A.D. 400.

(13) T’un-hwang (lat. 39° 40′ N.; lon. 94° 50′ E.) is still
the name of one of the two districts constituting the department of Gan-se, the
most western of the prefectures of Kan-suh; beyond the termination of the Great
Wall.

(14) Who this envoy was, and where he was going, we do not know. The text will
not admit of any other translation.

(15) Le Hao was a native of Lung-se, a man of learning, able and kindly in his
government. He was appointed governor or prefect of T’un-hwang by the
king of “the northern Leang,” in 400; and there he sustained
himself, becoming by and by “duke of western Leang,” till he died
in 417.

(16) “The river of sand;” the great desert of Kobi or Gobi; having
various other names. It was a great task which the pilgrims had now before
them,—to cross this desert. The name of “river” in the
Chinese misleads the reader, and he thinks of crossing it as of crossing a
stream; but they had to traverse it from east to west. In his “Vocabulary
of Proper Names,” p. 23, Dr. Porter Smith says:—“It extends
from the eastern frontier of Mongolia, south-westward to the further frontier
of Turkestan, to within six miles of Ilchi, the chief town of Khoten. It thus
comprises some twenty-three degrees of longitude in length, and from three to
ten degrees of latitude in breadth, being about 2,100 miles in its greatest
length. In some places it is arable. Some idea may be formed of the terror with
which this ‘Sea of Sand,’ with its vast billows of shifting sands,
is regarded, from the legend that in one of the storms 360 cities were all
buried within the space of twenty-four hours.” So also Gilmour’s
“Among the Mongols,” chap. 5.

CHAPTER II.
ON TO SHEN-SHEN AND THENCE TO KHOTEN

After travelling for seventeen days, a distance we may calculate of about 1500
le, (the pilgrims) reached the kingdom of Shen-shen,(1) a country rugged and
hilly, with a thin and barren soil. The clothes of the common people are
coarse, and like those worn in our land of Han,(2) some wearing felt and others
coarse serge or cloth of hair;—this was the only difference seen among
them. The king professed (our) Law, and there might be in the country more than
four thousand monks,(3) who were all students of the hinayana.(4) The common
people of this and other kingdoms (in that region), as well as the sramans,(5)
all practise the rules of India,(6) only that the latter do so more exactly,
and the former more loosely. So (the travellers) found it in all the kingdoms
through which they went on their way from this to the west, only that each had
its own peculiar barbarous speech.(7) (The monks), however, who had (given up
the worldly life) and quitted their families, were all students of Indian books
and the Indian language. Here they stayed for about a month, and then proceeded
on their journey, fifteen days walking to the north-west bringing them to the
country of Woo-e.(8) In this also there were more than four thousand monks, all
students of the hinayana. They were very strict in their rules, so that sramans
from the territory of Ts’in(9) were all unprepared for their regulations.
Fâ-Hien, through the management of Foo Kung-sun, maitre
d’hotellerie,(10) was able to remain (with his company in the
monastery where they were received) for more than two months, and here they
were rejoined by Pao-yun and his friends.(11) (At the end of that time) the
people of Woo-e neglected the duties of propriety and righteousness, and
treated the strangers in so niggardly a manner that Che-yen, Hwuy-keen, and
Hwuy-wei went back towards Kao-ch’ang,(12) hoping to obtain there the
means of continuing their journey. Fâ-Hien and the rest, however, through the
liberality of Foo Kung-sun, managed to go straight forward in a south-west
direction. They found the country uninhabited as they went along. The
difficulties which they encountered in crossing the streams and on their route,
and the sufferings which they endured, were unparalleled in human experience,
but in the course of a month and five days they succeeded in reaching
Yu-teen.(13)

NOTES

(1) An account is given of the kingdom of Shen-shen in the 96th of the Books of
the first Han dynasty, down to its becoming a dependency of China, about B.C.
80. The greater portion of that is now accessible to the English reader in a
translation by Mr. Wylie in the “Journal of the Anthropological
Institute,” August, 1880. Mr. Wylie says:—“Although we may
not be able to identify Shen-shen with certainty, yet we have sufficient
indications to give an appropriate idea of its position, as being south of and
not far from lake Lob.” He then goes into an exhibition of those
indications, which I need not transcribe. It is sufficient for us to know that
the capital city was not far from Lob or Lop Nor, into which in lon. 38° E. the
Tarim flows. Fâ-Hien estimated its distance to be 1500 le from
T’un-hwang. He and his companions must have gone more than twenty-five
miles a day to accomplish the journey in seventeen days.

(2) This is the name which Fâ-Hien always uses when he would speak of China,
his native country, as a whole, calling it from the great dynasty which had
ruled it, first and last, for between four and five centuries. Occasionally, as
we shall immediately see, he speaks of “the territory of Ts’in or
Ch’in,” but intending thereby only the kingdom or Ts’in,
having its capital, as described in the first note on the last chapter, in
Ch’ang-gan.

(3) So I prefer to translate the character {.} (sang) rather than by
“priests.” Even in Christianity, beyond the priestly privilege
which belongs to all believers, I object to the ministers of any denomination
or church calling themselves or being called “priests;” and much
more is the name inapplicable to the sramanas or bhikshus of Buddhism which
acknowledges no God in the universe, no soul in man, and has no services of
sacrifice or prayer in its worship. The only difficulty in the use of
“monks” is caused by the members of the sect in Japan which, since
the middle of the fifteenth century, has abolished the prohibition against
marrying on the part of its ministers, and other prohibitions in diet and
dress. Sang and sang-kea represent the Sanskrit sangha, constituted by at least
four members, and empowered to hear confession, to grant absolution, to admit
persons to holy orders, &c.; secondly, the third constituent of the
Buddhistic Trinity, a deification of the communio sanctorum, or the
Buddhist order. The name is used by our author of the monks collectively or
individually as belonging to the class, and may be considered as synonymous
with the name sramana, which will immediately claim our attention.

(4) Meaning the “small vehicle, or conveyance.” There are in
Buddhism the triyana, or “three different means of salvation, i.e. of
conveyance across the samsara, or sea of transmigration, to the shores of
nirvâna. Afterwards the term was used to designate the different phases of
development through which the Buddhist dogma passed, known as the mahayana,
hinayana, and madhyamayana.” “The hinayana is the simplest vehicle
of salvation, corresponding to the first of the three degrees of saintship.
Characteristics of it are the preponderance of active moral asceticism, and the
absence of speculative mysticism and quietism.” E. H., pp. 151-2, 45, and
117.

(5) The name for India is here the same as in the former chapter and throughout
the book,—T’een-chuh ({.} {.}), the chuh being pronounced,
probably, in Fâ-Hien’s time as tuk. How the earliest name for India,
Shin-tuk or duk=Scinde, came to be changed into Thien-tuk, it would take too
much space to explain. I believe it was done by the Buddhists, wishing to give
a good auspicious name to the fatherland of their Law, and calling it
“the Heavenly Tuk,” just as the Mohammedans call Arabia “the
Heavenly region” ({.} {.}), and the court of China itself is called
“the Celestial” ({.} {.}).

(6) Sraman may in English take the place of Sramana (Pâli, Samana; in Chinese,
Sha-man), the name for Buddhist monks, as those who have separated themselves
from (left) their families, and quieted their hearts from all intrusion of
desire and lust. “It is employed, first, as a general name for ascetics
of all denominations, and, secondly, as a general designation of Buddhistic
monks.” E. H., pp. 130, 131.

(7) Tartar or Mongolian.

(8) Woo-e has not been identified. Watters (“China Review,” viii.
115) says:—“We cannot be far wrong if we place it in Kharaschar, or
between that and Kutscha.” It must have been a country of considerable
size to have so many monks in it.

(9) This means in one sense China, but Fâ-Hien, in his use of the name, was
only thinking of the three Ts’in states of which I have spoken in a
previous note; perhaps only of that from the capital of which he had himself
set out.

(10) This sentence altogether is difficult to construe, and Mr. Watters, in the
“China Review,” was the first to disentangle more than one knot in
it. I am obliged to adopt the reading of {.} {.} in the Chinese editions,
instead of the {.} {.} in the Corean text. It seems clear that only one person
is spoken of as assisting the travellers, and his name, as appears a few
sentences farther on, was Foo Kung-sun. The {.} {.} which immediately follows
the surname Foo {.}, must be taken as the name of his office, corresponding, as
the {.} shows, to that of le maitre d’hotellerie in a Roman
Catholic abbey. I was once indebted myself to the kind help of such an officer
at a monastery in Canton province. The Buddhistic name for him is
uddesika=overseer. The Kung-sun that follows his surname indicates that he was
descended from some feudal lord in the old times of the Chow dynasty. We know
indeed of no ruling house which had the surname of Foo, but its adoption by the
grandson of a ruler can be satisfactorily accounted for; and his posterity
continued to call themselves Kung-sun, duke or lord’s grandson, and so
retain the memory of the rank of their ancestor.

(11) Whom they had left behind them at T’un-hwang.

(12) The country of the Ouighurs, the district around the modern Turfan or
Tangut.

(13) Yu-teen is better known as Khoten. Dr. P. Smith gives (p. 11) the
following description of it:—“A large district on the south-west of
the desert of Gobi, embracing all the country south of Oksu and Yarkand, along
the northern base of the Kwun-lun mountains, for more than 300 miles from east
to west. The town of the same name, now called Ilchi, is in an extensive plain
on the Khoten river, in lat. 37° N., and lon. 80° 35′ E. After the
Tungani insurrection against Chinese rule in 1862, the Mufti Haji Habeeboolla
was made governor of Khoten, and held the office till he was murdered by Yakoob
Beg, who became for a time the conqueror of all Chinese Turkestan. Khoten
produces fine linen and cotton stuffs, jade ornaments, copper, grain, and
fruits.” The name in Sanskrit is Kustana. (E. H., p. 60).

CHAPTER III.
KHOTEN. PROCESSIONS OF IMAGES. THE KING’S NEW MONASTERY.

Yu-teen is a pleasant and prosperous kingdom, with a numerous and flourishing
population. The inhabitants all profess our Law, and join together in its
religious music for their enjoyment.(1) The monks amount to several myriads,
most of whom are students of the mahayana.(2) They all receive their food from
the common store.(3) Throughout the country the houses of the people stand
apart like (separate) stars, and each family has a small tope(4) reared in
front of its door. The smallest of these may be twenty cubits high, or rather
more.(5) They make (in the monasteries) rooms for monks from all quarters,(5)
the use of which is given to travelling monks who may arrive, and who are
provided with whatever else they require.

The lord of the country lodged Fâ-Hien and the others comfortably, and
supplied their wants, in a monastery(6) called Gomati,(6) of the mahayana
school. Attached to it there are three thousand monks, who are called to their
meals by the sound of a bell. When they enter the refectory, their demeanour is
marked by a reverent gravity, and they take their seats in regular order, all
maintaining a perfect silence. No sound is heard from their alms-bowls and
other utensils. When any of these pure men(7) require food, they are not
allowed to call out (to the attendants) for it, but only make signs with their
hands.

Hwuy-king, Tao-ching, and Hwuy-tah set out in advance towards the country of
K’eeh-ch’a;(8) but Fâ-Hien and the others, wishing to see the
procession of images, remained behind for three months. There are in this
country four(9) great monasteries, not counting the smaller ones. Beginning on
the first day of the fourth month, they sweep and water the streets inside the
city, making a grand display in the lanes and byways. Over the city gate they
pitch a large tent, grandly adorned in all possible ways, in which the king and
queen, with their ladies brilliantly arrayed,(10) take up their residence (for
the time).

The monks of the Gomati monastery, being mahayana students, and held in great
reverence by the king, took precedence of all others in the procession. At a
distance of three or four le from the city, they made a four-wheeled image car,
more than thirty cubits high, which looked like the great hall (of a monastery)
moving along. The seven precious substances(11) were grandly displayed about
it, with silken streamers and canopies hanging all around. The (chief)
image(12) stood in the middle of the car, with two Bodhisattvas(13) in
attendance upon it, while devas(14) were made to follow in waiting, all
brilliantly carved in gold and silver, and hanging in the air. When (the car)
was a hundred paces from the gate, the king put off his crown of state, changed
his dress for a fresh suit, and with bare feet, carrying in his hands flowers
and incense, and with two rows of attending followers, went out at the gate to
meet the image; and, with his head and face (bowed to the ground), he did
homage at its feet, and then scattered the flowers and burnt the incense. When
the image was entering the gate, the queen and the brilliant ladies with her in
the gallery above scattered far and wide all kinds of flowers, which floated
about and fell promiscuously to the ground. In this way everything was done to
promote the dignity of the occasion. The carriages of the monasteries were all
different, and each one had its own day for the procession. (The ceremony)
began on the first day of the fourth month, and ended on the fourteenth, after
which the king and queen returned to the palace.

Seven or eight le to the west of the city there is what is called the
King’s New Monastery, the building of which took eighty years, and
extended over three reigns. It may be 250 cubits in height, rich in elegant
carving and inlaid work, covered above with gold and silver, and finished
throughout with a combination of all the precious substances. Behind the tope
there has been built a Hall of Buddha,(15) of the utmost magnificence and
beauty, the beams, pillars, venetianed doors, and windows being all overlaid
with gold-leaf. Besides this, the apartments for the monks are imposingly and
elegantly decorated, beyond the power of words to express. Of whatever things
of highest value and preciousness the kings in the six countries on the east of
the (Ts’ung) range of mountains(16) are possessed, they contribute the
greater portion (to this monastery), using but a small portion of them
themselves.(17)

NOTES

(1) This fondness for music among the Khoteners is mentioned by Hsuan and
Ch’wang and others.

(2) Mahayana. It is a later form of the Buddhist doctrine, the second phase of
its development corresponding to the state of a Bodhisattva, who, being able to
transport himself and all mankind to nirvâna, may be compared to a huge
vehicle. See Davids on the “Key-note of the ‘Great
Vehicle,’” Hibbert Lectures, p. 254.

(3) Fâ-Hien supplies sufficient information of how the common store or funds
of the monasteries were provided, farther on in chapters xvi and xxxix, as well
as in other passages. As the point is important, I will give here, from
Davids’ fifth Hibbert Lecture (p. 178), some of the words of the dying
Buddha, taken from “The Book of the Great Decease,” as illustrating
the statement in this text:—“So long as the brethren shall
persevere in kindness of action, speech, and thought among the saints, both in
public and private; so long as they shall divide without partiality, and share
in common with the upright and holy, all such things as they receive in
accordance with the just provisions of the order, down even to the mere
contents of a begging bowl; . . . so long may the brethren be expected not to
decline, but to prosper.”

(4) The Chinese {.} (t’ah; in Cantonese, t’ap), as used by
Fâ-Hien, is, no doubt, a phonetisation of the Sanskrit stupa or Pâli thupa;
and it is well in translating to use for the structures described by him the
name of topes,—made familiar by Cunningham and other Indian antiquarians.
In the thirteenth chapter there is an account of one built under the
superintendence of Buddha himself, “as a model for all topes in
future.” They were usually in the form of bell-shaped domes, and were
solid, surmounted by a long tapering pinnacle formed with a series of rings,
varying in number. But their form, I suppose, was often varied; just as we have
in China pagodas of different shapes. There are several topes now in the Indian
Institute at Oxford, brought from Buddha Gaya, but the largest of them is much
smaller than “the smallest” of those of Khoten. They were intended
chiefly to contain the relics of Buddha and famous masters of his Law; but what
relics could there be in the Tiratna topes of chapter xvi?

(5) The meaning here is much disputed. The author does not mean to say that the
monk’s apartments were made “square,” but that the
monasteries were made with many guest-chambers or spare rooms.

(6) The Sanskrit term for a monastery is used here,—Sangharama,
“gardens of the assembly,” originally denoting only “the
surrounding park, but afterwards transferred to the whole of the
premises” (E. H., p. 118). Gomati, the name of this monastery, means
“rich in cows.”

(7) A denomination for the monks as vimala, “undefiled” or
“pure.” Giles makes it “the menials that attend on the
monks,” but I have not met with it in that application.

(8) K’eeh-ch’a has not been clearly identified. Rémusat made it
Cashmere; Klaproth, Iskardu; Beal makes it Kartchou; and Eitel, Khas’a,
“an ancient tribe on the Paropamisus, the Kasioi of Ptolemy.” I
think it was Ladak, or some well-known place in it. Hwuy-tah, unless that name
be an alias, appears here for the first time.

(9) Instead of “four,” the Chinese copies of the text have
“fourteen;” but the Corean reading is, probably, more correct.

(10) There may have been, as Giles says, “maids of honour;” but the
character does not say so.

(11) The Sapta-ratna, gold, silver, lapis lazuli, rock crystal, rubies,
diamonds or emeralds, and agate. See Sacred Books of the East (Davids’
Buddhist Suttas), vol. xi., p. 249.

(12) No doubt that of Sâkyamuni himself.

(13) A Bodhisattva is one whose essence has become intelligence; a Being who
will in some future birth as a man (not necessarily or usually the next) attain
to Buddhahood. The name does not include those Buddhas who have not yet
attained to pari-nirvâna. The symbol of the state is an elephant fording a
river. Popularly, its abbreviated form P’u-sa is used in China for any
idol or image; here the name has its proper signification.

(14) {.} {.}, “all the thien,” or simply “the thien”
taken as plural. But in Chinese the character called thien {.} denotes heaven,
or Heaven, and is interchanged with Ti and Shang Ti, meaning God. With the
Buddhists it denotes the devas or Brahmanic gods, or all the inhabitants of the
six devalokas. The usage shows the antagonism between Buddhism and Brahmanism,
and still more that between it and Confucianism.

(15) Giles and Williams call this “the oratory of Buddha.” But
“oratory” gives the idea of a small apartment, whereas the name
here leads the mind to think of a large “hall.” I once accompanied
the monks of a large monastery from their refectory to the Hall of Buddha,
which was a lofty and spacious apartment splendidly fitted up.

(16) The Ts’ung, or “Onion” range, called also the Belurtagh
mountains, including the Karakorum, and forming together the connecting links
between the more northern T’een-shan and the Kwun-lun mountains on the
north of Thibet. It would be difficult to name the six countries which Fâ-Hien
had in mind.

(17) This seems to be the meaning here. My first impression of it was that the
author meant to say that the contributions which they received were spent by
the monks mainly on the buildings, and only to a small extent for themselves;
and I still hesitate between that view and the one in the version.
    There occurs here the binomial phrase kung-yang {.} {.}, which is one of
the most common throughout the narrative, and is used not only of support in
the way of substantial contributions given to monks, monasteries, and Buddhism,
but generally of all Buddhistic worship, if I may use that term in the
connexion. Let me here quote two or three sentences from Davids’ Manual
(pp. 168-170):—“The members of the order are secured from want.
There is no place in the Buddhist scheme for churches; the offering of flowers
before the sacred tree or image of the Buddha takes the place of worship.
Buddhism does not acknowledge the efficacy of prayers; and in the warm
countries where Buddhists live, the occasional reading of the law, or preaching
of the word, in public, can take place best in the open air, by moonlight,
under a simple roof of trees or palms. There are five principal kinds of
meditation, which in Buddhism takes the place of prayer.”

CHAPTER IV.
THROUGH THE TS’UNG OR “ONION” MOUNTAINS TO
K’EEH-CH’A;—PROBABLY SKARDO, OR SOME CITY MORE TO THE EAST IN
LADAK.

When the processions of images in the fourth month were over, Sang-shao, by
himself alone, followed a Tartar who was an earnest follower of the Law,(1) and
proceeded towards Kophene.(2) Fâ-Hien and the others went forward to the
kingdom of Tsze-hoh, which it took them twenty-five days to reach.(3) Its king
was a strenuous follower of our Law,(4) and had (around him) more than a
thousand monks, mostly students of the mahayana. Here (the travellers) abode
fifteen days, and then went south for four days, when they found themselves
among the Ts’ung-ling mountains, and reached the country of Yu-hwuy,(5)
where they halted and kept their retreat.(6) When this was over, they went on
among the hills(7) for twenty-five days, and got to K’eeh-ch’a,(8)
there rejoining Hwuy-king(9) and his two companions.

NOTES

(1) This Tartar is called a {.} {.}, “a man of the Tao,” or faith
of Buddha. It occurs several times in the sequel, and denotes the man who is
not a Buddhist outwardly only, but inwardly as well, whose faith is always
making itself manifest in his ways. The name may be used of followers of other
systems of faith besides Buddhism.

(2) See the account of the kingdom of Kophene, in the 96th Book of the first
Han Records, p. 78, where its capital is said to be 12,200 le from
Ch’ang-gan. It was the whole or part of the present Cabulistan. The name
of Cophene is connected with the river Kophes, supposed to be the same as the
present Cabul river, which falls into the Indus, from the west, at Attock,
after passing Peshawar. The city of Cabul, the capital of Afghanistan, may be
the Kophene of the text; but we do not know that Sang-shao and his guide got so
far west. The text only says that they set out from Khoten “towards
it.”

(3) Tsze-hoh has not been identified. Beal thinks it was Yarkand, which,
however, was north-west from Khoten. Watters (“China Review,” p.
135) rather approves the suggestion of “Tashkurgan in Sirikul” for
it. As it took Fâ-Hien twenty-five days to reach it, it must have been at
least 150 miles from Khoten.

(4) The king is described here by a Buddhistic phrase, denoting the possession
of viryabala, “the power of energy; persevering exertion—one of the
five moral powers” (E. H., p. 170).

(5) Nor has Yu-hwuy been clearly identified. Evidently it was directly south
from Tsze-hoh, and among the “Onion” mountains. Watters hazards the
conjecture that it was the Aktasch of our present maps.

(6) This was the retreat already twice mentioned as kept by the pilgrims in the
summer, the different phraseology, “quiet rest,” without any
mention of the season, indicating their approach to India, E. H., p. 168. Two,
if not three, years had elapsed since they left Ch’ang-gan. Are we now
with them in 402?

(7) This is the Corean reading {.}, much preferable to the {.} of the Chinese
editions.

(8) Watters approves of Klaproth’s determination of
K’eeh-ch’a to be Iskardu or Skardo. There are difficulties in
connexion with the view, but it has the advantage, to my mind very great, of
bringing the pilgrims across the Indus. The passage might be accomplished with
ease at this point of the river’s course, and therefore is not
particularly mentioned.

(9) Who had preceded them from Khoten.

CHAPTER V.
GREAT QUINQUENNIAL ASSEMBLY OF MONKS. RELICS OF BUDDHA. PRODUCTIONS OF THE
COUNTRY.

It happened that the king of the country was then holding the pancha parishad,
that is, in Chinese, the great quinquennial assembly.(1) When this is to be
held, the king requests the presence of the Sramans from all quarters (of his
kingdom). They come (as if) in clouds; and when they are all assembled, their
place of session is grandly decorated. Silken streamers and canopies are hung
out in, and water-lilies in gold and silver are made and fixed up behind the
places where (the chief of them) are to sit. When clean mats have been spread,
and they are all seated, the king and his ministers present their offerings
according to rule and law. (The assembly takes place), in the first, second, or
third month, for the most part in the spring.

After the king has held the assembly, he further exhorts the ministers to make
other and special offerings. The doing of this extends over one, two, three,
five, or even seven days; and when all is finished, he takes his own
riding-horse, saddles, bridles, and waits on him himself,(2) while he makes the
noblest and most important minister of the kingdom mount him. Then, taking fine
white woollen cloth, all sorts of precious things, and articles which the
Sramans require, he distributes them among them, uttering vows at the same time
along with all his ministers; and when this distribution has taken place, he
again redeems (whatever he wishes) from the monks.(3)

The country, being among the hills and cold, does not produce the other
cereals, and only the wheat gets ripe. After the monks have received their
annual (portion of this), the mornings suddenly show the hoar-frost, and on
this account the king always begs the monks to make the wheat ripen(4) before
they receive their portion. There is in the country a spitoon which belonged to
Buddha, made of stone, and in colour like his alms-bowl. There is also a tooth
of Buddha, for which the people have reared a tope, connected with which there
are more than a thousand monks and their disciples,(5) all students of the
hinayana. To the east of these hills the dress of the common people is of
coarse materials, as in our country of Ts’in, but here also(6) there were
among them the differences of fine woollen cloth and of serge or haircloth. The
rules observed by the Sramans are remarkable, and too numerous to be mentioned
in detail. The country is in the midst of the Onion range. As you go forward
from these mountains, the plants, trees, and fruits are all different from
those of the land of Han, excepting only the bamboo, pomegranate,(7) and
sugar-cane.

NOTES

(1) See Eitel, p. 89. He describes the assembly as “an ecclesiastical
conference, first instituted by king Asoka for general confession of sins and
inculcation of morality.”

(2) The text of this sentence is perplexing; and all translators, including
myself, have been puzzled by it.

(3) See what we are told of king Asoka’s grant of all the Jambudvipa to
the monks in chapter xxvii. There are several other instances of similar gifts
in the Mahavansa.

(4) Watters calls attention to this as showing that the monks of
K’eeh-ch’a had the credit of possessing weather-controlling powers.

(5) The text here has {.} {.}, not {.} alone. I often found in monasteries boys
and lads who looked up to certain of the monks as their preceptors.

(6) Compare what is said in chapter ii of the dress of the people of Shen-shen.

(7) Giles thinks the fruit here was the guava, because the ordinary name for
“pomegranate” is preceded by gan {.}; but the pomegranate was
called at first Gan Shih-lau, as having been introduced into China from
Gan-seih by Chang-k’een, who is referred to in chapter vii.

CHAPTER VI.
ON TOWARDS NORTH INDIA. DARADA. IMAGE OF MAITREYA BODHISATTVA.

From this (the travellers) went westwards towards North India, and after being
on the way for a month, they succeeded in getting across and through the range
of the Onion mountains. The snow rests on them both winter and summer. There
are also among them venomous dragons, which, when provoked, spit forth
poisonous winds, and cause showers of snow and storms of sand and gravel. Not
one in ten thousand of those who encounter these dangers escapes with his life.
The people of the country call the range by the name of “The Snow
mountains.” When (the travellers) had got through them, they were in
North India, and immediately on entering its borders, found themselves in a
small kingdom called T’o-leih,(1) where also there were many monks, all
students of the hinayana.

In this kingdom there was formerly an Arhan,(2) who by his supernatural
power(3) took a clever artificer up to the Tushita heaven, to see the height,
complexion, and appearance of Maitreya Bodhisattva,(4) and then return and make
an image of him in wood. First and last, this was done three times, and then
the image was completed, eighty cubits in height, and eight cubits at the base
from knee to knee of the crossed legs. On fast-days it emits an effulgent
light. The kings of the (surrounding) countries vie with one another in
presenting offerings to it. Here it is,—to be seen now as of old.(5)

NOTES

(1) Eitel and others identify this with Darada, the country of the ancient
Dardae, the region near Dardus; lat. 30° 11′ N., lon. 73° 54′ E.
See E. H. p. 30. I am myself in more than doubt on the point. Cunningham
(“Ancient Geography of India,” p. 82) says “Darel is a valley
on the right or western bank of the Indus, now occupied by Dardus or Dards,
from whom it received its name.” But as I read our narrative, Fâ-Hien is
here on the eastern bank of the Indus, and only crosses to the western bank as
described in the next chapter.

(2) Lo-han, Arhat, Arahat, are all designations of the perfected Arya, the
disciple who has passed the different stages of the Noble Path, or eightfold
excellent way, who has conquered all passions, and is not to be reborn again.
Arhatship implies possession of certain supernatural powers, and is not to be
succeeded by Buddhaship, but implies the fact of the saint having already
attained nirvâna. Popularly, the Chinese designate by this name the wider
circle of Buddha’s disciples, as well as the smaller ones of 500 and 18.
No temple in Canton is better worth a visit than that of the 500 Lo-han.

(3) Riddhi-sakshatkriya, “the power of supernatural
footsteps,“=”a body flexible at pleasure,” or unlimited power
over the body. E. H., p. 104.

(4) Tushita is the fourth Devaloka, where all Bodhisattvas are reborn before
finally appearing on earth as Buddha. Life lasts in Tushita 4000 years, but
twenty-four hours there are equal to 400 years on earth. E. H., p. 152.

(5) Maitreya (Spence Hardy, Maitri), often styled Ajita, “the
Invincible,” was a Bodhisattva, the principal one, indeed, of
Sâkyamuni’s retinue, but is not counted among the ordinary (historical)
disciples, nor is anything told of his antecedents. It was in the Tushita
heaven that Sâkyamuni met him and appointed him as his successor, to appear as
Buddha after the lapse of 5000 years. Maitreya is therefore the expected
Messiah of the Buddhists, residing at present in Tushita, and, according to the
account of him in Eitel (H., p. 70), “already controlling the propagation
of the Buddhistic faith.” The name means “gentleness” or
“kindness;” and this will be the character of his dispensation.

(6) The combination of {.} {.} in the text of this concluding sentence, and so
frequently occurring throughout the narrative, has occasioned no little dispute
among previous translators. In the imperial thesaurus of phraseology
(P’ei-wan Yun-foo), under {.}, an example of it is given from
Chwang-tsze, and a note subjoined that {.} {.} is equivalent to {.} {.},
“anciently and now.”

CHAPTER VII.
CROSSING OF THE INDUS. WHEN BUDDHISM FIRST CROSSED THE RIVER FOR THE EAST

The travellers went on to the south-west for fifteen days (at the foot of the
mountains, and) following the course of their range. The way was difficult and
rugged, (running along) a bank exceedingly precipitous, which rose up there, a
hill-like wall of rock, 10,000 cubits from the base. When one approaches the
edge of it, his eyes become unsteady; and if he wished to go forward in the
same direction, there was no place on which he could place his foot; and
beneath where the waters of the river called the Indus.(1) In former times men
had chiselled paths along the rocks, and distributed ladders on the face of
them, to the number altogether of 700, at the bottom of which there was a
suspension bridge of ropes, by which the river was crossed, its banks being
there eighty paces apart.(2) The (place and arrangements) are to be found in
the Records of the Nine Interpreters,(3) but neither Chang K’een(4) nor
Kan Ying(5) had reached the spot.

The monks(6) asked Fâ-Hien if it could be known when the Law of Buddha first
went to the east. He replied, “When I asked the people of those countries
about it, they all said that it had been handed down by their fathers from of
old that, after the setting up of the image of Maitreya Bodhisattva, there were
Sramans of India who crossed this river, carrying with them Sûtras and Books of
Discipline. Now the image was set up rather more than 300 years after the
nirvâna(7) of Buddha, which may be referred to the reign of king P’ing of
the Chow dynasty.(8) According to this account we may say that the diffusion of
our great doctrines (in the east) began from (the setting up of) this image. If
it had not been through that Maitreya,(9) the great spiritual master(10) (who
is to be) the successor of the Sakya, who could have caused the ‘Three
Precious Ones’(11) to be proclaimed so far, and the people of those
border lands to know our Law? We know of a truth that the opening of (the way
for such) a mysterious propagation is not the work of man; and so the dream of
the emperor Ming of Han(12) had its proper cause.”

NOTES

(1) The Sindhu. We saw in a former note that the earliest name in China for
India was Shin-tuh. So, here, the river Indus is called by a name approaching
that in sound.

(2) Both Beal and Watters quote from Cunningham (Ladak, pp. 88, 89) the
following description of the course of the Indus in these parts, in striking
accordance with our author’s account:—“From Skardo to Rongdo,
and from Rongdo to Makpou-i-shang-rong, for upwards of 100 miles, the Indus
sweeps sullen and dark through a mighty gorge in the mountains, which for wild
sublimity is perhaps unequalled. Rongdo means the country of defiles. . . .
Between these points the Indus raves from side to side of the gloomy chasm,
foaming and chafing with ungovernable fury. Yet even in these inaccessible
places has daring and ingenious man triumphed over opposing nature. The yawning
abyss is spanned by frail rope bridges, and the narrow ledges of rocks are
connected by ladders to form a giddy pathway overhanging the seething cauldron
below.”

(3) The Japanese edition has a different reading here from the Chinese
copies,—one which Rémusat (with true critical instinct) conjectured
should take the place of the more difficult text with which alone he was
acquainted. The “Nine Interpreters” would be a general name for the
official interpreters attached to the invading armies of Han in their attempts
to penetrate and subdue the regions of the west. The phrase occurs in the
memoir of Chang K’een, referred to in the next note.

(4) Chang K’een, a minister of the emperor Woo of Han (B.C. 140-87), is
celebrated as the first Chinese who “pierced the void,” and
penetrated to “the regions of the west,” corresponding very much to
the present Turkestan. Through him, by B.C. 115, a regular intercourse was
established between China and the thirty-six kingdoms or states of that
quarter;—see Mayers’ Chinese Reader’s Manual, p. 5. The
memoir of Chang K’een, translated by Mr. Wylie from the Books of the
first Han dynasty, appears in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute,
referred to already.

(5) Less is known of Kan Ying than of Chang K’een. Being sent in A.D. 88
by his patron Pan Chao on an embassy to the Roman empire, he only got as far as
the Caspian sea, and returned to China. He extended, however, the knowledge of
his countrymen with regard to the western regions;—see the memoir of Pan
Chao in the Books of the second Han, and Mayers’ Manual, pp. 167, 168.

(6) Where and when? Probably at his first resting-place after crossing the
Indus.

(7) This may refer to Sâkyamuni’s becoming Buddha on attaining to
nirvâna, or more probably to his pari-nirvâna and death.

(8) As king P’ing’s reign lasted from B.C. 750 to 719, this would
place the death of Buddha in the eleventh century B.C., whereas recent
inquirers place it between B.C. 480 and 470, a year or two, or a few years,
after that of Confucius, so that the two great “Masters” of the
east were really contemporaries. But if Rhys Davids be correct, as I think he
is, in fixing the date of Buddha’s death within a few years of 412 B.C.
(see Manual, p. 213), not to speak of Westergaard’s still lower date,
then the Buddha was very considerably the junior of Confucius.

(9) This confirms the words of Eitel, that Maitreya is already controlling the
propagation of the faith.

(10) The Chinese characters for this simply mean “the great scholar or
officer;” but see Eitel’s Handbook, p. 99, on the term purusha.

(11) “The precious Buddha,” “the precious Law,” and
“the precious Monkhood;” Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; the whole
being equivalent to Buddhism.

(12) Fâ-Hien thus endorses the view that Buddhism was introduced into China in
this reign, A.D. 58-75. The emperor had his dream in A.D. 61.

CHAPTER VIII.
WOO-CHANG, OR UDYANA. MONASTERIES, AND THEIR WAYS. TRACES OF BUDDHA.

After crossing the river, (the travellers) immediately came to the kingdom of
Woo-chang,(1) which is indeed (a part) of North India. The people all use the
language of Central India, “Central India” being what we should
call the “Middle Kingdom.” The food and clothes of the common
people are the same as in that Central Kingdom. The Law of Buddha is very
(flourishing in Woo-chang). They call the places where the monks stay (for a
time) or reside permanently Sangharamas; and of these there are in all 500, the
monks being all students of the hinayana. When stranger bhikshus(2) arrive at
one of them, their wants are supplied for three days, after which they are told
to find a resting-place for themselves.

There is a tradition that when Buddha came to North India, he came at once to
this country, and that here he left a print of his foot, which is long or short
according to the ideas of the beholder (on the subject). It exists, and the
same thing is true about it, at the present day. Here also are still to be seen
the rock on which he dried his clothes, and the place where he converted the
wicked dragon.(3) The rock is fourteen cubits high, and more than twenty broad,
with one side of it smooth.

Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and Tao-ching went on ahead towards (the place of)
Buddha’s shadow in the country of Nagara;(4) but Fâ-Hien and the others
remained in Woo-chang, and kept the summer retreat.(5) That over, they
descended south, and arrived in the country of Soo-ho-to.(6)

NOTES

(1) Udyâna, meaning “the Park;” just north of the Punjâb, the
country along the Subhavastu, now called the Swat; noted for its forests,
flowers, and fruits (E. H., p. 153).

(2) Bhikshu is the name for a monk as “living by alms,” a
mendicant. All bhikshus call themselves Sramans. Sometimes the two names are
used together by our author.

(3) Naga is the Sanskrit name for the Chinese lung or dragon; often meaning a
snake, especially the boa. “Chinese Buddhists,” says Eitel, p. 79,
“when speaking of nagas as boa spirits, always represent them as enemies
of mankind, but when viewing them as deities of rivers, lakes, or oceans, they
describe them as piously inclined.” The dragon, however, is in China the
symbol of the Sovereign and Sage, a use of it unknown in Buddhism, according to
which all nagas need to be converted in order to obtain a higher phase of
being. The use of the character too {.}, as here, in the sense of “to
convert,” is entirely Buddhistic. The six paramitas are the six virtues
which carry men across {.} the great sea of life and death, as the sphere of
transmigration to nirvâna. With regard to the particular conversion here, Eitel
(p. 11) says the Naga’s name was Apatala, the guardian deity of the
Subhavastu river, and that he was converted by Sâkyamuni shortly before the
death of the latter.

(4) In Chinese Na-k’eeh, an ancient kingdom and city on the southern bank
of the Cabul river, about thirty miles west of Jellalabad.

(5) We would seem now to be in 403.

(6) Soo-ho-to has not been clearly identified. Beal says that later Buddhist
writers include it in Udyâna. It must have been between the Indus and the Swat.
I suppose it was what we now call Swastene.

CHAPTER IX.
SOO-HO-TO. LEGEND OF BUDDHA.

In that country also Buddhism(1) is flourishing. There is in it the place where
Sakra,(2) Ruler of Devas, in a former age,(3) tried the Bodhisattva, by
producing(4) a hawk (in pursuit of a) dove, when (the Bodhisattva) cut off a
piece of his own flesh, and (with it) ransomed the dove. After Buddha had
attained to perfect wisdom,(5) and in travelling about with his disciples
(arrived at this spot), he informed them that this was the place where he
ransomed the dove with a piece of his own flesh. In this way the people of the
country became aware of the fact, and on the spot reared a tope, adorned with
layers(6) of gold and silver plates.

NOTES

(1) Buddhism stands for the two Chinese characters {.} {.}, “the Law of
Buddha,” and to that rendering of the phrase, which is of frequent
occurrence, I will in general adhere. Buddhism is not an adequate rendering of
them any more than Christianity would be of {to euaggelion Xristou}. The Fa or
Law is the equivalent of dharma comprehending all in the first Basket of the
Buddhist teaching,—as Dr. Davids says (Hibbert Lectures, p. 44),
“its ethics and philosophy, and its system of self-culture;” with
the theory of karma, it seems to me, especially underlying it. It has been
pointed out (Cunningham’s “Bhilsa Topes,” p. 102) that dharma
is the keystone of all king Priyadarsi or Asoka’s edicts. The whole of
them are dedicated to the attainment of one object, “the advancement of
dharma, or of the Law of Buddha.” His native Chinese afforded no better
character than {.} or Law, by which our author could express concisely his idea
of the Buddhistic system, as “a law of life,” a directory or system
of Rules, by which men could attain to the consummation of their being.

(2) Sakra is a common name for the Brahmanic Indra, adopted by Buddhism into
the circle of its own great adherents;—it has been said, “because
of his popularity.” He is generally styled, as here, T’een Ti,
“God or Ruler of Devas.” He is now the representative of the
secular power, the valiant protector of the Buddhist body, but is looked upon
as inferior to Sâkyamuni, and every Buddhist saint. He appears several times in
Fâ-Hien’s narrative. E. H., pp. 108 and 46.

(3) The Chinese character is {.}, “formerly,” and is often, as in
the first sentence of the narrative, simply equivalent to that adverb. At other
times it means, as here, “in a former age,” some pre-existent state
in the time of a former birth. The incident related is “a Jataka
story.”

(4) It occurs at once to the translator to render the characters {.} {.} by
“changed himself to.” Such is often their meaning in the sequel,
but their use in chapter xxiv may be considered as a crucial test of the
meaning which I have given them here.

(5) That is, had become Buddha, or completed his course {.} {.}.

(6) This seems to be the contribution of {.} (or {.}), to the force of the
binomial {.} {.}, which is continually occurring.

CHAPTER X.
GANDHARA. LEGENDS OF BUDDHA.

The travellers, going downwards from this towards the east, in five days came
to the country of Gandhara,(1) the place where Dharma-vivardhana,(2) the son of
Asoka,(3) ruled. When Buddha was a Bodhisattva, he gave his eyes also for
another man here;(4) and at the spot they have also reared a large tope,
adorned with layers of gold and silver plates. The people of the country were
mostly students of the hinayana.

NOTES

(1) Eitel says “an ancient kingdom, corresponding to the region about
Dheri and Banjour.” But see note 5.

(2) Dharma-vivardhana is the name in Sanskrit, represented by the Fa Yi {.} {.}
of the text.

(3) Asoka is here mentioned for the first time;—the Constantine of the
Buddhist society, and famous for the number of vihâras and topes which he
erected. He was the grandson of Chandragupta (i.q. Sandracottus), a rude
adventurer, who at one time was a refugee in the camp of Alexander the Great;
and within about twenty years afterwards drove the Greeks out of India, having
defeated Seleucus, the Greek ruler of the Indus provinces. He had by that time
made himself king of Magadha. His grandson was converted to Buddhism by the
bold and patient demeanour of an Arhat whom he had ordered to be buried alive,
and became a most zealous supporter of the new faith. Dr. Rhys Davids (Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xi, p. xlvi) says that “Asoka’s coronation
can be fixed with absolute certainty within a year or two either way of 267
B.C.”

(4) This also is a Jataka story; but Eitel thinks it may be a myth, constructed
from the story of the blinding of Dharma-vivardhana.

CHAPTER XI.
TAKSHASILA. LEGENDS. THE FOUR GREAT TOPES.

Seven days’ journey from this to the east brought the travellers to the
kingdom of Takshasila,(1) which means “the severed head” in the
language of China. Here, when Buddha was a Bodhisattva, he gave away his head
to a man;(2) and from this circumstance the kingdom got its name.

Going on further for two days to the east, they came to the place where the
Bodhisattva threw down his body to feed a starving tigress.(2) In these two
places also large topes have been built, both adorned with layers of all the
precious substances. The kings, ministers, and peoples of the kingdoms around
vie with one another in making offerings at them. The trains of those who come
to scatter flowers and light lamps at them never cease. The nations of those
quarters all those (and the other two mentioned before) “the four great
topes.”

NOTES

(1) See Julien’s “Methode pour dechiffrer et transcrire les Nomes
Sanscrits,” p. 206. Eitel says, “The Taxila of the Greeks, the
region near Hoosun Abdaul in lat. 35° 48′ N., lon. 72° 44′
E.” But this identification, I am satisfied, is wrong. Cunningham,
indeed, takes credit (“Ancient Geography of India,” pp. 108, 109)
for determining this to be the site of Arrian’s Taxila,—in the
upper Punjâb, still existing in the ruins of Shahdheri, between the Indus and
Hydaspes (the modern Jhelum). So far he may be correct; but the Takshasila of
Fâ-Hien was on the other, or western side of the Indus; and between the river
and Gandhara. It took him, indeed, seven days travelling eastwards to reach it;
but we do not know what stoppages he may have made on the way. We must be wary
in reckoning distances from his specifications of days.

(2) Two Jataka stories. See the account of the latter in Spence Hardy’s
“Manual of Buddhism,” pp. 91, 92. It took place when Buddha had
been born as a Brahman in the village of Daliddi; and from the merit of the
act, he was next born in a devaloka.

CHAPTER XII.
PURUSHAPURA, OR PESHAWUR. PROPHECY ABOUT KING KANISHKA AND HIS TOPE.
BUDDHA’S ALMS-BOWL. DEATH OF HWUY-YING.

Going southwards from Gandhara, (the travellers) in four days arrived at the
kingdom of Purushapura.(1) Formerly, when Buddha was travelling in this country
with his disciples, he said to Ananda,(2) “After my pari-nirvâna,(3)
there will be a king named Kanishka,(4) who shall on this spot build a
tope.” This Kanishka was afterwards born into the world; and (once), when
he had gone forth to look about him, Sakra, Ruler of Devas, wishing to excite
the idea in his mind, assumed the appearance of a little herd-boy, and was
making a tope right in the way (of the king), who asked what sort of thing he
was making. The boy said, “I am making a tope for Buddha.” The king
said, “Very good;” and immediately, right over the boy’s
tope, he (proceeded to) rear another, which was more than four hundred cubits
high, and adorned with layers of all the precious substances. Of all the topes
and temples which (the travellers) saw in their journeyings, there was not one
comparable to this in solemn beauty and majestic grandeur. There is a current
saying that this is the finest tope in Jambudvipa.(5) When the king’s
tope was completed, the little tope (of the boy) came out from its side on the
south, rather more than three cubits in height.

Buddha’s alms-bowl is in this country. Formerly, a king of Yueh-she(6)
raised a large force and invaded this country, wishing to carry the bowl away.
Having subdued the kingdom, as he and his captains were sincere believers in
the Law of Buddha, and wished to carry off the bowl, they proceeded to present
their offerings on a great scale. When they had done so to the Three Precious
Ones, he made a large elephant be grandly caparisoned, and placed the bowl upon
it. But the elephant knelt down on the ground, and was unable to go forward.
Again he caused a four-wheeled waggon to be prepared in which the bowl was put
to be conveyed away. Eight elephants were then yoked to it, and dragged it with
their united strength; but neither were they able to go forward. The king knew
that the time for an association between himself and the bowl had not yet
arrived,(7) and was sad and deeply ashamed of himself. Forthwith he built a
tope at the place and a monastery, and left a guard to watch (the bowl), making
all sorts of contributions.

There may be there more than seven hundred monks. When it is near midday, they
bring out the bowl, and, along with the common people,(8) make their various
offerings to it, after which they take their midday meal. In the evening, at
the time of incense, they bring the bowl out again.(9) It may contain rather
more than two pecks, and is of various colours, black predominating, with the
seams that show its fourfold composition distinctly marked.(10) Its thickness
is about the fifth of an inch, and it has a bright and glossy lustre. When poor
people throw into it a few flowers, it becomes immediately full, while some
very rich people, wishing to make offering of many flowers, might not stop till
they had thrown in hundreds, thousands, and myriads of bushels, and yet would
not be able to fill it.(11)

Pao-yun and Sang-king here merely made their offerings to the alms-bowl, and
(then resolved to) go back. Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and Tao-ching had gone on
before the rest to Negara,(12) to make their offerings at (the places of)
Buddha’s shadow, tooth, and the flat-bone of his skull. (There) Hwuy-king
fell ill, and Tao-ching remained to look after him, while Hwuy-tah came alone
to Purushapura, and saw the others, and (then) he with Pao-yun and Sang-king
took their way back to the land of Ts’in. Hwuy-king(13) came to his
end(14) in the monastery of Buddha’s alms-bowl, and on this Fâ-Hien went
forward alone towards the place of the flat-bone of Buddha’s skull.

NOTES

(1) The modern Peshawur, lat. 34° 8′ N., lon. 71° 30′ E.

(2) A first cousin of Sâkyamuni, and born at the moment when he attained to
Buddhaship. Under Buddha’s teaching, Ananda became an Arhat, and is
famous for his strong and accurate memory; and he played an important part at
the first council for the formation of the Buddhist canon. The friendship
between Sâkyamuni and Ananda was very close and tender; and it is impossible to
read much of what the dying Buddha said to him and of him, as related in the
Maha-pari-nirvâna Sutra, without being moved almost to tears. Ananda is to
reappear on earth as Buddha in another Kalpa. See E. H., p. 9, and the Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xi.

(3) On his attaining to nirvâna, Sâkyamuni became the Buddha, and had no longer
to mourn his being within the circle of transmigration, and could rejoice in an
absolute freedom from passion, and a perfect purity. Still he continued to live
on for forty-five years, till he attained to pari-nirvâna, and had done with
all the life of sense and society, and had no more exercise of thought. He
died; but whether he absolutely and entirely ceased to be, in any sense
of the word being, it would be difficult to say. Probably he himself
would not and could not have spoken definitely on the point. So far as our use
of language is concerned, apart from any assured faith in and hope of
immortality, his pari-nirvâna was his death.

(4) Kanishka appeared, and began to reign, early in our first century, about
A.D. 10. He was the last of three brothers, whose original seat was in
Yueh-she, immediately mentioned, or Tukhara. Converted by the sudden appearance
of a saint, he became a zealous Buddhist, and patronised the system as
liberally as Asoka had done. The finest topes in the north-west of India are
ascribed to him; he was certainly a great man and a magnificent sovereign.

(5) Jambudvipa is one of the four great continents of the universe,
representing the inhabited world as fancied by the Buddhists, and so called
because it resembles in shape the leaves of the jambu tree. It is south of
mount Meru, and divided among four fabulous kings (E. H., p. 36). It is often
used, as here perhaps, merely as the Buddhist name for India.

(6) This king was perhaps Kanishka himself, Fâ-Hien mixing up, in an
inartistic way, different legends about him. Eitel suggests that a relic of the
old name of the country may still exist in that of the Jats or Juts of the
present day. A more common name for it is Tukhara, and he observes that the
people were the Indo-Scythians of the Greeks, and the Tartars of Chinese
writers, who, driven on by the Huns (180 B.C.), conquered Transoxiana,
destroyed the Bactrian kingdom (126 B.C.), and finally conquered the Punjâb,
Cashmere, and great part of India, their greatest king being Kanishak (E. H.,
p. 152).

(7) Watters, clearly understanding the thought of the author in this sentence,
renders—“his destiny did not extend to a connexion with the
bowl;” but the term “destiny” suggests a controlling or
directing power without. The king thought that his virtue in the past was not
yet sufficient to give him possession of the bowl.

(8) The text is simply “those in white clothes.” This may mean
“the laity,” or the “upasakas;” but it is better to
take the characters in their common Chinese acceptation, as meaning
“commoners,” “men who have no rank.” See in
Williams’ Dictionary under {.}.

(9) I do not wonder that Rémusat should give for this—“et
s’en retournent apres.” But Fâ-Hien’s use of {.} in the
sense of “in the same way” is uniform throughout the narrative.

(10) Hardy’s M. B., p. 183, says:—“The alms-bowl, given by
Mahabrahma, having vanished (about the time that Gotama became Buddha), each of
the four guardian deities brought him an alms-bowl of emerald, but he did not
accept them. They then brought four bowls made of stone, of the colour of the
mung fruit; and when each entreated that his own bowl might be accepted, Buddha
caused them to appear as if formed into a single bowl, appearing at the upper
rim as if placed one within the other.” See the account more correctly
given in the “Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 110.

(11) Compare the narrative in Luke’s Gospel, xxi. 1-4.

(12) See chapter viii.

(13) This, no doubt, should be Hwuy-ying. King was at this time ill in Nagara,
and indeed afterwards he dies in crossing the Little Snowy Mountains; but all
the texts make him die twice. The confounding of the two names has been pointed
out by Chinese critics.

(14) “Came to his end;” i.e., according to the text, “proved
the impermanence and uncertainty,” namely, of human life. See
Williams’ Dictionary under {.}. The phraseology is wholly Buddhistic.

CHAPTER XIII.
NAGARA. FESTIVAL OF BUDDHA’S SKULL-BONE. OTHER RELICS, AND HIS
SHADOW.

Going west for sixteen yojanas,(1) he came to the city He-lo(2) in the borders
of the country of Nagara, where there is the flat-bone of Buddha’s skull,
deposited in a vihâra(3) adorned all over with gold-leaf and the seven sacred
substances. The king of the country, revering and honouring the bone, and
anxious lest it should be stolen away, has selected eight individuals,
representing the great families in the kingdom, and committing to each a seal,
with which he should seal (its shrine) and guard (the relic). At early dawn
these eight men come, and after each has inspected his seal, they open the
door. This done, they wash their hands with scented water and bring out the
bone, which they place outside the vihâra, on a lofty platform, where it is
supported on a round pedestal of the seven precious substances, and covered
with a bell of lapis lazuli, both adorned with rows of pearls. Its
colour is of a yellowish white, and it forms an imperfect circle twelve inches
round,(4) curving upwards to the centre. Every day, after it has been brought
forth, the keepers of the vihâra ascend a high gallery, where they beat great
drums, blow conchs, and clash their copper cymbals. When the king hears them,
he goes to the vihâra, and makes his offerings of flowers and incense. When he
has done this, he (and his attendants) in order, one after another, (raise the
bone), place it (for a moment) on the top of their heads,(5) and then depart,
going out by the door on the west as they entered by that on the east. The king
every morning makes his offerings and performs his worship, and afterwards
gives audience on the business of his government. The chiefs of the Vaisyas(6)
also make their offerings before they attend to their family affairs. Every day
it is so, and there is no remissness in the observance of the custom. When all
the offerings are over, they replace the bone in the vihâra, where there is a
vimoksha tope,(7) of the seven precious substances, and rather more than five
cubits high, sometimes open, sometimes shut, to contain it. In front of the
door of the vihâra, there are parties who every morning sell flowers and
incense,(8) and those who wish to make offerings buy some of all kinds. The
kings of various countries are also constantly sending messengers with
offerings. The vihâra stands in a square of thirty paces, and though heaven
should shake and earth be rent, this place would not move.

Going on, north from this, for a yojana, (Fâ-Hien) arrived at the capital of
Nagara, the place where the Bodhisattva once purchased with money five stalks
of flowers, as an offering to the Dipankara Buddha.(9) In the midst of the city
there is also the tope of Buddha’s tooth, where offerings are made in the
same way as to the flat-bone of his skull.

A yojana to the north-east of the city brought him to the mouth of a valley,
where there is Buddha’s pewter staff;(10) and a vihâra also has been
built at which offerings are made. The staff is made of Gosîrsha Chandana, and
is quite sixteen or seventeen cubits long. It is contained in a wooden tube,
and though a hundred or a thousand men ere to (try to) lift it, they could not
move it.

Entering the mouth of the valley, and going west, he found Buddha’s
Sanghali,(11) where also there is reared a vihâra, and offerings are made. It
is a custom of the country when there is a great drought, for the people to
collect in crowds, bring out the robe, pay worship to it, and make offerings,
on which there is immediately a great rain from the sky.

South of the city, half a yojana, there is a rock-cavern, in a great hill
fronting the south-west; and here it was that Buddha left his shadow. Looking
at it from a distance of more than ten paces, you seem to see Buddha’s
real form, with his complexion of gold, and his characteristic marks(12) in
their nicety clearly and brightly displayed. The nearer you approach, however,
the fainter it becomes, as if it were only in your fancy. When the kings from
the regions all around have sent skilful artists to take a copy, none of them
have been able to do so. Among the people of the country there is a saying
current that “the thousand Buddhas(13) must all leave their shadows
here.”

Rather more than four hundred paces west from the shadow, when Buddha was at
the spot, he shaved his hair and clipt his nails, and proceeded, along with his
disciples, to build a tope seventy or eighty cubits high, to be a model for all
future topes; and it is still existing. By the side of it there is a monastery,
with more than seven hundred monks in it. At this place there are as many as a
thousand topes(14) of Arhans and Pratyeka Buddhas.(15)

NOTES

(1) Now in India, Fâ-Hien used the Indian measure of distance; but it is not
possible to determine exactly what its length then was. The estimates of it are
very different, and vary from four and a half or five miles to seven, and
sometimes more. See the subject exhaustively treated in Davids’
“Ceylon Coins and Measures,” pp. 15-17.

(2) The present Hidda, west of Peshawur, and five miles south of Jellalabad.

(3) “The vihâra,” says Hardy, “is the residence of a recluse
or priest;” and so Davids:—“the clean little hut where the
mendicant lives.” Our author, however, does not use the Indian name here,
but the Chinese characters which express its meaning—tsing shay, “a
pure dwelling.” He uses the term occasionally, and evidently, in this
sense; more frequently it occurs in his narrative in connexion with the
Buddhist relic worship; and at first I translated it by “shrine”
and “shrine-house;” but I came to the conclusion, at last, to
employ always the Indian name. The first time I saw a shrine-house was, I
think, in a monastery near Foo-chow;—a small pyramidical structure, about
ten feet high, glittering as if with the precious substances, but all, it
seemed to me, of tinsel. It was in a large apartment of the building, having
many images in it. The monks said it was the most precious thing in their
possession, and that if they opened it, as I begged them to do, there would be
a convulsion that would destroy the whole establishment. See E. H., p. 166. The
name of the province of Behar was given to it in consequence of its many
vihâras.

(4) According to the characters, “square, round, four inches.”
Hsuan-chwang says it was twelve inches round.

(5) In Williams’ Dictionary, under {.}, the characters, used here, are
employed in the phrase for “to degrade an officer,” that is,
“to remove the token of his rank worn on the crown of his head;”
but to place a thing on the crown is a Buddhistic form of religious homage.

(6) The Vaisyas, or bourgeois caste of Hindu society, are described here as
“resident scholars.”

(7) See Eitel’s Handbook under the name vimoksha, which is explained as
“the act of self-liberation,” and “the dwelling or state of
liberty.” There are eight acts of liberating one’s self from all
subjective and objective trammels, and as many states of liberty (vimukti)
resulting therefrom. They are eight degrees of self-inanition, and apparently
eight stages on the way to nirvâna. The tope in the text would be emblematic in
some way of the general idea of the mental progress conducting to the
Buddhistic consummation of existence.

(8) This incense would be in long “sticks,” small and large, such
as are sold to-day throughout China, as you enter the temples.

(9) “The illuminating Buddha,” the twenty-fourth predecessor of
Sâkyamuni, and who, so long before, gave him the assurance that he would
by-and-by be Buddha. See Jataka Tales, p. 23.

(10) The staff was, as immediately appears, of Gosîrsha Chandana, or
“sandal-wood from the Cow’s-head mountain,” a species of
copper-brown sandal-wood, said to be produced most abundantly on a mountain of
(the fabulous continent) Ullarakuru, north of mount Meru, which resembles in
shape the head of a cow (E. H., pp. 42, 43). It is called a “pewter
staff” from having on it a head and rings and pewter. See Watters,
“China Review,” viii, pp. 227, 228, and Williams’ Dictionary,
under {.}.

(11) Or Sanghati, the double or composite robe, part of a monk’s attire,
reaching from the shoulders to the knees, and fastened round the waist (E. H.,
p. 118).

(12) These were the “marks and beauties” on the person of a supreme
Buddha. The rishi Kala Devala saw them on the body of the infant Sakya prince
to the number of 328, those on the teeth, which had not yet come out, being
visible to his spirit-like eyes (M. B., pp. 148, 149).

(13) Probably=“all Buddhas.”

(14) The number may appear too great. But see what is said on the size of topes
in chapter iii, note 4.

(15) In Singhalese, Pase Buddhas; called also Nidana Buddhas, and Pratyeka
Jinas, and explained by “individually intelligent,”
“completely intelligent,” “intelligent as regards the
nidanas.” This, says Eitel (pp. 96, 97), is “a degree of saintship
unknown to primitive Buddhism, denoting automats in ascetic life who attain to
Buddhaship ‘individually,’ that is, without a teacher, and without
being able to save others. As the ideal hermit, the Pratyeka Buddha is compared
with the rhinoceros khadga that lives lonely in the wilderness. He is also
called Nidana Buddha, as having mastered the twelve nidanas (the twelve links
in the everlasting chain of cause and effect in the whole range of existence,
the understanding of which solves the riddle of life, revealing the inanity of
all forms of existence, and preparing the mind for nirvâna). He is also
compared to a horse, which, crossing a river, almost buries its body under the
water, without, however, touching the bottom of the river. Thus in crossing
samsara he ‘suppresses the errors of life and thought, and the effects of
habit and passion, without attaining to absolute perfection.’”
Whether these Buddhas were unknown, as Eitel says, to primitive Buddhism, may
be doubted. See Davids’ Hibbert Lectures, p. 146.

CHAPTER XIV.
DEATH OF HWUY-KING IN THE LITTLE SNOWY MOUNTAINS. LO-E. POHNA. CROSSING THE
INDUS TO THE EAST.

Having stayed there till the third month of winter, Fâ-Hien and the two
others,(1) proceeding southwards, crossed the Little Snowy mountains.(2) On
them the snow lies accumulated both winter and summer. On the north (side) of
the mountains, in the shade, they suddenly encountered a cold wind which made
them shiver and become unable to speak. Hwuy-king could not go any farther. A
white froth came from his mouth, and he said to Fâ-Hien, “I cannot live
any longer. Do you immediately go away, that we do not all die here;” and
with these words he died.(3) Fâ-Hien stroked the corpse, and cried out
piteously, “Our original plan has failed;—it is fate.(4) What can
we do?” He then again exerted himself, and they succeeded in crossing to
the south of the range, and arrived in the kingdom of Lo-e,(5) where there were
nearly three thousand monks, students of both the mahayana and hinayana. Here
they stayed for the summer retreat,(6) and when that was over, they went on to
the south, and ten days’ journey brought them to the kingdom of
Poh-na,(7) where there are also more than three thousand monks, all students of
the hinayana. Proceeding from this place for three days, they again crossed the
Indus, where the country on each side was low and level.(8)

NOTES

(1) These must have been Tao-ching and Hwuy-king.

(2) Probably the Safeid Koh, and on the way to the Kohat pass.

(3) All the texts have Kwuy-king. See chapter xii, note 13.

(4) A very natural exclamation, but out of place and inconsistent from the lips
of Fâ-Hien. The Chinese character {.}, which he employed, may be rendered
rightly by “fate” or “destiny;” but the fate is not
unintelligent. The term implies a factor, or fa-tor, and supposes the
ordination of Heaven or God. A Confucian idea for the moment overcame his
Buddhism.

(5) Lo-e, or Rohi, is a name for Afghanistan; but only a portion of it can be
here intended.

(6) We are now therefore in 404.

(7) No doubt the present district of Bannu, in the Lieutenant-Governorship of
the Punjâb, between 32° 10′ and 33° 15′ N. lat., and 70°
26′ and 72° E. lon. See Hunter’s Gazetteer of India, i, p. 393.

(8) They had then crossed the Indus before. They had done so, indeed, twice;
first, from north to south, at Skardo or east of it; and second, as described
in chapter vii.

CHAPTER XV.
BHIDA. SYMPATHY OF MONKS WITH THE PILGRIMS.

After they had crossed the river, there was a country named Pe-t’oo,(1)
where Buddhism was very flourishing, and (the monks) studied both the mahayana
and hinayana. When they saw their fellow-disciples from Ts’in passing
along, they were moved with great pity and sympathy, and expressed themselves
thus: “How is it that these men from a border-land should have learned to
become monks,(2) and come for the sake of our doctrines from such a distance in
search of the Law of Buddha?” They supplied them with what they needed,
and treated them in accordance with the rules of the Law.

NOTES

(1) Bhida. Eitel says, “The present Punjâb;” i.e. it was a portion
of that.

(2) “To come forth from their families;” that is, to become
celibates, and adopt the tonsure.

CHAPTER XVI.
ON TO MATHURA OR MUTTRA. CONDITION AND CUSTOMS OF CENTRAL INDIA; OF THE MONKS,
VIHARAS, AND MONASTERIES.

From this place they travelled south-east, passing by a succession of very many
monasteries, with a multitude of monks, who might be counted by myriads. After
passing all these places, they came to a country named Ma-t’aou-lo.(1)
They still followed the course of the P’oo-na(2) river, on the banks of
which, left and right, there were twenty monasteries, which might contain three
thousand monks; and (here) the Law of Buddha was still more flourishing.
Everywhere, from the Sandy Desert, in all the countries of India, the kings had
been firm believers in that Law. When they make their offerings to a community
of monks, they take off their royal caps, and along with their relatives and
ministers, supply them with food with their own hands. That done, (the king)
has a carpet spread for himself on the ground, and sits down in front of the
chairman;—they dare not presume to sit on couches in front of the
community. The laws and ways, according to which the kings presented their
offerings when Buddha was in the world, have been handed down to the present
day.

All south from this is named the Middle Kingdom.(3) In it the cold and heat are
finely tempered, and there is neither hoarfrost nor snow. The people are
numerous and happy; they have not to register their households, or attend to
any magistrates and their rules; only those who cultivate the royal land have
to pay (a portion of) the grain from it. If they want to go, they go; if they
want to stay on, they stay. The king governs without decapitation or (other)
corporal punishments. Criminals are simply fined, lightly or heavily, according
to the circumstances (of each case). Even in cases of repeated attempts at
wicked rebellion, they only have their right hands cut off. The king’s
body-guards and attendants all have salaries. Throughout the whole country the
people do not kill any living creature, nor drink intoxicating liquor, nor eat
onions or garlic. The only exception is that of the Chandalas.(4) That is the
name for those who are (held to be) wicked men, and live apart from others.
When they enter the gate of a city or a market-place, they strike a piece of
wood to make themselves known, so that men know and avoid them, and do not come
into contact with them. In that country they do not keep pigs and fowls, and do
not sell live cattle; in the markets there are no butchers’ shops and no
dealers in intoxicating drink. In buying and selling commodities they use
cowries.(5) Only the Chandalas are fishermen and hunters, and sell flesh meat.

After Buddha attained to pari-nirvâna,(6) the kings of the various countries
and the heads of the Vaisyas(7) built vihâras for the priests, and endowed them
with fields, houses, gardens, and orchards, along with the resident populations
and their cattle, the grants being engraved on plates of metal,(8) so that
afterwards they were handed down from king to king, without any daring to annul
them, and they remain even to the present time.

The regular business of the monks is to perform acts of meritorious virtue, and
to recite their Sûtras and sit wrapt in meditation. When stranger monks arrive
(at any monastery), the old residents meet and receive them, carry for them
their clothes and alms-bowl, give them water to wash their feet, oil with which
to anoint them, and the liquid food permitted out of the regular hours.(9) When
(the stranger) has enjoyed a very brief rest, they further ask the number of
years that he has been a monk, after which he receives a sleeping apartment
with its appurtenances, according to his regular order, and everything is done
for him which the rules prescribe.(10)

Where a community of monks resides, they erect topes to Sariputtra,(11) to
Maha-maudgalyayana,(12) and to Ananda,(13) and also topes (in honour) of the
Abhidharma, the Vinaya, and the Sûtras. A month after the (annual season of)
rest, the families which are looking out for blessing stimulate one another(14)
to make offerings to the monks, and send round to them the liquid food which
may be taken out of the ordinary hours. All the monks come together in a great
assembly, and preach the Law;(15) after which offerings are presented at the
tope of Sariputtra, with all kinds of flowers and incense. All through the
night lamps are kept burning, and skilful musicians are employed to
perform.(16)

When Sariputtra was a great Brahman, he went to Buddha, and begged (to be
permitted) to quit his family (and become a monk). The great Mugalan and the
great Kasyapa(17) also did the same. The bhikshunis(18) for the most part make
their offerings at the tope of Ananda, because it was he who requested the
World-honoured one to allow females to quit their families (and become nuns).
The Sramaneras(19) mostly make their offerings to Rahula.(20) The professors of
the Abhidharma make their offerings to it; those of the Vinaya to it. Every
year there is one such offering, and each class has its own day for it.
Students of the mahayana present offerings to the Prajna-paramita,(21) to
Manjusri,(22) and to Kwan-she-yin.(23) When the monks have done receiving their
annual tribute (from the harvests),(24) the Heads of the Vaisyas and all the
Brahmans bring clothes and other such articles as the monks require for use,
and distribute among them. The monks, having received them, also proceed to
give portions to one another. From the nirvâna of Buddha,(25) the forms of
ceremony, laws, and rules, practised by the sacred communities, have been
handed down from one generation to another without interruption.

From the place where (the travellers) crossed the Indus to Southern India, and
on to the Southern Sea, a distance of forty or fifty thousand le, all is level
plain. There are no large hills with streams (among them); there are simply the
waters of the rivers.

NOTES

(1) Muttra, “the peacock city;” lat. 27° 30′ N., lon. 77°
43′ E. (Hunter); the birthplace of Krishna, whose emblem is the peacock.

(2) This must be the Jumna, or Yamuna. Why it is called, as here, the
P’oo-na has yet to be explained.

(3) In Pâli, Majjhima-desa, “the Middle Country.” See Davids’
“Buddhist Birth Stories,” page 61, note.

(4) Eitel (pp. 145, 6) says, “The name Chandalas is explained by
‘butchers,’ ‘wicked men,’ and those who carry
‘the awful flag,’ to warn off their betters;—the lowest and
most despised caste of India, members of which, however, when converted, were
admitted even into the ranks of the priesthood.”

(5) “Cowries;” {.} {.}, not “shells and ivory,” as one
might suppose; but cowries alone, the second term entering into the name from
the marks inside the edge of the shell, resembling “the teeth of
fishes.”

(6) See chapter xii, note 3, Buddha’s pari-nirvâna is equivalent to
Buddha’s death.

(7) See chapter xiii, note 6. The order of the characters is different here,
but with the same meaning.

(8) See the preparation of such a deed of grant in a special case, as related
in chapter xxxix. No doubt in Fâ-Hien’s time, and long before and after
it, it was the custom to engrave such deeds on plates of metal.

(9) “No monk can eat solid food except between sunrise and noon,”
and total abstinence from intoxicating drinks is obligatory (Davids’
Manual, p. 163). Food eaten at any other part of the day is called vikala, and
forbidden; but a weary traveller might receive unseasonable refreshment,
consisting, as Watters has shown (Ch. Rev. viii. 282), of honey, butter,
treacle, and sesamum oil.

(10) The expression here is somewhat perplexing; but it occurs again in chapter
xxxviii; and the meaning is clear. See Watters, Ch. Rev. viii. 282, 3. The
rules are given at length in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xx, p. 272 and
foll., and p. 279 and foll.

(11) Sariputtra (Singh. Seriyut) was one of the principal disciples of Buddha,
and indeed the most learned and ingenious of them all, so that he obtained the
title of {.} {.}, “knowledge and wisdom.” He is also called
Buddha’s “right-hand attendant.” His name is derived from
that of his mother Sarika, the wife of Tishya, a native of Nalanda. In Spence
Hardy, he often appears under the name of Upatissa (Upa-tishya), derived from
his father. Several Sastras are ascribed to him, and indeed the followers of
the Abhidharma look on him as their founder. He died before Sâkyamuni; but is
to reappear as a future Buddha. Eitel, pp. 123, 124.

(12) Mugalan, the Singhalese name of this disciple, is more pronounceable. He
also was one of the principal disciples, called Buddha’s “left-hand
attendant.” He was distinguished for his power of vision, and his magical
powers. The name in the text is derived from the former attribute, and it was
by the latter that he took up an artist to Tushita to get a view of Sâkyamuni,
and so make a statue of him. (Compare the similar story in chap. vi.) He went
to hell, and released his mother. He also died before Sâkyamuni, and is to
reappear as Buddha. Eitel, p. 65.

(13) See chapter xii, note 2.

(14) A passage rather difficult to construe. The “families” would
be those more devout than their neighbours.

(15) One rarely hears this preaching in China. It struck me most as I once
heard it at Osaka in Japan. There was a pulpit in a large hall of the temple,
and the audience sat around on the matted floor. One priest took the pulpit
after another; and the hearers nodded their heads occasionally, and indicated
their sympathy now and then by an audible “h’m,” which
reminded me of Carlyle’s description of meetings of “The
Ironsides” of Cromwell.

(16) This last statement is wanting in the Chinese editions.

(17) There was a Kasyapa Buddha, anterior to Sâkyamuni. But this Maha-kasyapa
was a Brahman of Magadha, who was converted by Buddha, and became one of his
disciples. He took the lead after Sâkyamuni’s death, convoked and
directed the first synod, from which his title of Arya-sthavira is derived. As
the first compiler of the Canon, he is considered the fountain of Chinese
orthodoxy, and counted as the first patriarch. He also is to be reborn as
Buddha. Eitel, p. 64.

(18) The bhikshunis are the female monks or nuns, subject to the same rules as
the bhikshus, and also to special ordinances of restraint. See Hardy’s E.
M., chap. 17. See also Sacred Books of the East, vol. xx, p. 321.

(19) The Sramaneras are the novices, male or female, who have vowed to observe
the Shikshapada, or ten commandments. Fâ-Hien was himself one of them from his
childhood. Having heard the Trisharana, or threefold formula of
Refuge,—“I take refuge in Buddha; the Law; the Church,—the
novice undertakes to observe the ten precepts that forbid—(1) destroying
life; (2) stealing; (3) impurity; (4) lying; (5) intoxicating drinks; (6)
eating after midday; (7) dancing, singing, music, and stage-plays; (8)
garlands, scents, unguents, and ornaments; (9) high or broad couches; (10)
receiving gold or silver.” Davids’ Manual, p. 160; Hardy’s E.
M., pp. 23, 24.

(20) The eldest son of Sâkyamuni by Yasodhara. Converted to Buddhism, he
followed his father as an attendant; and after Buddha’s death became the
founder of a philosophical realistic school (vaibhashika). He is now revered as
the patron saint of all novices, and is to be reborn as the eldest son of every
future Buddha. Eitel, p. 101. His mother also is to be reborn as Buddha.

(21) There are six (sometimes increased to ten) paramitas, “means of
passing to nirvâna:—Charity; morality; patience; energy; tranquil
contemplation; wisdom (prajna); made up to ten by use of the proper means;
science; pious vows; and force of purpose. But it is only prajna which carries
men across the samsara to the shores of nirvâna.” Eitel, p. 90.

(22) According to Eitel (pp. 71, 72), A famous Bodhisattva, now specially
worshipped in Shan-se, whose antecedents are a hopeless jumble of history and
fable. Fâ-Hien found him here worshipped by followers of the mahayana school;
but Hsuan-chwang connects his worship with the yogachara or tantra-magic
school. The mahayana school regard him as the apotheosis of perfect wisdom. His
most common titles are Mahamati, “Great wisdom,” and Kumara-raja,
“King of teaching, with a thousand arms and a hundred alms-bowls.”

(23) Kwan-she-yin and the dogmas about him or her are as great a mystery as
Manjusri. The Chinese name is a mistranslation of the Sanskrit name
Avalokitesvra, “On-looking Sovereign,” or even “On-looking
Self-Existent,” and means “Regarding or Looking on the sounds of
the world,”=“Hearer of Prayer.” Originally, and still in
Thibet, Avalokitesvara had only male attributes, but in China and Japan
(Kwannon), this deity (such popularly she is) is represented as a woman,
“Kwan-yin, the greatly gentle, with a thousand arms and a thousand
eyes;” and has her principal seat in the island of P’oo-t’oo,
on the China coast, which is a regular place of pilgrimage. To the worshippers
of whom Fâ-Hien speaks, Kwan-she-yin would only be Avalokitesvara. How he was
converted into the “goddess of mercy,” and her worship took the
place which it now has in China, is a difficult inquiry, which would take much
time and space, and not be brought after all, so far as I see, to a
satisfactory conclusion. See Eitel’s Handbook, pp. 18-20, and his Three
Lectures on Buddhism (third edition), pp. 124-131. I was talking on the subject
once with an intelligent Chinese gentleman, when he remarked, “Have you
not much the same thing in Europe in the worship of Mary?”

(24) Compare what is said in chap. v.

(25) This nirvâna of Buddha must be—not his death, but his attaining to
Buddhaship.

CHAPTER XVII.
SANKASYA. BUDDHA’S ASCENT TO AND DESCENT FROM THE TRAYASTRIMSAS HEAVEN,
AND OTHER LEGENDS.

From this they proceeded south-east for eighteen yojanas, and found themselves
in a kingdom called Sankasya,(1) at the place where Buddha came down, after
ascending to the Trayastrimsas heaven,(2) and there preaching for three months
his Law for the benefit of his mother.(3) Buddha had gone up to this heaven by
his supernatural power,(4) without letting his disciples know; but seven days
before the completion (of the three months) he laid aside his invisibility,(4)
and Anuruddha,(5) with his heavenly eyes,(5) saw the World-honoured one, and
immediately said to the honoured one, the great Mugalan, “Do you go and
salute the World-honoured one.” Mugalan forthwith went, and with head and
face did homage at (Buddha’s) feet. They then saluted and questioned each
other, and when this was over, Buddha said to Mugalan, “Seven days after
this I will go down to Jambudvipa;” and thereupon Mugalan returned. At
this time the great kings of eight countries with their ministers and people,
not having seen Buddha for a long time, were all thirstily looking up for him,
and had collected in clouds in this kingdom to wait for the World-honoured one.

Then the bhikshuni Utpala(6) thought in her heart, “To-day the kings,
with their ministers and people, will all be meeting (and welcoming) Buddha. I
am (but) a woman; how shall I succeed in being the first to see him?”(7)
Buddha immediately, by his spirit-like power, changed her into the appearance
of a holy Chakravartti(8) king, and she was the foremost of all in doing
reverence to him.

As Buddha descended from his position aloft in the Trayastrimsas heaven, when
he was coming down, there were made to appear three flights of precious steps.
Buddha was on the middle flight, the steps of which were composed of the seven
precious substances. The king of Brahma-loka(9) also made a flight of silver
steps appear on the right side, (where he was seen) attending with a white
chowry in his hand. Sakra, Ruler of Devas, made (a flight of) steps of purple
gold on the left side, (where he was seen) attending and holding an umbrella of
the seven precious substances. An innumerable multitude of the devas followed
Buddha in his descent. When he was come down, the three flights all disappeared
in the ground, excepting seven steps, which continued to be visible. Afterwards
king Asoka, wishing to know where their ends rested, sent men to dig and see.
They went down to the yellow springs(10) without reaching the bottom of the
steps, and from this the king received an increase to his reverence and faith,
and built a vihâra over the steps, with a standing image, sixteen cubits in
height, right over the middle flight. Behind the vihâra he erected a stone
pillar, about fifty cubits high,(11) with a lion on the top of it.(12) Let into
the pillar, on each of its four sides,(13) there is an image of Buddha, inside
and out(14) shining and transparent, and pure as it were of lapis
lazuli. Some teachers of another doctrine(15) once disputed with the
Sramanas about (the right to) this as a place of residence, and the latter were
having the worst of the argument, when they took an oath on both sides on the
condition that, if the place did indeed belong to the Sramanas, there should be
some marvellous attestation of it. When these words had been spoken, the lion
on the top gave a great roar, thus giving the proof; on which their opponents
were frightened, bowed to the decision, and withdrew.

Through Buddha having for three months partaken of the food of heaven, his body
emitted a heavenly fragrance, unlike that of an ordinary man. He went
immediately and bathed; and afterwards, at the spot where he did so, a
bathing-house was built, which is still existing. At the place where the
bhikshuni Utpala was the first to do reverence to Buddha, a tope has now been
built.

At the places where Buddha, when he was in the world, cut his hair and nails,
topes are erected; and where the three Buddhas(16) that preceded Sâkyamuni
Buddha and he himself sat; where they walked,(17) and where images of their
persons were made. At all these places topes were made, and are still existing.
At the place where Sakra, Ruler of the Devas, and the king of the Brahma-loka
followed Buddha down (from the Trayastrimsas heaven) they have also raised a
tope.

At this place the monks and nuns may be a thousand, who all receive their food
from the common store, and pursue their studies, some of the mahayana and some
of the hinayana. Where they live, there is a white-eared dragon, which acts the
part of danapati to the community of these monks, causing abundant harvests in
the country, and the enriching rains to come in season, without the occurrence
of any calamities, so that the monks enjoy their repose and ease. In gratitude
for its kindness, they have made for it a dragon-house, with a carpet for it to
sit on, and appointed for it a diet of blessing, which they present for its
nourishment. Every day they set apart three of their number to go to its house,
and eat there. Whenever the summer retreat is ended, the dragon straightway
changes its form, and appears as a small snake,(18) with white spots at the
side of its ears. As soon as the monks recognise it, they fill a copper vessel
with cream, into which they put the creature, and then carry it round from the
one who has the highest seat (at their tables) to him who has the lowest, when
it appears as if saluting them. When it has been taken round, immediately it
disappeared; and every year it thus comes forth once. The country is very
productive, and the people are prosperous, and happy beyond comparison. When
people of other countries come to it, they are exceedingly attentive to them
all, and supply them with what they need.

Fifty yojanas north-west from the monastery there is another, called “The
Great Heap.”(19) Great Heap was the name of a wicked demon, who was
converted by Buddha, and men subsequently at this place reared a vihâra. When
it was being made over to an Arhat by pouring water on his hands,(20) some
drops fell on the ground. They are still on the spot, and however they may be
brushed away and removed, they continue to be visible, and cannot be made to
disappear.

At this place there is also a tope to Buddha, where a good spirit constantly
keeps (all about it) swept and watered, without any labour of man being
required. A king of corrupt views once said, “Since you are able to do
this, I will lead a multitude of troops and reside there till the dirt and
filth has increased and accumulated, and (see) whether you can cleanse it away
or not.” The spirit thereupon raised a great wind, which blew (the filth
away), and made the place pure.

At this place there are a hundred small topes, at which a man may keep counting
a whole day without being able to know (their exact number). If he be firmly
bent on knowing it, he will place a man by the side of each tope. When this is
done, proceeding to count the number of men, whether they be many or few, he
will not get to know (the number).(21)

There is a monastery, containing perhaps 600 or 700 monks, in which there is a
place where a Pratyeka Buddha used to take his food. The nirvâna ground (where
he was burned(22) after death) is as large as a carriage wheel; and while grass
grows all around, on this spot there is none. The ground also where he dried
his clothes produces no grass, but the impression of them, where they lay on
it, continues to the present day.

NOTES

(1) The name is still remaining in Samkassam, a village forty-five miles
northwest of Canouge, lat. 27° 3′ N., lon. 79° 50′ E.

(2) The heaven of Indra or Sakya, meaning “the heaven of thirty-three
classes,” a name which has been explained both historically and
mythologically. “The description of it,” says Eitel, p. 148,
“tallies in all respects with the Svarga of Brahmanic mythology. It is
situated between the four peaks of the Meru, and consists of thirty-two cities
of devas, eight on each of the four corners of the mountain. Indra’s
capital of Bellevue is in the centre. There he is enthroned, with a thousand
heads and a thousand eyes, and four arms grasping the vajra, with his wife and
119,000 concubines. There he receives the monthly reports of the four
Maharajas, concerning the progress of good and evil in the world,”
&c. &c.

(3) Buddha’s mother, Maya and Mahamaya, the mater immaculata of
the Buddhists, died seven days after his birth. Eitel says, “Reborn in
Tushita, she was visited there by her son and converted.” The Tushita
heaven was a more likely place to find her than the Trayastrimsas; but was the
former a part of the latter? Hardy gives a long account of Buddha’s visit
to the Trayastrimsas (M. B., pp. 298-302), which he calls Tawutisa, and speaks
of his mother (Matru) in it, who had now become a deva by the changing of her
sex.

(4) Compare the account of the Arhat’s conveyance of the artist to the
Tushita heaven in chap. v. The first expression here is more comprehensive.

(5) Anuruddha was a first cousin of Sâkyamuni, being the son of his uncle
Amritodana. He is often mentioned in the account we have of Buddha’s last
moments. His special gift was the divyachakshus or “heavenly eye,”
the first of the six abhijnas or “supernatural talents,” the
faculty of comprehending in one instantaneous view, or by intuition, all beings
in all worlds. “He could see,” says Hardy, M. B., p. 232,
“all things in 100,000 sakvalas as plainly as a mustard seed held in the
hand.”

(6) Eitel gives the name Utpala with the same Chinese phonetisation as in the
text, but not as the name of any bhikshuni. The Sanskrit word, however, is
explained by “blue lotus flowers;” and Hsuan-chwang calls her the
nun “Lotus-flower colour ({.} {.} {.});”—the same as
Hardy’s Upulwan and Uppalawarna.

(7) Perhaps we should read here “to see Buddha,” and then ascribe
the transformation to the nun herself. It depends on the punctuation which view
we adopt; and in the structure of the passage, there is nothing to indicate
that the stop should be made before or after “Buddha.” And the one
view is as reasonable, or rather as unreasonable, as the other.

(8) “A holy king who turns the wheel;” that is, the military
conqueror and monarch of the whole or part of a universe. “The
symbol,” says Eitel (p. 142) “of such a king is the chakra or
wheel, for when he ascends the throne, a chakra falls from heaven, indicating
by its material (gold, silver, copper, or iron) the extent and character of his
reign. The office, however, of the highest Chakravartti, who hurls his wheel
among his enemies, is inferior to the peaceful mission of a Buddha, who meekly
turns the wheel of the Law, and conquers every universe by his teaching.”

(9) This was Brahma, the first person of the Brahmanical Trimurti, adopted by
Buddhism, but placed in an inferior position, and surpassed by every Buddhist
saint who attains to bodhi.

(10) A common name for the earth below, where, on digging, water is found.

(11) The height is given as thirty chow, the chow being the distance from the
elbow to the finger-tip, which is variously estimated.

(12) A note of Mr. Beal says on this:—“General Cunningham, who
visited the spot (1862), found a pillar, evidently of the age of Asoka, with a
well-carved elephant on the top, which, however, was minus trunk and tail. He
supposes this to be the pillar seen by Fâ-Hien, who mistook the top of it for
a lion. It is possible such a mistake may have been made, as in the account of
one of the pillars at Sravasti, Fâ-Hien says an ox formed the capital, whilst
Hsuan-chwang calls it an elephant (P. 19, Arch. Survey).”

(13) That is, in niches on the sides. The pillar or column must have been
square.

(14) Equivalent to “all through.”

(15) Has always been translated “heretical teachers;” but I eschew
the terms heresy and heretical. The parties would not be
Buddhists of any creed or school, but Brahmans or of some other false doctrine,
as Fâ-Hien deemed it. The Chinese term means “outside” or
“foreign;”—in Pâli, anna-titthiya,=“those belonging to
another school.”

(16) These three predecessors of Sâkyamuni were the three Buddhas of the
present or Maha-bhadra Kalpa, of which he was the fourth, and Maitreya is to be
the fifth and last. They were: (1) Krakuchanda (Pâli, Kakusanda), “he who
readily solves all doubts;” a scion of the Kasyapa family. Human life
reached in his time 40,000 years, and so many persons were converted by him.
(2) Kanakamuni (Pâli, Konagamana), “body radiant with the colour of pure
gold;” of the same family. Human life reached in his time 30,000 years,
and so many persons were converted by him. (3) Kasyapa (Pâli, Kassapa),
“swallower of light.” Human life reached in his time 20,000 years,
and so many persons were converted by him. See Eitel, under the several names;
Hardy’s M. B., pp. 95-97; and Davids’ “Buddhist Birth
Stories,” p. 51.

(17) That is, walked in meditation. Such places are called Chankramana (Pâli,
Chankama); promenades or corridors connected with a monastery, made sometimes
with costly stones, for the purpose of peripatetic meditation. The
“sitting” would be not because of weariness or for rest, but for
meditation. E. H., p. 144.

(18) The character in my Corean copy is {.}, which must be a mistake for the
{.} of the Chinese editions. Otherwise, the meaning would be “a small
medusa.”

(19) The reading here seems to me a great improvement on that of the Chinese
editions, which means “Fire Limit.” Buddha, it is said, {.}
converted this demon, which Chinese character Beal rendered at first by
“in one of his incarnations;” and in his revised version he has
“himself.” The difference between Fâ-Hien’s usage of {.} and
{.} throughout his narrative is quite marked. {.} always refers to the doings
of Sâkyamuni; {.}, “formerly,” is often used of him and others in
the sense of “in a former age or birth.”

(20) See Hardy, M. B., p. 194:—“As a token of the giving over of
the garden, the king poured water upon the hands of Buddha; and from this time
it became one of the principal residences of the sage.”

(21) This would seem to be absurd; but the writer evidently intended to convey
the idea that there was something mysterious about the number of the topes.

(22) This seems to be the meaning. The bodies of the monks are all burned.
Hardy’s E. M., pp. 322-324.

CHAPTER XVIII.
KANYAKUBJA, OR CANOUGE. BUDDHA’S PREACHING.

Fâ-Hien stayed at the Dragon vihâra till after the summer retreat,(1) and
then, travelling to the south-east for seven yojanas, he arrived at the city of
Kanyakubja,(2) lying along the Ganges.(3) There are two monasteries in it, the
inmates of which are students of the hinayana. At a distance from the city of
six or seven le, on the west, on the northern bank of the Ganges, is a place
where Buddha preached the Law to his disciples. It has been handed down that
his subjects of discourse were such as “The bitterness and vanity (of
life) as impermanent and uncertain,” and that “The body is as a
bubble or foam on the water.” At this spot a tope was erected, and still
exists.

Having crossed the Ganges, and gone south for three yojanas, (the travellers)
arrived at a village named A-le,(4) containing places where Buddha preached the
Law, where he sat, and where he walked, at all of which topes have been built.

NOTES

(1) We are now, probably, in 405.

(2) Canouge, the latitude and longitude of which have been given in a previous
note. The Sanskrit name means “the city of humpbacked maidens;”
with reference to the legend of the hundred daughters of king Brahma-datta, who
were made deformed by the curse of the rishi Maha-vriksha, whose overtures they
had refused. E. H., p. 51.

(3) Ganga, explained by “Blessed water,” and “Come from
heaven to earth.”

(4) This village (the Chinese editions read “forest”) has hardly
been clearly identified.

CHAPTER XIX.
SHA-CHE. LEGEND OF BUDDHA’S DANTA-KASHTHA.

Going on from this to the south-east for three yojanas, they came to the great
kingdom of Sha-che.(1) As you go out of the city of Sha-che by the southern
gate, on the east of the road (is the place) where Buddha, after he had chewed
his willow branch,(2) stuck it in the ground, when it forthwith grew up seven
cubits, (at which height it remained) neither increasing nor diminishing. The
Brahmans with their contrary doctrines(3) became angry and jealous. Sometimes
they cut the tree down, sometimes they plucked it up, and cast it to a
distance, but it grew again on the same spot as at first. Here also is the
place where the four Buddhas walked and sat, and at which a tope was built that
is still existing.

NOTES

(1) Sha-che should probably be Sha-khe, making Cunningham’s
identification of the name with the present Saket still more likely. The change
of {.} into {.} is slight; and, indeed, the Khang-hsi dictionary thinks the two
characters should be but one and the same.

(2) This was, no doubt, what was called the danta-kashtha, or “dental
wood,” mostly a bit of the ficus Indicus or banyan tree, which the
monk chews every morning to cleanse his teeth, and for the purpose of health
generally. The Chinese, not having the banyan, have used, or at least Fâ-Hien
used, Yang ({.}, the general name for the willow) instead of it.

(3) Are two classes of opponents, or only one, intended here, so that we should
read “all the unbelievers and Brahmans,” or “heretics and
Brahmans?” I think the Brahmans were also “the unbelievers”
and “heretics,” having {.} {.}, views and ways outside of, and
opposed to, Buddha’s.

CHAPTER XX.
KOSALA AND SRAVASTI. THE JETAVANA VIHARA AND OTHER MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS OF
BUDDHA. SYMPATHY OF THE MONKS WITH THE PILGRIMS.

Going on from this to the south, for eight yojanas, (the travellers) came to
the city of Sravasti(1) in the kingdom of Kosala,(2) in which the inhabitants
were few and far between, amounting in all (only) to a few more than two
hundred families; the city where king Prasenajit(3) ruled, and the place of the
old vihâra of Maha-prajapti;(4) of the well and walls of (the house of) the
(Vaisya) head Sudatta;(5) and where the Angulimalya(6) became an Arhat, and his
body was (afterwards) burned on his attaining to pari-nirvâna. At all these
places topes were subsequently erected, which are still existing in the city.
The Brahmans, with their contrary doctrine, became full of hatred and envy in
their hearts, and wished to destroy them, but there came from the heavens such
a storm of crashing thunder and flashing lightning that they were not able in
the end to effect their purpose.

As you go out from the city by the south gate, and 1,200 paces from it, the
(Vaisya) head Sudatta built a vihâra, facing the south; and when the door was
open, on each side of it there was a stone pillar, with the figure of a wheel
on the top of that on the left, and the figure of an ox on the top of that on
the right. On the left and right of the building the ponds of water clear and
pure, the thickets of trees always luxuriant, and the numerous flowers of
various hues, constituted a lovely scene, the whole forming what is called the
Jetavana vihâra.(7)

When Buddha went up to the Trayastrimsas heaven,(8) and preached the Law for
the benefit of his mother, (after he had been absent for) ninety days,
Prasenajit, longing to see him, caused an image of him to be carved in Gosîrsha
Chandana wood,(9) and put in the place where he usually sat. When Buddha on his
return entered the vihâra, this image immediately left its place, and came
forth to meet him. Buddha said to it, “Return to your seat. After I have
attained to pari-nirvâna, you will serve as a pattern to the four classes of my
disciples,”(10) and on this the image returned to its seat. This was the
very first of all the images (of Buddha), and that which men subsequently
copied. Buddha then removed, and dwelt in a small vihâra on the south side (of
the other), a different place from that containing the image, and twenty paces
distant from it.

The Jetavana vihâra was originally of seven storeys. The kings and people of
the countries around vied with one another in their offerings, hanging up about
it silken streamers and canopies, scattering flowers, burning incense, and
lighting lamps, so as to make the night as bright as the day. This they did day
after day without ceasing. (It happened that) a rat, carrying in its mouth the
wick of a lamp, set one of the streamers or canopies on fire, which caught the
vihâra, and the seven storeys were all consumed. The kings, with their officers
and people, were all very sad and distressed, supposing that the sandal-wood
image had been burned; but lo! after four or five days, when the door of a
small vihâra on the east was opened, there was immediately seen the original
image. They were all greatly rejoiced, and co-operated in restoring the vihâra.
When they had succeeded in completing two storeys, they removed the image back
to its former place.

When Fâ-Hien and Tao-ching first arrived at the Jetavana monastery, and
thought how the World-honoured one had formerly resided there for twenty-five
years, painful reflections arose in their minds. Born in a border-land, along
with their like-minded friends, they had travelled through so many kingdoms;
some of those friends had returned (to their own land), and some had (died),
proving the impermanence and uncertainty of life; and to-day they saw the place
where Buddha had lived now unoccupied by him. They were melancholy through
their pain of heart, and the crowd of monks came out, and asked them from what
kingdom they were come. “We are come,” they replied, “from
the land of Han.” “Strange,” said the monks with a sigh,
“that men of a border country should be able to come here in search of
our Law!” Then they said to one another, “During all the time that
we, preceptors and monks,(11) have succeeded to one another, we have never seen
men of Han, followers of our system, arrive here.”

Four le to the north-west of the vihâra there is a grove called “The
Getting of Eyes.” Formerly there were five hundred blind men, who lived
here in order that they might be near the vihâra.(12) Buddha preached his Law
to them, and they all got back their eyesight. Full of joy, they stuck their
staves in the earth, and with their heads and faces on the ground, did
reverence. The staves immediately began to grow, and they grew to be great.
People made much of them, and no one dared to cut them down, so that they came
to form a grove. It was in this way that it got its name, and most of the
Jetavana monks, after they had taken their midday meal, went to the grove, and
sat there in meditation.

Six or seven le north-east from the Jetavana, mother Vaisakha(13) built another
vihâra, to which she invited Buddha and his monks, and which is still existing.

To each of the great residences for monks at the Jetavana vihâra there were two
gates, one facing the east and the other facing the north. The park (containing
the whole) was the space of ground which the (Vaisya) head Sudatta purchased by
covering it with gold coins. The vihâra was exactly in the centre. Here Buddha
lived for a longer time than at any other place, preaching his Law and
converting men. At the places where he walked and sat they also (subsequently)
reared topes, each having its particular name; and here was the place where
Sundari(14) murdered a person and then falsely charged Buddha (with the crime).
Outside the east gate of the Jetavana, at a distance of seventy paces to the
north, on the west of the road, Buddha held a discussion with the (advocates of
the) ninety-six schemes of erroneous doctrine, when the king and his great
officers, the householders, and people were all assembled in crowds to hear it.
Then a woman belonging to one of the erroneous systems, by name
Chanchamana,(15) prompted by the envious hatred in her heart, and having put on
(extra) clothes in front of her person, so as to give her the appearance of
being with child, falsely accused Buddha before all the assembly of having
acted unlawfully (towards her). On this, Sakra, Ruler of Devas, changed himself
and some devas into white mice, which bit through the strings about her waist;
and when this was done, the (extra) clothes which she wore dropt down on the
ground. The earth at the same time was rent, and she went (down) alive into
hell.(16) (This) also is the place where Devadatta,(17) trying with empoisoned
claws to injure Buddha, went down alive into hell. Men subsequently set up
marks to distinguish where both these events took place.

Further, at the place where the discussion took place, they reared a vihâra
rather more than sixty cubits high, having in it an image of Buddha in a
sitting posture. On the east of the road there was a devalaya(18) of (one of)
the contrary systems, called “The Shadow Covered,” right opposite
the vihâra on the place of discussion, with (only) the road between them, and
also rather more than sixty cubits high. The reason why it was called
“The Shadow Covered” was this:—When the sun was in the west,
the shadow of the vihâra of the World-honoured one fell on the devalaya of a
contrary system; but when the sun was in the east, the shadow of that devalaya
was diverted to the north, and never fell on the vihâra of Buddha. The
mal-believers regularly employed men to watch their devalaya, to sweep and
water (all about it), to burn incense, light the lamps, and present offerings;
but in the morning the lamps were found to have been suddenly removed, and in
the vihâra of Buddha. The Brahmans were indignant, and said, “Those
Sramanas take out lamps and use them for their own service of Buddha, but we
will not stop our service for you!”(19) On that night the Brahmans
themselves kept watch, when they saw the deva spirits which they served take
the lamps and go three times round the vihâra of Buddha and present offerings.
After this ministration to Buddha they suddenly disappeared. The Brahmans
thereupon knowing how great was the spiritual power of Buddha, forthwith left
their families, and became monks.(20) It has been handed down, that, near the
time when these things occurred, around the Jetavana vihâra there were
ninety-eight monasteries, in all of which there were monks residing, excepting
only in one place which was vacant. In this Middle Kingdom(21) there are
ninety-six(21) sorts of views, erroneous and different from our system, all of
which recognise this world and the future world(22) (and the connexion between
them). Each had its multitude of followers, and they all beg their food: only
they do not carry the alms-bowl. They also, moreover, seek (to acquire) the
blessing (of good deeds) on unfrequented ways, setting up on the road-side
houses of charity, where rooms, couches, beds, and food and drink are supplied
to travellers, and also to monks, coming and going as guests, the only
difference being in the time (for which those parties remain).

There are also companies of the followers of Devadatta still existing. They
regularly make offerings to the three previous Buddhas, but not to Sâkyamuni
Buddha.

Four le south-east from the city of Sravasti, a tope has been erected at the
place where the World-honoured one encountered king Virudhaha,(23) when he
wished to attack the kingdom of Shay-e,(23) and took his stand before him at
the side of the road.(24)

NOTES

(1) In Singhalese, Sewet; here evidently the capital of Kosala. It is placed by
Cunningham (Archaeological Survey) on the south bank of the Rapti, about
fifty-eight miles north of Ayodya or Oude. There are still the ruins of a great
town, the name being Sahet Mahat. It was in this town, or in its neighbourhood,
that Sâkyamuni spent many years of his life after he became Buddha.

(2) There were two Indian kingdoms of this name, a southern and a northern.
This was the northern, a part of the present Oudh.

(3) In Singhalese, Pase-nadi, meaning “leader of the victorious
army.” He was one of the earliest converts and chief patrons of
Sâkyamuni. Eitel calls him (p. 95) one of the originators of Buddhist
idolatory, because of the statue which is mentioned in this chapter. See
Hardy’s M. B., pp. 283, 284, et al.

(4) Explained by “Path of Love,” and “Lord of Life.”
Prajapati was aunt and nurse of Sâkyamuni, the first woman admitted to the
monkhood, and the first superior of the first Buddhistic convent. She is yet to
become a Buddha.

(5) Sudatta, meaning “almsgiver,” was the original name of
Anatha-pindika (or Pindada), a wealthy householder, or Vaisya head, of
Sravasti, famous for his liberality (Hardy, Anepidu). Of his old house, only
the well and walls remained at the time of Fâ-Hien’s visit to Sravasti.

(6) The Angulimalya were a sect or set of Sivaitic fanatics, who made
assassination a religious act. The one of them here mentioned had joined them
by the force of circumstances. Being converted by Buddha, he became a monk; but
when it is said in the text that he “got the Tao,” or doctrine, I
think that expression implies more than his conversion, and is equivalent to
his becoming an Arhat. His name in Pâli is Angulimala. That he did become an
Arhat is clear from his autobiographical poem in the “Songs of the
Theras.”

(7) Eitel (p. 37) says:—“A noted vihâra in the suburbs of Sravasti,
erected in a park which Anatha-pindika bought of prince Jeta, the son of
Prasenajit. Sâkyamuni made this place his favourite residence for many years.
Most of the Sûtras (authentic and supposititious) date from this spot.”

(8) See chapter xvii.

(9) See chapter xiii.

(10) Arya, meaning “honourable,” “venerable,” is a
title given only to those who have mastered the four spiritual
truths:—(1) that “misery” is a necessary condition of all
sentient existence; this is duhkha: (2) that the “accumulation” of
misery is caused by the passions; this is samudaya: (3) that the
“extinction” of passion is possible; this is nirodha: and (4) that
the “path” leads to the extinction of passion; which is marga.
According to their attainment of these truths, the Aryas, or followers of
Buddha, are distinguished into four classes,—Srotapannas, Sakridagamins,
Anagamins, and Arhats. E. H., p. 14.

(11) This is the first time that Fâ-Hien employs the name Ho-shang {.} {.},
which is now popularly used in China for all Buddhist monks without distinction
of rank or office. It is the representative of the Sanskrit term Upadhyaya,
“explained,” says Eitel (p. 155) by “a self-taught
teacher,” or by “he who knows what is sinful and what is not
sinful,” with the note, “In India the vernacular of this term is
{.} {.} (? munshee (? Bronze)); in Kustana and Kashgar they say {.} {.}
(hwa-shay); and from the latter term are derived the Chinese synonyms, {.} {.}
(ho-shay) and {.} {.} (ho-shang).” The Indian term was originally a
designation for those who teach only a part of the Vedas, the Vedangas. Adopted
by Buddhists of Central Asia, it was made to signify the priests of the older
ritual, in distinction from the Lamas. In China it has been used first as a
synonym for {.} {.}, monks engaged in popular teaching (teachers of the Law),
in distinction from {.} {.}, disciplinists, and {.} {.}, contemplative
philosophers (meditationists); then it was used to designate the abbots of
monasteries. But it is now popularly applied to all Buddhist monks. In the text
there seems to be implied some distinction between the “teachers”
and the “ho-shang;”—probably, the Pâli Akariya and Upagghaya;
see Sacred Books of the East, vol. xiii, Vinaya Texts, pp. 178, 179.

(12) It might be added, “as depending on it,” in order to bring out
the full meaning of the {.} in the text. If I recollect aright, the help of the
police had to be called in at Hong Kong in its early years, to keep the
approaches to the Cathedral free from the number of beggars, who squatted down
there during service, hoping that the hearers would come out with softened
hearts, and disposed to be charitable. I found the popular tutelary temples in
Peking and other places, and the path up Mount T’ai in Shan-lung
similarly frequented.

(13) The wife of Anatha-pindika, and who became “mother superior”
of many nunneries. See her history in M. B., pp. 220-227. I am surprised it
does not end with the statement that she is to become a Buddha.

(14) See E. H., p. 136. Hsuan-chwang does not give the name of this murderer;
see in Julien’s “Vie et Voyages de Hiouen-thsang,” p.
125,—“a heretical Brahman killed a woman and calumniated
Buddha.” See also the fuller account in Beal’s “Records of
Western Countries,” pp. 7, 8, where the murder is committed by several
Brahmacharins. In this passage Beal makes Sundari to be the name of the
murdered person (a harlot). But the text cannot be so construed.

(15) Eitel (p. 144) calls her Chancha; in Singhalese, Chinchi. See the story
about her, M. B., pp. 275-277.

(16) “Earth’s prison,” or “one of Earth’s
prisons.” It was the Avichi naraka to which she went, the last of the
eight hot prisons, where the culprits die, and are born again in uninterrupted
succession (such being the meaning of Avichi), though not without hope of final
redemption. E. H. p. 21.

(17) Devadatta was brother of Ananda, and a near relative therefore of
Sâkyamuni. He was the deadly enemy, however, of the latter. He had become so in
an earlier state of existence, and the hatred continued in every successive
birth, through which they reappeared in the world. See the accounts of him, and
of his various devices against Buddha, and his own destruction at the last, in
M. B., pp. 315-321, 326-330; and still better, in the Sacred Books of the East,
vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, pp. 233-265. For the particular attempt referred to in
the text, see “The Life of the Buddha,” p. 107. When he was
engulphed, and the flames were around him, he cried out to Buddha to save him,
and we are told that he is expected yet to appear as a Buddha under the name of
Devaraja, in a universe called Deva-soppana. E. H., p. 39.

(18) “A devalaya ({.} {.} or {.} {.}), a place in which a deva is
worshipped,—a general name for all Brahmanical temples” (Eitel, p.
30). We read in the Khang-hsi dictionary under {.}, that when Kasyapa Matanga
came to the Western Regions, with his Classics or Sûtras, he was lodged in the
Court of State-Ceremonial, and that afterwards there was built for him
“The Court of the White-horse” ({.} {.} {.}), and in consequence
the name of Sze {.} came to be given to all Buddhistic temples. Fâ-Hien,
however, applies this term only to Brahmanical temples.

(19) Their speech was somewhat unconnected, but natural enough in the
circumstances. Compare the whole account with the narrative in I Samuel v.
about the Ark and Dagon, that “twice-battered god of Palestine.”

(20) “Entered the doctrine or path.” Three stages in the Buddhistic
life are indicated by Fâ-Hien:—“entering it,” as here, by
becoming monks ({.} {.}); “getting it,” by becoming Arhats ({.}
{.}); and “completing it,” by becoming Buddha ({.} {.}).

(21) It is not quite clear whether the author had in mind here Central India as
a whole, which I think he had, or only Kosala, the part of it where he then
was. In the older teaching, there were only thirty-two sects, but there may
have been three subdivisions of each. See Rhys Davids’
“Buddhism,” pp. 98, 99.

(22) This mention of “the future world” is an important difference
between the Corean and Chinese texts. The want of it in the latter has been a
stumbling-block in the way of all previous translators. Rémusat says in a note
that “the heretics limited themselves to speak of the duties of man in
his actual life without connecting it by the notion that the metempsychosis
with the anterior periods of existence through which he had passed.” But
this is just the opposite of what Fâ-Hien’s meaning was, according to
our Corean text. The notion of “the metempsychosis” was just that
in which all the ninety-six erroneous systems agreed among themselves and with
Buddhism. If he had wished to say what the French sinologue thinks he does say,
moreover, he would probably have written {.} {.} {.} {.} {.}. Let me add,
however, that the connexion which Buddhism holds between the past world
(including the present) and the future is not that of a metempsychosis, or
transmigration of souls, for it does not appear to admit any separate existence
of the soul. Adhering to its own phraseology of “the wheel,” I
would call its doctrine that of “The Transrotation of Births.” See
Rhys Davids’ third Hibbert Lecture.

(23) Or, more according to the phonetisation of the text, Vaidurya. He was king
of Kosala, the son and successor of Prasenajit, and the destroyer of
Kapilavastu, the city of the Sakya family. His hostility to the Sakyas is
sufficiently established, and it may be considered as certain that the name
Shay-e, which, according to Julien’s “Methode,” p. 89, may be
read Chia-e, is the same as Kia-e ({.} {.}), one of the phonetisations of
Kapilavastu, as given by Eitel.

(24) This would be the interview in the “Life of the Buddha” in
Trübner’s Oriental Series, p. 116, when Virudhaha on his march found
Buddha under an old sakotato tree. It afforded him no shade; but he told the
king that the thought of the danger of “his relatives and kindred made it
shady.” The king was moved to sympathy for the time, and went back to
Sravasti; but the destruction of Kapilavastu was only postponed for a short
space, and Buddha himself acknowledged it to be inevitable in the connexion of
cause and effect.

CHAPTER XXI.
THE THREE PREDECESSORS OF SAKYAMUNI IN THE BUDDHASHIP.

Fifty le to the west of the city bring (the traveller) to a town named
Too-wei,(1) the birthplace of Kasyapa Buddha.(1) At the place where he and his
father met,(2) and at that where he attained to pari-nirvâna, topes were
erected. Over the entire relic of the whole body of him, the Kasyapa
Tathagata,(3) a great tope was also erected.

Going on south-east from the city of Sravasti for twelve yojanas, (the
travellers) came to a town named Na-pei-kea,(4) the birthplace of Krakuchanda
Buddha. At the place where he and his father met, and at that where he attained
to pari-nirvâna, topes were erected. Going north from here less than a yojana,
they came to a town which had been the birthplace of Kanakamuni Buddha. At the
place where he and his father met, and where he attained to pari-nirvâna, topes
were erected.

NOTES

(1) Identified, as Beal says, by Cunningham with Tadwa, a village nine miles to
the west of Sahara-mahat. The birthplace of Kasyapa Buddha is generally thought
to have been Benares. According to a calculation of Rémusat, from his birth to
A.D. 1832 there were 1,992,859 years!

(2) It seems to be necessary to have a meeting between every Buddha and his
father. One at least is ascribed to Sâkyamuni and his father (real or supposed)
Suddhodana.

(3) This is the highest epithet given to every supreme Buddha; in Chinese {.}
{.}, meaning, as Eitel, p. 147 says, “Sic profectus sum.” It
is equivalent to “Rightful Buddha, the true successor in the Supreme
Buddha Line.” Hardy concludes his account of the Kasyapa Buddha (M. B.,
p. 97) with the following sentence:—“After his body was burnt, the
bones still remained in their usual position, presenting the appearance of a
perfect skeleton; and the whole of the inhabitants of Jambudvipa, assembling
together, erected a dagoba over his relics one yojana in height!”

(4) Na-pei-kea or Nabhiga is not mentioned elsewhere. Eitel says this Buddha
was born at the city of Gan-ho ({.} {.} {.}) and Hardy gives his birthplace as
Mekhala. It may be possible, by means of Sanskrit, to reconcile these
statements.

CHAPTER XXII.
KAPILAVASTU. ITS DESOLATION. LEGENDS OF BUDDHA’S BIRTH, AND OTHER
INCIDENTS IN CONNEXION WITH IT.

Less than a yojana to the east from this brought them to the city of
Kapilavastu;(1) but in it there was neither king nor people. All was mound and
desolation. Of inhabitants there were only some monks and a score or two of
families of the common people. At the spot where stood the old palace of king
Suddhodana(2) there have been made images of the prince (his eldest son) and
his mother;(3) and at the places where that son appeared mounted on a white
elephant when he entered his mother’s womb,(4) and where he turned his
carriage round on seeing the sick man after he had gone out of the city by the
eastern gate,(5) topes have been erected. The places (were also pointed out)(6)
where (the rishi) A-e(7) inspected the marks (of Buddhaship on the body) of the
heir-apparent (when an infant); where, when he was in company with Nanda and
others, on the elephant being struck down and drawn to one side, he tossed it
away;(8) where he shot an arrow to the south-east, and it went a distance of
thirty le, then entering the ground and making a spring to come forth, which
men subsequently fashioned into a well from which travellers might drink;(9)
where, after he had attained to Wisdom, Buddha returned and saw the king, his
father;(10) where five hundred Sakyas quitted their families and did reverence
to Upali(11) while the earth shook and moved in six different ways; where
Buddha preached his Law to the devas, and the four deva kings and others kept
the four doors (of the hall), so that (even) the king, his father, could not
enter;(12) where Buddha sat under a nyagrodha tree, which is still
standing,(13) with his face to the east, and (his aunt) Maja-prajapati
presented him with a Sanghali;(14) and (where) king Vaidurya slew the seed of
Sakya, and they all in dying became Srotapannas.(15) A tope was erected at this
last place, which is still existing.

Several le north-east from the city was the king’s field, where the
heir-apparent sat under a tree, and looked at the ploughers.(16)

Fifty le east from the city was a garden, named Lumbini,(17) where the queen
entered the pond and bathed. Having come forth from the pond on the northern
bank, after (walking) twenty paces, she lifted up her hand, laid hold of a
branch of a tree, and, with her face to the east, gave birth to the
heir-apparent.(18) When he fell to the ground, he (immediately) walked seven
paces. Two dragon-kings (appeared) and washed his body. At the place where they
did so, there was immediately formed a well, and from it, as well as from the
above pond, where (the queen) bathed,(19) the monks (even) now constantly take
the water, and drink it.

There are four places of regular and fixed occurrence (in the history of) all
Buddhas:—first, the place where they attained to perfect Wisdom (and
became Buddha); second, the place where they turned the wheel of the Law;(20)
third, the place where they preached the Law, discoursed of righteousness, and
discomfited (the advocates of) erroneous doctrines; and fourth, the place where
they came down, after going up to the Trayatrimsas heaven to preach the Law for
the benefit of their mothers. Other places in connexion with them became
remarkable, according to the manifestations which were made at them at
particular times.

The country of Kapilavastu is a great scene of empty desolation. The
inhabitants are few and far between. On the roads people have to be on their
guard against white elephants(21) and lions, and should not travel
incautiously.

NOTES

(1) Kapilavastu, “the city of beautiful virtue,” was the birthplace
of Sâkyamuni, but was destroyed, as intimated in the notes on last chapter,
during his lifetime. It was situated a short distance north-west of the present
Goruckpoor, lat. 26° 46′ N., lon. 83° 19′ E. Davids says (Manual,
p. 25), “It was on the banks of the river Rohini, the modern Kohana,
about 100 miles north-west of the city of Benares.”

(2) The father, or supposed father, of Sâkyamuni. He is here called “the
king white and pure” ({.} {.} {.}). A more common appellation is
“the king of pure rice” ({.} {.} {.}); but the character {.}, or
“rice,” must be a mistake for {.}, “Brahman,” and the
appellation= “Pure Brahman king.”

(3) The “eldest son,” or “prince” was Sâkyamuni, and
his mother had no other son. For “his mother,” see chap. xvii, note
3. She was a daughter of Anjana or Anusakya, king of the neighbouring country
of Koli, and Yasodhara, an aunt of Suddhodana. There appear to have been
various intermarriages between the royal houses of Kapila and Koli.

(4) In “The Life of the Buddha,” p. 15, we read that “Buddha
was now in the Tushita heaven, and knowing that his time was come (the time for
his last rebirth in the course of which he would become Buddha), he made the
necessary examinations; and having decided that Maha-maya was the right mother,
in the midnight watch he entered her womb under the appearance of an
elephant.” See M. B., pp. 140-143, and, still better, Rhys Davids’
“Birth Stories,” pp. 58-63.

(5) In Hardy’s M. B., pp. 154, 155, we read, “As the prince
(Siddhartha, the first name given to Sâkyamuni; see Eitel, under
Sarvarthasiddha) was one day passing along, he saw a deva under the appearance
of a leper, full of sores, with a body like a water-vessel, and legs like the
pestle for pounding rice; and when he learned from his charioteer what it was
that he saw, he became agitated, and returned at once to the palace.” See
also Rhys Davids’ “Buddhism,” p. 29.

(6) This is an addition of my own, instead of “There are also topes
erected at the following spots,” of former translators. Fâ-Hien does not
say that there were memorial topes at all these places.

(7) Asita; see Eitel, p. 15. He is called in Pâli Kala Devala, and had been a
minister of Suddhodana’s father.

(8) In “The Life of Buddha” we read that the Lichchhavis of Vaisali
had sent to the young prince a very fine elephant; but when it was near
Kapilavastu, Devadatta, out of envy, killed it with a blow of his fist. Nanda
(not Ananda, but a half-brother of Siddhartha), coming that way, saw the
carcase lying on the road, and pulled it on one side; but the Bodhisattva,
seeing it there, took it by the tail, and tossed it over seven fences and
ditches, when the force of its fall made a great ditch. I suspect that the
characters in the column have been disarranged, and that we should read {.} {.}
{.} {.}, {.} {.}, {.} {.}. Buddha, that is Siddhartha, was at this time only
ten years old.

(9) The young Sakyas were shooting when the prince thus surpassed them all. He
was then seventeen.

(10) This was not the night when he finally fled from Kapilavastu, and as he
was leaving the palace, perceiving his sleeping father, and said,
“Father, though I love thee, yet a fear possesses me, and I may not
stay;”—The Life of the Buddha, p. 25. Most probably it was that
related in M. B., pp. 199-204. See “Buddhist Birth Stories,” pp.
120-127.

(11) They did this, I suppose, to show their humility, for Upali was only a
Sudra by birth, and had been a barber; so from the first did Buddhism assert
its superiority to the conditions of rank and caste. Upali was distinguished by
his knowledge of the rules of discipline, and praised on that account by
Buddha. He was one of the three leaders of the first synod, and the principal
compiler of the original Vinaya books.

(12) I have not met with the particulars of this preaching.

(13) Meaning, as explained in Chinese, “a tree without knots;” the
ficus Indica. See Rhys Davids’ note, Manual, p. 39, where he says
that a branch of one of these trees was taken from Buddha Gaya to Anuradhapura
in Ceylon in the middle of the third century B.C, and is still growing there,
the oldest historical tree in the world.

(14) See chap. xiii, note 11. I have not met with the account of this
presentation. See the long account of Prajapati in M. B., pp. 306-315.

(15) See chap. xx, note 10. The Srotapannas are the first class of saints, who
are not to be reborn in a lower sphere, but attain to nirvâna after having been
reborn seven times consecutively as men or devas. The Chinese editions state
there were “1000” of the Sakya seed. The general account is that
they were 500, all maidens, who refused to take their place in king
Vaidurya’s harem, and were in consequence taken to a pond, and had their
hands and feet cut off. There Buddha came to them, had their wounds dressed,
and preached to them the Law. They died in the faith, and were reborn in the
region of the four Great Kings. Thence they came back and visited Buddha at
Jetavana in the night, and there they obtained the reward of Srotapanna.
“The Life of the Buddha,” p. 121.

(16) See the account of this event in M. B., p. 150. The account of it reminds
me of the ploughing by the sovereign, which has been an institution in China
from the earliest times. But there we have no magic and no extravagance.

(17) “The place of Liberation;” see chap. xiii, note 7.

(18) See the accounts of this event in M. B., pp. 145, 146; “The Life of
the Buddha,” pp. 15, 16; and “Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 66.

(19) There is difficulty in construing the text of this last statement. Mr.
Beal had, no doubt inadvertently, omitted it in his first translation. In his
revised version he gives for it, I cannot say happily, “As well as at the
pool, the water of which came down from above for washing (the child).”

(20) See chap. xvii, note 8. See also Davids’ Manual, p. 45. The latter
says, that “to turn the wheel of the Law” means “to set
rolling the royal chariot wheel of a universal empire of truth and
righteousness;” but he admits that this is more grandiloquent than the
phraseology was in the ears of Buddhists. I prefer the words quoted from Eitel
in the note referred to. “They turned” is probably equivalent to
“They began to turn.”

(21) Fâ-Hien does not say that he himself saw any of these white elephants,
nor does he speak of the lions as of any particular colour. We shall find
by-and-by, in a note further on, that, to make them appear more terrible, they
are spoken of as “black.”

CHAPTER XXIII.
RAMA, AND ITS TOPE.

East from Buddha’s birthplace, and at a distance of five yojanas, there
is a kingdom called Rama.(1) The king of this country, having obtained one
portion of the relics of Buddha’s body,(2) returned with it and built
over it a tope, named the Rama tope. By the side of it there was a pool, and in
the pool a dragon, which constantly kept watch over (the tope), and presented
offerings to it day and night. When king Asoka came forth into the world, he
wished to destroy the eight topes (over the relics), and to build (instead of
them) 84,000 topes.(3) After he had thrown down the seven (others), he wished
next to destroy this tope. But then the dragon showed itself, took the king
into its palace;(4) and when he had seen all the things provided for offerings,
it said to him, “If you are able with your offerings to exceed these, you
can destroy the tope, and take it all away. I will not contend with you.”
The king, however, knew that such appliances for offerings were not to be had
anywhere in the world, and thereupon returned (without carrying out his
purpose).

(Afterwards), the ground all about became overgrown with vegetation, and there
was nobody to sprinkle and sweep (about the tope); but a herd of elephants came
regularly, which brought water with their trunks to water the ground, and
various kinds of flowers and incense, which they presented at the tope. (Once)
there came from one of the kingdoms a devotee(5) to worship at the tope. When
he encountered the elephants he was greatly alarmed, and screened himself among
the trees; but when he saw them go through with the offerings in the most
proper manner, the thought filled him with great sadness—that there
should be no monastery here, (the inmates of which) might serve the tope, but
the elephants have to do the watering and sweeping. Forthwith he gave up the
great prohibitions (by which he was bound),(6) and resumed the status of a
Sramanera.(7) With his own hands he cleared away the grass and trees, put the
place in good order, and made it pure and clean. By the power of his
exhortations, he prevailed on the king of the country to form a residence for
monks; and when that was done, he became head of the monastery. At the present
day there are monks residing in it. This event is of recent occurrence; but in
all the succession from that time till now, there has always been a Sramanera
head of the establishment.

NOTES

(1) Rama or Ramagrama, between Kapilavastu and Kusanagara.

(2) See the account of the eightfold division of the relics of Buddha’s
body in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist Suttas, pp. 133-136.

(3) The bones of the human body are supposed to consist of 84,000 atoms, and
hence the legend of Asoka’s wish to build 84,000 topes, one over each
atom of Sâkyamuni’s skeleton.

(4) Fâ-Hien, it appears to me, intended his readers to understand that the
naga-guardian had a palace of his own, inside or underneath the pool or tank.

(5) It stands out on the narrative as a whole that we have not here “some
pilgrims,” but one devotee.

(6) What the “great prohibitions” which the devotee now gave up
were we cannot tell. Being what he was, a monk of more than ordinary ascetical
habits, he may have undertaken peculiar and difficult vows.

(7) The Sramanera, or in Chinese Shamei. See chap. xvi, note 19.

CHAPTER XXIV.
WHERE BUDDHA FINALLY RENOUNCED THE WORLD, AND WHERE HE DIED.

East from here four yojanas, there is the place where the heir-apparent sent
back Chandaka, with his white horse;(1) and there also a tope was erected.

Four yojanas to the east from this, (the travellers) came to the Charcoal
tope,(2) where there is also a monastery.

Going on twelve yojanas, still to the east, they came to the city of
Kusanagara,(3) on the north of which, between two trees,(4) on the bank of the
Nairanjana(5) river, is the place where the World-honoured one, with his head
to the north, attained to pari-nirvâna (and died). There also are the places
where Subhadra,(6) the last (of his converts), attained to Wisdom (and became
an Arhat); where in his coffin of gold they made offerings to the
World-honoured one for seven days,(7) where the Vajrapani laid aside his golden
club,(8) and where the eight kings(9) divided the relics (of the burnt
body):—at all these places were built topes and monasteries, all of which
are now existing.

In the city the inhabitants are few and far between, comprising only the
families belonging to the (different) societies of monks.

Going from this to the south-east for twelve yojanas, they came to the place
where the Lichchhavis(10) wished to follow Buddha to (the place of) his
pari-nirvâna, and where, when he would not listen to them and they kept
cleaving to him, unwilling to go away, he made to appear a large and deep ditch
which they could not cross over, and gave them his alms-bowl, as a pledge of
his regard, (thus) sending them back to their families. There a stone pillar
was erected with an account of this event engraved upon it.

NOTES

(1) This was on the night when Sâkyamuni finally left his palace and family to
fulfil the course to which he felt that he was called. Chandaka, in Pâli
Channa, was the prince’s charioteer, and in sympathy with him. So also
was the white horse Kanthaka (Kanthakanam Asvaraja), which neighed his delight
till the devas heard him. See M. B., pp. 158-161, and Davids’ Manual, pp.
32, 33. According to “Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 87, the noble
horse never returned to the city, but died of grief at being left by his
master, to be reborn immediately in the Trayastrimsas heaven as the deva
Kanthaka!

(2) Beal and Giles call this the “Ashes” tope. I also would have
preferred to call it so; but the Chinese character is {.}, not {.}. Rémusat has
“la tour des charbons.” It was over the place of Buddha’s
cremation.

(3) In Pâli Kusinara. It got its name from the Kusa grass (the poa
cynosuroides); and its ruins are still extant, near Kusiah, 180 N.W. from
Patna; “about,” says Davids, “120 miles N.N.E. of Benares,
and 80 miles due east of Kapilavastu.”

(4) The Sala tree, the Shorea robusta, which yields the famous teak
wood.

(5) Confounded, according to Eitel, even by Hsuan-chwang, with the Hiranyavati,
which flows past the city on the south.

(6) A Brahman of Benares, said to have been 120 years old, who came to learn
from Buddha the very night he died. Ananda would have repulsed him; but Buddha
ordered him to be introduced; and then putting aside the ingenious but
unimportant question which he propounded, preached to him the Law. The Brahman
was converted and attained at once to Arhatship. Eitel says that he attained to
nirvâna a few moments before Sâkyamuni; but see the full account of him and his
conversion in “Buddhist Suttas,” p. 103-110.

(7) Thus treating the dead Buddha as if he had been a Chakravartti king.
Hardy’s M. B., p. 347, says:—“For the place of cremation, the
princes (of Kusinara) offered their own coronation-hall, which was decorated
with the utmost magnificence, and the body was deposited in a golden
sarcophagus.” See the account of a cremation which Fâ-Hien witnessed in
Ceylon, chap. xxxix.

(8) The name Vajrapani is explained as “he who holds in his hand the
diamond club (or pestle=sceptre),” which is one of the many names of
Indra or Sakra. He therefore, that great protector of Buddhism, would seem to
be intended here; but the difficulty with me is that neither in Hardy nor
Rockhill, nor any other writer, have I met with any manifestation of himself
made by Indra on this occasion. The princes of Kusanagara were called mallas,
“strong or mighty heroes;” so also were those of Pava and Vaisali;
and a question arises whether the language may not refer to some story which
Fâ-Hien had heard,—something which they did on this great occasion.
Vajrapani is also explained as meaning “the diamond mighty hero;”
but the epithet of “diamond” is not so applicable to them as to
Indra. The clause may hereafter obtain more elucidation.

(9) Of Kusanagara, Pava, Vaisali, and other kingdoms. Kings, princes,
brahmans,—each wanted the whole relic; but they agreed to an eightfold
division at the suggestion of the brahman Drona.

(10) These “strong heroes” were the chiefs of Vaisali, a kingdom
and city, with an oligarchical constitution. They embraced Buddhism early, and
were noted for their peculiar attachment to Buddha. The second synod was held
at Vaisali, as related in the next chapter. The ruins of the city still exist
at Bassahar, north of Patna, the same, I suppose, as Besarh, twenty miles north
of Hajipur. See Beal’s Revised Version, p. lii.

CHAPTER XXV.
VAISALI. THE TOPE CALLED “WEAPONS LAID DOWN.” THE COUNCIL OF
VAISALI.

East from this city ten yojanas, (the travellers) came to the kingdom of
Vaisali. North of the city so named is a large forest, having in it the
double-galleried vihâra(1) where Buddha dwelt, and the tope over half the body
of Ananda.(2) Inside the city the woman Ambapali(3) built a vihâra in honour of
Buddha, which is now standing as it was at first. Three le south of the city,
on the west of the road, (is the) garden (which) the same Ambapali presented to
Buddha, in which he might reside. When Buddha was about to attain to his
pari-nirvâna, as he was quitting the city by the west gate, he turned round,
and, beholding the city on his right, said to them, “Here I have taken my
last walk.”(4) Men subsequently built a tope at this spot.

Three le north-west of the city there is a tope called, “Bows and weapons
laid down.” The reason why it got that name was this:—The inferior
wife of a king, whose country lay along the river Ganges, brought forth from
her womb a ball of flesh. The superior wife, jealous of the other, said,
“You have brought forth a thing of evil omen,” and immediately it
was put into a box of wood and thrown into the river. Farther down the stream
another king was walking and looking about, when he saw the wooden box
(floating) in the water. (He had it brought to him), opened it, and found a
thousand little boys, upright and complete, and each one different from the
others. He took them and had them brought up. They grew tall and large, and
very daring, and strong, crushing all opposition in every expedition which they
undertook. By and by they attacked the kingdom of their real father, who became
in consequence greatly distressed and sad. His inferior wife asked what it was
that made him so, and he replied, “That king has a thousand sons, daring
and strong beyond compare, and he wishes with them to attack my kingdom; this
is what makes me sad.” The wife said, “You need not be sad and
sorrowful. Only make a high gallery on the wall of the city on the east; and
when the thieves come, I shall be able to make them retire.” The king did
as she said; and when the enemies came, she said to them from the tower,
“You are my sons; why are you acting so unnaturally and
rebelliously?” They replied, “If you do not believe me,” she
said, “look, all of you, towards me, and open your mouths.” She
then pressed her breasts with her two hands, and each sent forth 500 jets of
milk, which fell into the mouths of the thousand sons. The thieves (thus) knew
that she was their mother, and laid down their bows and weapons.(5) The two
kings, the fathers, thereupon fell into reflection, and both got to be Pratyeka
Buddhas.(6) The tope of the two Pratyeka Buddhas is still existing.

In a subsequent age, when the World-honoured one had attained to perfect Wisdom
(and become Buddha), he said to is disciples, “This is the place where I
in a former age laid down my bow and weapons.”(7) It was thus that
subsequently men got to know (the fact), and raised the tope on this spot,
which in this way received its name. The thousand little boys were the thousand
Buddhas of this Bhadra-kalpa.(8)

It was by the side of the “Weapons-laid-down” tope that Buddha,
having given up the idea of living longer, said to Ananda, “In three
months from this I will attain to pavi-nirvâna;” and king Mara(9) had so
fascinated and stupefied Ananda, that he was not able to ask Buddha to remain
longer in this world.

Three or four le east from this place there is a tope (commemorating the
following occurrence):—A hundred years after the pari-nirvâna of Buddha,
some Bhikshus of Vaisali went wrong in the matter of the disciplinary rules in
ten particulars, and appealed for their justification to what they said were
the words of Buddha. Hereupon the Arhats and Bhikshus observant of the rules,
to the number in all of 700 monks, examined afresh and collated the collection
of disciplinary books.(10) Subsequently men built at this place the tope (in
question), which is still existing.

NOTES

(1) It is difficult to tell what was the peculiar form of this vihâra from
which it gets its name; something about the construction of its door, or
cupboards, or galleries.

(2) See the explanation of this in the next chapter.

(3) Ambapali, Amrapali, or Amradarika, “the guardian of the Amra
(probably the mango) tree,” is famous in Buddhist annals. See the account
of her in M. B., pp. 456-8. She was a courtesan. She had been in many narakas
or hells, was 100,000 times a female beggar, and 10,000 times a prostitute; but
maintaining perfect continence during the period of Kasyapa Buddha,
Sâkyamuni’s predecessor, she had been born a devi, and finally appeared
in earth under an Amra tree in Vaisali. There again she fell into her old ways,
and had a son by king Bimbisara; but she was won over by Buddha to virtue and
chastity, renounced the world, and attained to the state of an Arhat. See the
earliest account of Ambapali’s presentation of the garden in
“Buddhist Suttas,” pp. 30-33, and the note there from Bishop
Bigandet on pp. 33, 34.

(4) Beal gives, “In this place I have performed the last religious act of
my earthly career;” Giles, “This is the last place I shall
visit;” Rémusat, “C’est un lieu ou je reviendrai bien
longtemps apres ceci.” Perhaps the “walk” to which Buddha
referred had been for meditation.

(5) See the account of this legend in the note in M. B., pp. 235, 236,
different, but not less absurd. The first part of Fâ-Hien’s narrative
will have sent the thoughts of some of my readers to the exposure of the infant
Moses, as related in Exodus.

(6) See chap. xiii, note 14.

(7) Thus Sâkyamuni had been one of the thousand little boys who floated in the
box in the Ganges. How long back the former age was we cannot tell. I suppose
the tope of the two fathers who became Pratyeka Buddhas had been built like the
one commemorating the laying down of weapons after Buddha had told his
disciples of the strange events in the past.

(8) Bhadra-kalpa, “the Kalpa of worthies or sages.”
“This,” says Eitel, p. 22, “is a designation for a Kalpa of
stability, so called because 1000 Buddhas appear in the course of it. Our
present period is a Bhadra-kalpa, and four Buddhas have already appeared. It is
to last 236 million years, but over 151 millions have already elapsed.”

(9) “The king of demons.” The name Mara is explained by “the
murderer,” “the destroyer of virtue,” and similar
appellations. “He is,” says Eitel, “the personification of
lust, the god of love, sin, and death, the arch-enemy of goodness, residing in
the heaven Paranirmita Vasavartin on the top of the Kamadhatu. He assumes
different forms, especially monstrous ones, to tempt or frighten the saints, or
sends his daughters, or inspires wicked men like Devadatta or the Nirgranthas
to do his work. He is often represented with 100 arms, and riding on an
elephant.” The oldest form of the legend in this paragraph is in
“Buddhist Suttas,” Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, pp. 41-55,
where Buddha says that, if Ananda had asked him thrice, he would have postponed
his death.

(10) Or the Vinaya-pitaka. The meeting referred to was an important one, and is
generally spoken of as the second Great Council of the Buddhist Church. See, on
the formation of the Buddhist Canon, Hardy’s E. M., chap. xviii, and the
last chapter of Davids’ Manual, on the History of the Order. The first
Council was that held at Rajagriha, shortly after Buddha’s death, under
the presidency of Kasyapa;—say about B.C. 410. The second was that spoken
of here;—say about B.C. 300. In Davids’ Manual (p. 216) we find the
ten points of discipline, in which the heretics (I can use that term here)
claimed at least indulgence. Two meetings were held to consider and discuss
them. At the former the orthodox party barely succeeded in carrying their
condemnation of the laxer monks; and a second and larger meeting, of which
Fâ-Hien speaks, was held in consequence, and a more emphatic condemnation
passed. At the same time all the books and subjects of discipline seem to have
undergone a careful revision.
    The Corean text is clearer than the Chinese as to those who composed the
Council,—the Arhats and orthodox monks. The leader among them was a
Yasas, or Yasada, or Yedsaputtra, who had been a disciple of Ananda, and must
therefore have been a very old man.

CHAPTER XXVI.
REMARKABLE DEATH OF ANANDA.

Four yojanas on from this place to the east brought the travellers to the
confluence of the five rivers.(1) When Ananda was going from Magadha(2) to
Vaisali, wishing his pari-nirvâna to take place (there), the devas informed
king Ajatasatru(3) of it, and the king immediately pursued him, in his own
grand carriage, with a body of soldiers, and had reached the river. (On the
other hand), the Lichchhavis of Vaisali had heard that Ananda was coming (to
their city), and they on their part came to meet him. (In this way), they all
arrived together at the river, and Ananda considered that, if he went forward,
king Ajatasatru would be very angry, while, if he went back, the Lichchhavis
would resent his conduct. He thereupon in the very middle of the river burnt
his body in a fiery ecstasy of Samadhi,(4) and his pari-nirvâna was attained.
He divided his body (also) into two, (leaving) the half of it on each bank; so
that each of the two kings got one half as a (sacred) relic, and took it back
(to his own capital), and there raised a tope over it.

NOTES

(1) This spot does not appear to have been identified. It could not be far from
Patna.

(2) Magadha was for some time the headquarters of Buddhism; the holy land,
covered with vihâras; a fact perpetuated, as has been observed in a previous
note, in the name of the present Behar, the southern portion of which
corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Magadha.

(3) In Singhalese, Ajasat. See the account of his conversion in M. B., pp.
321-326. He was the son of king Bimbisara, who was one of the first royal
converts to Buddhism. Ajasat murdered his father, or at least wrought his
death; and was at first opposed to Sâkyamuni, and a favourer of Devadatta. When
converted, he became famous for his liberality in almsgiving.

(4) Eitel has a long article (pp. 114, 115) on the meaning of Samadhi, which is
one of the seven sections of wisdom (bodhyanga). Hardy defines it as meaning
“perfect tranquillity;” Turnour, as “meditative
abstraction;” Burnouf, as “self-control;” and Edkins, as
“ecstatic reverie.” “Samadhi,” says Eitel,
“signifies the highest pitch of abstract, ecstatic meditation; a state of
absolute indifference to all influences from within or without; a state of
torpor of both the material and spiritual forces of vitality; a sort of
terrestrial nirvâna, consistently culminating in total destruction of
life.” He then quotes apparently the language of the text, “He
consumed his body by Agni (the fire of) Samadhi,” and says it is “a
common expression for the effects of such ecstatic, ultra-mystic
self-annihilation.” All this is simply “a darkening of counsel by
words without knowledge.” Some facts concerning the death of Ananda are
hidden beneath the darkness of the phraseology, which it is impossible for us
to ascertain. By or in Samadhi he burns his body in the very middle of the
river, and then he divides the relic of the burnt body into two parts (for so
evidently Fâ-Hien intended his narration to be taken), and leaves one half on
each bank. The account of Ananda’s death in Nien-ch’ang’s
“History of Buddha and the Patriarchs” is much more extravagant.
Crowds of men and devas are brought together to witness it. The body is divided
into four parts. One is conveyed to the Tushita heaven; a second, to the palace
of a certain Naga king; a third is given to Ajatasatru; and the fourth to the
Lichchhavis. What it all really means I cannot tell.

CHAPTER XXVII.
PATALIPUTTRA OR PATNA, IN MAGADHA. KING ASOKA’S SPIRIT-BUILT PALACE AND
HALLS. THE BUDDHIST BRAHMAN, RADHA-SAMI. DISPENSARIES AND HOSPITALS.

Having crossed the river, and descended south for a yojana, (the travellers)
came to the town of Pataliputtra,(1) in the kingdom of Magadha, the city where
king Asoka(2) ruled. The royal palace and halls in the midst of the city, which
exist now as of old, were all made by spirits which he employed, and which
piled up the stones, reared the walls and gates, and executed the elegant
carving and inlaid sculpture-work,—in a way which no human hands of this
world could accomplish.

King Asoka had a younger brother who had attained to be an Arhat, and resided
on Gridhra-kuta(3) hill, finding his delight in solitude and quiet. The king,
who sincerely reverenced him, wished and begged him (to come and live) in his
family, where he could supply all his wants. The other, however, through his
delight in the stillness of the mountain, was unwilling to accept the
invitation, on which the king said to him, “Only accept my invitation,
and I will make a hill for you inside the city.” Accordingly, he provided
the materials of a feast, called to him the spirits, and announced to them,
“To-morrow you will all receive my invitation; but as there are no mats
for you to sit on, let each one bring (his own seat).” Next day the
spirits came, each one bringing with him a great rock, (like) a wall, four or
five paces square, (for a seat). When their sitting was over, the king made
them form a hill with the large stones piled on one another, and also at the
foot of the hill, with five large square stones, to make an apartment, which
might be more than thirty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and more than ten
cubits high.

In this city there had resided a great Brahman,(4) named Radha-sami,(5) a
professor of the mahayana, of clear discernment and much wisdom, who understood
everything, living by himself in spotless purity. The king of the country
honoured and reverenced him, and served him as his teacher. If he went to
inquire for and greet him, the king did not presume to sit down alongside of
him; and if, in his love and reverence, he took hold of his hand, as soon as he
let it go, the Brahman made haste to pour water on it and wash it. He might be
more than fifty years old, and all the kingdom looked up to him. By means of
this one man, the Law of Buddha was widely made known, and the followers of
other doctrines did not find it in their power to persecute the body of monks
in any way.

By the side of the tope of Asoka, there has been made a mahayana monastery,
very grand and beautiful; there is also a hinayana one; the two together
containing six or seven hundred monks. The rules of demeanour and the
scholastic arrangements(6) in them are worthy of observation.

Shamans of the highest virtue from all quarters, and students, inquirers
wishing to find out truth and the grounds of it, all resort to these
monasteries. There also resides in this monastery a Brahman teacher, whose name
also is Manjusri,(7) whom the Shamans of greatest virtue in the kingdom, and
the mahayana Bhikshus honour and look up to.

The cities and towns of this country are the greatest of all in the Middle
Kingdom. The inhabitants are rich and prosperous, and vie with one another in
the practice of benevolence and righteousness. Every year on the eighth day of
the second month they celebrate a procession of images. They make a
four-wheeled car, and on it erect a structure of four storeys by means of
bamboos tied together. This is supported by a king-post, with poles and lances
slanting from it, and is rather more than twenty cubits high, having the shape
of a tope. White and silk-like cloth of hair(8) is wrapped all round it, which
is then painted in various colours. They make figures of devas, with gold,
silver, and lapis lazuli grandly blended and having silken streamers and
canopies hung out over them. On the four sides are niches, with a Buddha seated
in each, and a Bodhisattva standing in attendance on him. There may be twenty
cars, all grand and imposing, but each one different from the others. On the
day mentioned, the monks and laity within the borders all come together; they
have singers and skilful musicians; they pay their devotion with flowers and
incense. The Brahmans come and invite the Buddhas to enter the city. These do
so in order, and remain two nights in it. All through the night they keep lamps
burning, have skilful music, and present offerings. This is the practice in all
the other kingdoms as well. The Heads of the Vaisya families in them establish
in the cities houses for dispensing charity and medicines. All the poor and
destitute in the country, orphans, widowers, and childless men, maimed people
and cripples, and all who are diseased, go to those houses, and are provided
with every kind of help, and doctors examine their diseases. They get the food
and medicines which their cases require, and are made to feel at ease; and when
they are better, they go away of themselves.

When king Asoka destroyed the seven topes, (intending) to make eighty-four
thousand,(9) the first which he made was the great tope, more than three le to
the south of this city. In front of this there is a footprint of Buddha, where
a vihâra has been built. The door of it faces the north, and on the south of it
there is a stone pillar, fourteen or fifteen cubits in circumference, and more
than thirty cubits high, on which there is an inscription, saying, “Asoka
gave the jambudvipa to the general body of all the monks, and then redeemed it
from them with money. This he did three times.”(10) North from the tope
300 or 400 paces, king Asoka built the city of Ne-le.(11) In it there is a
stone pillar, which also is more than thirty feet high, with a lion on the top
of it. On the pillar there is an inscription recording the things which led to
the building of Ne-le, with the number of the year, the day, and the month.

NOTES

(1) The modern Patna, lat. 25° 28′ N., lon. 85° 15′ E. The
Sanskrit name means “The city of flowers.” It is the Indian
Florence.

(2) See chap. x, note 3. Asoka transferred his court from Rajagriha to
Pataliputtra, and there, in the eighteenth year of his reign, he convoked the
third Great Synod,—according, at least, to southern Buddhism. It must
have been held a few years before B.C. 250; Eitel says in 246.

(3) “The Vulture-hill;” so called because Mara, according to
Buddhist tradition, once assumed the form of a vulture on it to interrupt the
meditation of Ananda; or, more probably, because it was a resort of vultures.
It was near Rajagriha, the earlier capital of Asoka, so that Fâ-Hien connects
a legend of it with his account of Patna. It abounded in caverns, and was
famous as a resort of ascetics.

(4) A Brahman by cast, but a Buddhist in faith.

(5) So, by the help of Julien’s “Methode,” I transliterate
the Chinese characters {.} {.} {.} {.}. Beal gives Radhasvami, his Chinese text
having a {.} between {.} and {.}. I suppose the name was Radhasvami or
Radhasami.

(6) {.} {.}, the names of two kinds of schools, often occurring in the Li Ki
and Mencius. Why should there not have been schools in those monasteries in
India as there were in China? Fâ-Hien himself grew up with other boys in a
monastery, and no doubt had to “go to school.” And the next
sentence shows us there might be schools for more advanced students as well as
for the Sramaneras.

(7) See chap. xvi, note 22. It is perhaps with reference to the famous
Bodhisattva that the Brahman here is said to be “also” named
Manjusri.

(8) ? Cashmere cloth.

(9) See chap. xxiii, note 3.

(10) We wish that we had more particulars of this great transaction, and that
we knew what value in money Asoka set on the whole world. It is to be observed
that he gave it to the monks, and did not receive it from them. Their right was
from him, and he bought it back. He was the only “Power” that was.

(11) We know nothing more of Ne-le. It could only have been a small place; an
outpost for the defence of Pataliputtra.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
RAJAGRIHA, NEW AND OLD. LEGENDS AND INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH IT.

(The travellers) went on from this to the south-east for nine yojanas, and came
to a small solitary rocky hill,(1) at the head or end of which(2) was an
apartment of stone, facing the south,—the place where Buddha sat, when
Sakra, Ruler of Devas, brought the deva-musician, Pancha-(sikha),(3) to give
pleasure to him by playing on his lute. Sakra then asked Buddha about forty-two
subjects, tracing (the questions) out with his finger one by one on the
rock.(4) The prints of his tracing are still there; and here also there is a
monastery.

A yojana south-west from this place brought them to the village of Nala,(5)
where Sariputtra(6) was born, and to which also he returned, and attained here
his pari-nirvâna. Over the spot (where his body was burned) there was built a
tope, which is still in existence.

Another yojana to the west brought them to New Rajagriha,(7)—the new city
which was built by king Ajatasatru. There were two monasteries in it. Three
hundred paces outside the west gate, king Ajatasatru, having obtained one
portion of the relics of Buddha, built (over them) a tope, high, large, grand,
and beautiful. Leaving the city by the south gate, and proceeding south four
le, one enters a valley, and comes to a circular space formed by five hills,
which stand all round it, and have the appearance of the suburban wall of a
city. Here was the old city of king Bimbisara; from east to west about five or
six le, and from north to south seven or eight. It was here that Sariputtra and
Maudgalyayana first saw Upasena;(8) that the Nirgrantha(9) made a pit of fire
and poisoned the rice, and then invited Buddha (to eat with him); that king
Ajatasatru made a black elephant intoxicated with liquor, wishing him to injure
Buddha;(10) and that at the north-east corner of the city in a (large) curving
(space) Jivaka built a vihâra in the garden of Ambapali,(11) and invited Buddha
with his 1250 disciples to it, that he might there make his offerings to
support them. (These places) are still there as of old, but inside the city all
is emptiness and desolation; no man dwells in it.

NOTES

(1) Called by Hsuan-chwang Indra-sila-guha, or “The cavern of
Indra.” It has been identified with a hill near the village of Giryek, on
the bank of the Panchana river, about thirty-six miles from Gaya. The hill
terminates in two peaks overhanging the river, and it is the more northern and
higher of these which Fâ-Hien had in mind. It bears an oblong terrace covered
with the ruins of several buildings, especially of a vihâra.

(2) This does not mean the top or summit of the hill, but its
“headland,” where it ended at the river.

(3) See the account of this visit of Sakra in M. B., pp. 288-290. It is from
Hardy that we are able to complete here the name of the musician, which appears
in Fâ-Hien as only Pancha, or “Five.” His harp or lute, we are
told, was “twelve miles long.”

(4) Hardy (M. B., pp. 288, 289) makes the subjects only thirteen, which are
still to be found in one of the Sûtras (“the Dik-Sanga, in the
Sakra-prasna Sutra”). Whether it was Sakra who wrote his questions, or
Buddha who wrote the answers, depends on the punctuation. It seems better to
make Sakra the writer.

(5) Or Nalanda; identified with the present Baragong. A grand monastery was
subsequently built at it, famous by the residence for five years of
Hsuan-chwang.

(6) See chap. xvi, note 11. There is some doubt as to the statement that Nala
was his birthplace.

(7) The city of “Royal Palaces;” “the residence of the
Magadha kings from Bimbisara to Asoka, the first metropolis of Buddhism, at the
foot of the Gridhrakuta mountains. Here the first synod assembled within a year
after Sâkyamuni’s death. Its ruins are still extant at the village of
Rajghir, sixteen miles S.W. of Behar, and form an object of pilgrimage to the
Jains (E. H., p. 100).” It is called New Rajagriha to distinguish it from
Kusagarapura, a few miles from it, the old residence of the kings. Eitel says
it was built by Bimbisara, while Fâ-Hien ascribes it to Ajatasatru. I suppose
the son finished what the father had begun.

(8) One of the five first followers of Sâkyamuni. He is also called Asvajit; in
Pâli Assaji; but Asvajit seems to be a military title= “Master or trainer
of horses.” The two more famous disciples met him, not to lead him, but
to be directed by him, to Buddha. See Sacred Books of the East, vol. xiii,
Vinaya Texts, pp. 144-147.

(9) One of the six Tirthyas (Tirthakas=“erroneous teachers;” M. B.,
pp. 290-292, but I have not found the particulars of the attempts on
Buddha’s life referred to by Fâ-Hien), or Brahmanical opponents of
Buddha. He was an ascetic, one of the Jnati clan, and is therefore called
Nirgranthajnati. He taught a system of fatalism, condemned the use of clothes,
and thought he could subdue all passions by fasting. He had a body of
followers, who called themselves by his name (Eitel, pp. 84, 85), and were the
forerunners of the Jains.

(10) The king was moved to this by Devadatta. Of course the elephant
disappointed them, and did homage to Sâkyamuni. See Sacred Books of the East,
vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, p. 247.

(11) See chap. xxv, note 3. Jivaka was Ambapali’s son by king Bimbisara,
and devoted himself to the practice of medicine. See the account of him in the
Sacred Books of the East, vol. xvii, Vinaya Texts, pp. 171-194.

CHAPTER XXIX.
GRIDHRA-KUTA HILL, AND LEGENDS. FÂ-HIEN PASSES A NIGHT ON IT. HIS REFLECTIONS.

Entering the valley, and keeping along the mountains on the south-east, after
ascending fifteen le, (the travellers) came to mount Gridhra-kuta.(1) Three le
before you reach the top, there is a cavern in the rocks, facing the south, in
which Buddha sat in meditation. Thirty paces to the north-west there is
another, where Ananda was sitting in meditation, when the deva Mara Pisuna,(2)
having assumed the form of a large vulture, took his place in front of the
cavern, and frightened the disciple. Then Buddha, by his mysterious,
supernatural power, made a cleft in the rock, introduced his hand, and stroked
Ananda’s shoulder, so that his fear immediately passed away. The
footprints of the bird and the cleft for (Buddha’s) hand are still there,
and hence comes the name of “The Hill of the Vulture Cavern.”

In front of the cavern there are the places where the four Buddhas sat. There
are caverns also of the Arhats, one where each sat and meditated, amounting to
several hundred in all. At the place where in front of his rocky apartment
Buddha was walking from east to west (in meditation), and Devadatta, from among
the beetling cliffs on the north of the mountain, threw a rock across, and hurt
Buddha’s toes,(3) the rock is still there.(4)

The hall where Buddha preached his Law has been destroyed, and only the
foundations of the brick walls remain. On this hill the peak is beautifully
green, and rises grandly up; it is the highest of all the five hills. In the
New City Fâ-Hien bought incense-(sticks), flowers, oil and lamps, and hired
two bhikshus, long resident (at the place), to carry them (to the peak). When
he himself got to it, he made his offerings with the flowers and incense, and
lighted the lamps when the darkness began to come on. He felt melancholy, but
restrained his tears and said, “Here Buddha delivered the Surangama
(Sutra).(5) I, Fâ-Hien, was born when I could not meet with Buddha; and now I
only see the footprints which he has left, and the place where he lived, and
nothing more.” With this, in front of the rock cavern, he chanted the
Surangama Sutra, remained there over the night, and then returned towards the
New City.(6)

NOTES

(1) See chap. xxviii, note 1.

(2) See chap. xxv, note 9. Pisuna is a name given to Mara, and signifies
“sinful lust.”

(3) See M. B., p. 320. Hardy says that Devadatta’s attempt was “by
the help of a machine;” but the oldest account in the Sacred Books of the
East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, p. 245, agrees with what Fâ-Hien implies that he
threw the rock with his own arm.

(4) And, as described by Hsuan-chwang, fourteen or fifteen cubits high, and
thirty paces round.

(5) See Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio’s “Catalogue of the Chinese Translation
of the Buddhist Tripitaka,” Sutra Pitaka, Nos. 399, 446. It was the
former of these that came on this occasion to the thoughts and memory of
Fâ-Hien.

(6) In a note (p. lx) to his revised version of our author, Mr. Beal says,
“There is a full account of this perilous visit of Fâ-Hien, and how he
was attacked by tigers, in the ‘History of the High
Priests.’” But “the high priests” merely means
distinguished monks, “eminent monks,” as Mr. Nanjio exactly renders
the adjectival character. Nor was Fâ-Hien “attacked by tigers” on
the peak. No “tigers” appear in the Memoir. “Two black
lions” indeed crouched before him for a time this night, “licking
their lips and waving their tails;” but their appearance was to
“try,” and not to attack him; and when they saw him resolute, they
“drooped their heads, put down their tails, and prostrated themselves
before him.” This of course is not an historical account, but a legendary
tribute to his bold perseverance.

CHAPTER XXX.
THE SRATAPARNA CAVE, OR CAVE OF THE FIRST COUNCIL. LEGENDS. SUICIDE OF A
BHIKSHU.

Out from the old city, after walking over 300 paces, on the west of the road,
(the travellers) found the Karanda Bamboo garden,(1) where the (old) vihâra is
still in existence, with a company of monks, who keep (the ground about it)
swept and watered.

North of the vihâra two or three le there was the Smasanam, which name means in
Chinese “the field of graves into which the dead are thrown.”(2)

As they kept along the mountain on the south, and went west for 300 paces, they
found a dwelling among the rocks, named the Pippala cave,(3) in which Buddha
regularly sat in meditation after taking his (midday) meal.

Going on still to the west for five or six le, on the north of the hill, in the
shade, they found the cavern called Srataparna,(4) the place where, after the
nirvâna(5) of Buddha, 500 Arhats collected the Sûtras. When they brought the
Sûtras forth, three lofty seats(6) had been prepared and grandly ornamented.
Sariputtra occupied the one on the left, and Maudgalyayana that on the right.
Of the number of five hundred one was wanting. Mahakasyapa was president (on
the middle seat). Ananda was then outside the door, and could not get in.(7) At
the place there was (subsequently) raised a tope, which is still existing.

Along (the sides of) the hill, there are also a very great many cells among the
rocks, where the various Arhans sat and meditated. As you leave the old city on
the north, and go down east for three le, there is the rock dwelling of
Devadatta, and at a distance of fifty paces from it there is a large, square,
black rock. Formerly there was a bhikshu, who, as he walked backwards and
forwards upon it, thought with himself:—“This body(8) is
impermanent, a thing of bitterness and vanity,(9) and which cannot be looked on
as pure.(10) I am weary of this body, and troubled by it as an evil.”
With this he grasped a knife, and was about to kill himself. But he thought
again:—“The World-honoured one laid down a prohibition against
one’s killing himself.”(11) Further it occurred to
him:—“Yes, he did; but I now only wish to kill three poisonous
thieves.”(12) Immediately with the knife he cut his throat. With the
first gash into the flesh he attained the state of a Srotapanna;(13) when he
had gone half through, he attained to be an Anagamin;(14) and when he had cut
right through, he was an Arhat, and attained to pari-nirvâna;(15) (and died).

NOTES

(1) Karanda Venuvana; a park presented to Buddha by king Bimbisara, who also
built a vihâra in it. See the account of the transaction in M. B., p. 194. The
place was called Karanda, from a creature so named, which awoke the king just
as a snake was about to bite him, and thus saved his life. In Hardy the
creature appears as a squirrel, but Eitel says that the Karanda is a bird of
sweet voice, resembling a magpie, but herding in flocks; the cuculus
melanoleucus. See “Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 118.

(2) The language here is rather contemptuous, as if our author had no sympathy
with any other mode of disposing of the dead, but by his own Buddhistic method
of cremation.

(3) The Chinese characters used for the name of this cavern serve also to name
the pippala (peepul) tree, the ficus religiosa. They make us think that
there was such a tree overshadowing the cave; but Fâ-Hien would hardly have
neglected to mention such a circumstance.

(4) A very great place in the annals of Buddhism. The Council in the Srataparna
cave did not come together fortuitously, but appears to have been convoked by
the older members to settle the rules and doctrines of the order. The cave was
prepared for the occasion by king Ajatasatru. From the expression about the
“bringing forth of the King,” it would seem that the Sûtras or some
of them had been already committed to writing. May not the meaning of King {.}
here be extended to the Vinaya rules, as well as the Sûtras, and mean
“the standards” of the system generally? See Davids’ Manual,
chapter ix, and Sacred Books of the East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, pp. 370-385.

(5) So in the text, evidently for pari-nirvâna.

(6) Instead of “high” seats, the Chinese texts have
“vacant.” The character for “prepared” denotes
“spread;”—they were carpeted; perhaps, both cushioned and
carpeted, being rugs spread on the ground, raised higher than the other places
for seats.

(7) Did they not contrive to let him in, with some cachinnation, even in so
august an assembly, that so important a member should have been shut out?

(8) “The life of this body” would, I think, fairly express the idea
of the bhikshu.

(9) See the account of Buddha’s preaching in chapter xviii.

(10) The sentiment of this clause is not easily caught.

(11) See E. M., p. 152:—“Buddha made a law forbidding the monks to
commit suicide. He prohibited any one from discoursing on the miseries of life
in such a manner as to cause desperation.” See also M. B., pp. 464, 465.

(12) Beal says:—“Evil desire; hatred; ignorance.”

(13) See chap. xx, note 10.

(14) The Anagamin belong to the third degree of Buddhistic saintship, the third
class of Aryas, who are no more liable to be reborn as men, but are to be born
once more as devas, when they will forthwith become Arhats, and attain to
nirvâna. E. H., pp. 8, 9.

(15) Our author expresses no opinion of his own on the act of this bhikshu.
Must it not have been a good act, when it was attended, in the very act of
performance, by such blessed consequences? But if Buddhism had not something
better to show than what appears here, it would not attract the interest which
it now does. The bhikshu was evidently rather out of his mind; and the verdict
of a coroner’s inquest of this nineteenth century would have pronounced
that he killed himself “in a fit of insanity.”

CHAPTER XXXI.
GAYA. SAKYAMUNI’S ATTAINING TO THE BUDDHASHIP; AND OTHER LEGENDS.

From this place, after travelling to the west for four yojanas, (the pilgrims)
came to the city of Gaya;(1) but inside the city all was emptiness and
desolation. Going on again to the south for twenty le, they arrived at the
place where the Bodhisattva for six years practised with himself painful
austerities. All around was forest.

Three le west from here they came to the place where, when Buddha had gone into
the water to bathe, a deva bent down the branch of a tree, by means of which he
succeeded in getting out of the pool.(2)

Two le north from this was the place where the Gramika girls presented to
Buddha the rice-gruel made with milk;(3) and two le north from this (again) was
the place where, seated on a rock under a great tree, and facing the east, he
ate (the gruel). The tree and the rock are there at the present day. The rock
may be six cubits in breadth and length, and rather more than two cubits in
height. In Central India the cold and heat are so equally tempered that trees
will live in it for several thousand and even for ten thousand years.

Half a yojana from this place to the north-east there was a cavern in the
rocks, into which the Bodhisattva entered, and sat cross-legged with his face
to the west. (As he did so), he said to himself, “If I am to attain to
perfect wisdom (and become Buddha), let there be a supernatural attestation of
it.” On the wall of the rock there appeared immediately the shadow of a
Buddha, rather more than three feet in length, which is still bright at the
present day. At this moment heaven and earth were greatly moved, and devas in
the air spoke plainly, “This is not the place where any Buddha of the
past, or he that is to come, has attained, or will attain, to perfect Wisdom.
Less than half a yojana from this to the south-west will bring you to the
patra(4) tree, where all past Buddhas have attained, and all to come must
attain, to perfect Wisdom.” When they had spoken these words, they
immediately led the way forwards to the place, singing as they did so. As they
thus went away, the Bodhisattva arose and walked (after them). At a distance of
thirty paces from the tree, a deva gave him the grass of lucky omen,(5) which
he received and went on. After (he had proceeded) fifteen paces, 500 green
birds came flying towards him, went round him thrice, and disappeared. The
Bodhisattva went forward to the patra tree, placed the kusa grass at the foot
of it, and sat down with his face to the east. Then king Mara sent three
beautiful young ladies, who came from the north, to tempt him, while he himself
came from the south to do the same. The Bodhisattva put his toes down on the
ground, and the demon soldiers retired and dispersed, and the three young
ladies were changed into old (grand-)mothers.(6)

At the place mentioned above of the six years’ painful austerities, and
at all these other places, men subsequently reared topes and set up images,
which all exist at the present day.

Where Buddha, after attaining to perfect wisdom, for seven days contemplated
the tree, and experienced the joy of vimukti;(7) where, under the patra tree,
he walked backwards and forwards from west to east for seven days; where the
devas made a hall appear, composed of the seven precious substances, and
presented offerings to him for seven days; where the blind dragon Muchilinda(8)
encircled him for seven days; where he sat under the nyagrodha tree, on a
square rock, with his face to the east, and Brahma-deva(9) came and made his
request to him; where the four deva kings brought to him their alms-bowls;(10)
where the 500 merchants(11) presented to him the roasted flour and honey; and
where he converted the brothers Kasyapa and their thousand
disciples;(12)—at all these places topes were reared.

At the place where Buddha attained to perfect Wisdom, there are three
monasteries, in all of which there are monks residing. The families of their
people around supply the societies of these monks with an abundant sufficiency
of what they require, so that there is no lack or stint.(13) The disciplinary
rules are strictly observed by them. The laws regulating their demeanour in
sitting, rising, and entering when the others are assembled, are those which
have been practised by all the saints since Buddha was in the world down to the
present day. The places of the four great topes have been fixed, and handed
down without break, since Buddha attained to nirvâna. Those four great topes
are those at the places where Buddha was born; where he attained to Wisdom;
where he (began to) move the wheel of his Law; and where he attained to
pari-nirvâna.

NOTES

(1) Gaya, a city of Magadha, was north-west of the present Gayah (lat. 24°
47′ N., lon. 85° 1′ E). It was here that Sâkyamuni lived for
seven years, after quitting his family, until he attained to Buddhaship. The
place is still frequented by pilgrims. E. H., p. 41.

(2) This is told so as to make us think that he was in danger of being drowned;
but this does not appear in the only other account of the incident I have met
with,—in “The Life of the Buddha,” p. 31. And he was not yet
Buddha, though he is here called so; unless indeed the narrative is confused,
and the incidents do not follow in the order of time.

(3) An incident similar to this is told, with many additions, in Hardy’s
M. B., pp. 166-168; “The Life of the Buddha,” p. 30; and the
“Buddhist Birth Stories,” pp. 91, 92; but the name of the
ministering girl or girls is different. I take Gramika from a note in
Beal’s revised version; it seems to me a happy solution of the difficulty
caused by the {.} {.} of Fâ-Hien.

(4) Called “the tree of leaves,” and “the tree of
reflection;” a palm tree, the borassus flabellifera, described as
a tree which never loses its leaves. It is often confounded with the pippala.
E. H., p. 92.

(5) The kusa grass, mentioned in a previous note.

(6) See the account of this contest with Mara in M. B., pp. 171-179, and
“Buddhist Birth Stories,” pp. 96-101.

(7) See chap. xiii, note 7.

(8) Called also Maha, or the Great Muchilinda. Eitel says: “A naga king,
the tutelary deity of a lake near which Sâkyamuni once sat for seven days
absorbed in meditation, whilst the king guarded him.” The account (p. 35)
in “The Life of the Buddha” is:—“Buddha went to where
lived the naga king Muchilinda, and he, wishing to preserve him from the sun
and rain, wrapped his body seven times round him, and spread out his hood over
his head; and there he remained seven days in thought.” So also the
Nidana Katha, in “Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 109.

(9) This was Brahma himself, though “king” is omitted. What he
requested of the Buddha was that he would begin the preaching of his Law.
Nidana Katha, p. 111.

(10) See chap. xii, note 10.

(11) The other accounts mention only two; but in M. B., p. 182, and the Nidana
Katha, p. 110, these two have 500 well-laden waggons with them.

(12) These must not be confounded with Mahakasyapa of chap. xvi, note 17. They
were three brothers, Uruvilva, Gaya, and Nadi-Kasyapa, up to this time holders
of “erroneous” views, having 500, 300, and 200 disciples
respectively. They became distinguished followers of Sâkyamuni; and
are—each of them—to become Buddha by-and-by. See the Nidana Katha,
pp. 114, 115.

(13) This seems to be the meaning; but I do not wonder that some understand the
sentence of the benevolence of the monkish population to the travellers.

CHAPTER XXXII.
LEGEND OF KING ASOKA IN A FORMER BIRTH, AND HIS NARAKA.

When king Asoka, in a former birth,(1) was a little boy and played on the road,
he met Kasyapa Buddha walking. (The stranger) begged food, and the boy
pleasantly took a handful of earth and gave it to him. The Buddha took the
earth, and returned it to the ground on which he was walking; but because of
this (the boy) received the recompense of becoming a king of the iron wheel,(2)
to rule over Jambudvipa. (Once) when he was making a judicial tour of
inspection through Jambudvipa, he saw, between the iron circuit of the two
hills, a naraka(3) for the punishment of wicked men. Having thereupon asked his
ministers what sort of a thing it was, they replied, “It belongs to
Yama,(4) king of demons, for punishing wicked people.” The king thought
within himself:—“(Even) the king of demons is able to make a naraka
in which to deal with wicked men; why should not I, who am the lord of men,
make a naraka in which to deal with wicked men?” He forthwith asked his
ministers who could make for him a naraka and preside over the punishment of
wicked people in it. They replied that it was only a man of extreme wickedness
who could make it; and the king thereupon sent officers to seek everywhere for
(such) a bad man; and they saw by the side of a pond a man tall and strong,
with a black countenance, yellow hair, and green eyes, hooking up the fish with
his feet, while he called to him birds and beasts, and, when they came, then
shot and killed them, so that not one escaped. Having got this man, they took
him to the king, who secretly charged him, “You must make a square
enclosure with high walls. Plant in it all kinds of flowers and fruits; make
good ponds in it for bathing; make it grand and imposing in every way, so that
men shall look to it with thirsting desire; make its gates strong and sure; and
when any one enters, instantly seize him and punish him as a sinner, not
allowing him to get out. Even if I should enter, punish me as a sinner in the
same way, and do not let me go. I now appoint you master of that naraka.”

Soon after this a bhikshu, pursuing his regular course of begging his food,
entered the gate (of the place). When the lictors of the naraka saw him, they
were about to subject him to their tortures; but he, frightened, begged them to
allow him a moment in which to eat his midday meal. Immediately after, there
came in another man, whom they thrust into a mortar and pounded till a red
froth overflowed. As the bhikshu looked on, there came to him the thought of
the impermanence, the painful suffering and insanity of this body, and how it
is but as a bubble and as foam; and instantly he attained to Arhatship.
Immediately after, the lictors seized him, and threw him into a caldron of
boiling water. There was a look of joyful satisfaction, however, in the
bhikshu’s countenance. The fire was extinguished, and the water became
cold. In the middle (of the caldron) there rose up a lotus flower, with the
bhikshu seated on it. The lictors at once went and reported to the king that
there was a marvellous occurrence in the naraka, and wished him to go and see
it; but the king said, “I formerly made such an agreement that now I dare
not go (to the place).” The lictors said, “This is not a small
matter. Your majesty ought to go quickly. Let your former agreement be
altered.” The king thereupon followed them, and entered (the naraka),
when the bhikshu preached the Law to him, and he believed, and was made
free.(5) Forthwith he demolished the naraka, and repented of all the evil which
he had formerly done. From this time he believed in and honoured the Three
Precious Ones, and constantly went to a patra tree, repenting under it, with
self-reproach, of his errors, and accepting the eight rules of abstinence.(6)

The queen asked where the king was constantly going to, and the ministers
replied that he was constantly to be seen under (such and such) a patra tree.
She watched for a time when the king was not there, and then sent men to cut
the tree down. When the king came, and saw what had been done, he swooned away
with sorrow, and fell to the ground. His ministers sprinkled water on his face,
and after a considerable time he revived. He then built all round (the stump)
with bricks, and poured a hundred pitchers of cows’ milk on the roots;
and as he lay with his four limbs spread out on the ground, he took this oath,
“If the tree do not live, I will never rise from this.” When he had
uttered this oath, the tree immediately began to grow from the roots, and it
has continued to grow till now, when it is nearly 100 cubits in height.

NOTES

(1) Here is an instance of {.} used, as was pointed out in chap. ix, note 3,
for a former age; and not merely a former time. Perhaps “a former
birth” is the best translation. The Corean reading of Kasyapa Buddha is
certainly preferable to the Chinese “Sakya Buddha.”

(2) See chap. xvii, note 8.

(3) I prefer to retain the Sanskrit term here, instead of translating the
Chinese text by “Earth’s prison {.} {.},” or “a prison
in the earth;” the name for which has been adopted generally by Christian
missionaries in China for gehenna and hell.

(4) Eitel (p. 173) says:—“Yama was originally the Aryan god of the
dead, living in a heaven above the world, the regent of the south; but
Brahmanism transferred his abode to hell. Both views have been retained by
Buddhism.” The Yama of the text is the “regent of the narakas,
residing south of Jambudvipa, outside the Chakravalas (the double circuit of
mountains above), in a palace built of brass and iron. He has a sister who
controls all the female culprits, as he exclusively deals with the male sex.
Three times, however, in every twenty-four hours, a demon pours boiling copper
into Yama’s mouth, and squeezes it down his throat, causing him
unspeakable pain.” Such, however, is the wonderful “transrotation
of births,” that when Yama’s sins have been expiated, he is to be
reborn as Buddha, under the name of “The Universal King.”

(5) Or, “was loosed;” from the bonds, I suppose, of his various
illusions.

(6) I have not met with this particular numerical category.

CHAPTER XXXIII.
MOUNT GURUPADA, WHERE KASYAPA BUDDHA’S ENTIRE SKELETON IS.

(The travellers), going on from this three le to the south, came to a mountain
named Gurupada,(1) inside which Mahakasyapa even now is. He made a cleft, and
went down into it, though the place where he entered would not (now) admit a
man. Having gone down very far, there was a hole on one side, and there the
complete body of Kasyapa (still) abides. Outside the hole (at which he entered)
is the earth with which he had washed his hands.(2) If the people living
thereabouts have a sore on their heads, they plaster on it some of the earth
from this, and feel immediately easier.(3) On this mountain, now as of old,
there are Arhats abiding. Devotees of our Law from the various countries in
that quarter go year by year to the mountain, and present offerings to Kasyapa;
and to those whose hearts are strong in faith there come Arhats at night, and
talk with them, discussing and explaining their doubts, and disappearing
suddenly afterwards.

On this hill hazels grow luxuriously; and there are many lions, tigers, and
wolves, so that people should not travel incautiously.

NOTES

(1) “Fowl’s-foot hill,” “with three peaks, resembling
the foot of a chicken. It lies seven miles south-east of Gaya, and was the
residence of Mahakasyapa, who is said to be still living inside this
mountain.” So Eitel says, p. 58; but this chapter does not say that
Kasyapa is in the mountain alive, but that his body entire is in a recess or
hole in it. Hardy (M. B., p. 97) says that after Kasyapa Buddha’s body
was burnt, the bones still remained in their usual position, presenting the
appearance of a perfect skeleton. It is of him that the chapter speaks, and not
of the famous disciple of Sâkyamuni, who also is called Mahakasyapa. This will
appear also on a comparison of Eitel’s articles on
“Mahakasyapa” and “Kasyapa Buddha.”

(2) Was it a custom to wash the hands with “earth,” as is often
done with sand?

(3) This I conceive to be the meaning here.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
ON THE WAY BACK TO PATNA. VARANASI, OR BENARES. SAKYAMUNI’S FIRST DOINGS
AFTER BECOMING BUDDHA.

Fâ-Hien(1) returned (from here) towards Pataliputtra,(2) keeping along the
course of the Ganges and descending in the direction of the west. After going
ten yojanas he found a vihâra, named “The Wilderness,”—a
place where Buddha had dwelt, and where there are monks now.

Pursuing the same course, and going still to the west, he arrived, after twelve
yojanas, at the city of Varanasi(3) in the kingdom of Kasi. Rather more than
ten le to the north-east of the city, he found the vihâra in the park of
“The rishi’s Deer-wild.”(4) In this park there formerly
resided a Pratyeka Buddha,(5) with whom the deer were regularly in the habit of
stopping for the night. When the World-honoured one was about to attain to
perfect Wisdom, the devas sang in the sky, “The son of king Suddhodana,
having quitted his family and studied the Path (of Wisdom),(6) will now in
seven days become Buddha.” The Pratyeka Buddha heard their words, and
immediately attained to nirvâna; and hence this place was named “The Park
of the rishi’s Deer-wild.”(7) After the World-honoured one had
attained to perfect Wisdom, men build the vihâra in it.

Buddha wished to convert Kaundinya(8) and his four companions; but they, (being
aware of his intention), said to one another, “This Sramana Gotama(9) for
six years continued in the practice of painful austerities, eating daily (only)
a single hemp-seed, and one grain of rice, without attaining to the Path (of
Wisdom); how much less will he do so now that he has entered (again) among men,
and is giving the reins to (the indulgence of) his body, his speech, and his
thoughts! What has he to do with the Path (of Wisdom)? To-day, when he comes to
us, let us be on our guard not to speak with him.” At the places where
the five men all rose up, and respectfully saluted (Buddha), when he came to
them; where, sixty paces north from this, he sat with his face to the east, and
first turned the wheel of the Law, converting Kaundinya and the four others;
where, twenty paces further to the north, he delivered his prophecy concerning
Maitreya;(10) and where, at a distance of fifty paces to the south, the dragon
Elapattra(11) asked him, “When shall I get free from this naga
body?”—at all these places topes were reared, and are still
existing. In (the park) there are two monasteries, in both of which there are
monks residing.

When you go north-west from the vihâra of the Deer-wild park for thirteen
yojanas, there is a kingdom named Kausambi.(12) Its vihâra is named
Ghochiravana(13)—a place where Buddha formerly resided. Now, as of old,
there is a company of monks there, most of whom are students of the hinayana.

East from (this), when you have travelled eight yojanas, is the place where
Buddha converted(14) the evil demon. There, and where he walked (in meditation)
and sat at the place which was his regular abode, there have been topes
erected. There is also a monastery, which may contain more than a hundred
monks.

NOTES

(1) Fâ-Hien is here mentioned singly, as in the account of his visit to the
cave on Gridhra-kuta. I think that Tao-ching may have remained at Patna after
their first visit to it.

(2) See chap. xxvii, note 1.

(3) “The city surrounded by rivers;” the modern Benares, lat. 25°
23′ N., lon. 83° 5′ E.

(4) “The rishi,” says Eitel, “is a man whose bodily frame has
undergone a certain transformation by dint of meditation and ascetism, so that
he is, for an indefinite period, exempt from decrepitude, age, and death. As
this period is believed to extend far beyond the usual duration of human life,
such persons are called, and popularly believed to be, immortals.” Rishis
are divided into various classes; and rishi-ism is spoken of as a seventh part
of transrotation, and rishis are referred to as the seventh class of sentient
beings. Taoism, as well as Buddhism, has its Seen jin.

(5) See chap. xiii, note 15.

(6) See chap. xxii, note 2.

(7) For another legend about this park, and the identification of “a fine
wood” still existing, see note in Beal’s first version, p. 135.

(8) A prince of Magadha and a maternal uncle of Sâkyamuni, who gave him the
name of Ajnata, meaning automat; and hence he often appears as Ajnata
Kaundinya. He and his four friends had followed Sâkyamuni into the Uruvilva
desert, sympathising with him in the austerities he endured, and hoping that
they would issue in his Buddhaship. They were not aware that that issue had
come; which may show us that all the accounts in the thirty-first chapter are
merely descriptions, by means of external imagery, of what had taken place
internally. The kingdom of nirvâna had come without observation. These friends
knew it not; and they were offended by what they considered Sâkyamuni’s
failure, and the course he was now pursuing. See the account of their
conversion in M. B., p. 186.

(9) This is the only instance in Fâ-Hien’s text where the Bodhisattva or
Buddha is called by the surname “Gotama.” For the most part our
traveller uses Buddha as a proper name, though it properly means “The
Enlightened.” He uses also the combinations “Sakya
Buddha,”=“The Buddha of the Sakya tribe,” and
“Sâkyamuni,”=“The Sakya sage.” This last is the most
common designation of the Buddha in China, and to my mind best combines the
characteristics of a descriptive and a proper name. Among other Buddhistic
peoples “Gotama” and “Gotama Buddha” are the more
frequent designations. It is not easy to account for the rise of the surname
Gotama in the Sakya family, as Oldenberg acknowledges. He says that “the
Sakyas, in accordance with the custom of Indian noble families, had borrowed it
from one of the ancient Vedic bard families.” Dr. Davids
(“Buddhism,” p. 27) says: “The family name was certainly
Gautama,” adding in a note, “It is a curious fact that Gautama is
still the family name of the Rajput chiefs of Nagara, the village which has
been identified with Kapilavastu.” Dr. Eitel says that “Gautama was
the sacerdotal name of the Sakya family, which counted the ancient rishi
Gautama among its ancestors.” When we proceed, however, to endeavour to
trace the connexion of that Brahmanical rishi with the Sakya house, by means of
1323, 1468, 1469, and other historical works in Nanjio’s Catalogue, we
soon find that Indian histories have no surer foundation than the shifting
sand;—see E. H., on the name Sakya, pp. 108, 109. We must be content for
the present simply to accept Gotama as one of the surnames of the Buddha with
whom we have to do.

(10) See chap. vi, note 5. It is there said that the prediction of
Maitreya’s succession to the Buddhaship was made to him in the Tushita
heaven. Was there a repetition of it here in the Deer-park, or was a prediction
now given concerning something else?

(11) Nothing seems to be known of this naga but what we read here.

(12) Identified by some with Kusia, near Kurrah (lat. 25° 41′ N., lon.
81° 27′ E.); by others with Kosam on the Jumna, thirty miles above
Allahabad. See E. H., p. 55.

(13) Ghochira was the name of a Vaisya elder, or head, who presented a garden
and vihâra to Buddha. Hardy (M. B., p. 356) quotes a statement from a
Singhalese authority that Sâkyamuni resided here during the ninth year of his
Buddhaship.

(14) Dr. Davids thinks this may refer to the striking and beautiful story of
the conversion of the Yakkha Alavaka, as related in the Uragavagga,
Alavakasutta, pp. 29-31 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. x, part ii).

CHAPTER XXXV.
DAKSHINA, AND THE PIGEON MONASTERY.

South from this 200 yojanas, there is a country named Dakshina,(1) where there
is a monastery (dedicated to) the bygone Kasyapa Buddha, and which has been
hewn out from a large hill of rock. It consists in all of five
storeys;—the lowest, having the form of an elephant, with 500 apartments
in the rock; the second, having the form of a lion, with 400 apartments; the
third, having the form of a horse, with 300 apartments; the fourth, having the
form of an ox, with 200 apartments; and the fifth, having the form of a pigeon,
with 100 apartments. At the very top there is a spring, the water of which,
always in front of the apartments in the rock, goes round among the rooms, now
circling, now curving, till in this way it arrives at the lowest storey, having
followed the shape of the structure, and flows out there at the door.
Everywhere in the apartments of the monks, the rock has been pierced so as to
form windows for the admission of light, so that they are all bright, without
any being left in darkness. At the four corners of the (tiers of) apartments,
the rock has been hewn so as to form steps for ascending to the top (of each).
The men of the present day, being of small size, and going up step by step,
manage to get to the top; but in a former age, they did so at one step.(2)
Because of this, the monastery is called Paravata, that being the Indian name
for a pigeon. There are always Arhats residing in it.

The country about is (a tract of) uncultivated hillocks,(3) without
inhabitants. At a very long distance from the hill there are villages, where
the people all have bad and erroneous views, and do not know the Sramanas of
the Law of Buddha, Brahmanas, or (devotees of) any of the other and different
schools. The people of that country are constantly seeing men on the wing, who
come and enter this monastery. On one occasion, when devotees of various
countries came to perform their worship at it, the people of those villages
said to them, “Why do you not fly? The devotees whom we have seen
hereabouts all fly;” and the strangers answered, on the spur of the
moment, “Our wings are not yet fully formed.”

The kingdom of Dakshina is out of the way, and perilous to traverse. There are
difficulties in connexion with the roads; but those who know how to manage such
difficulties and wish to proceed should bring with them money and various
articles, and give them to the king. He will then send men to escort them.
These will (at different stages) pass them over to others, who will show them
the shortest routes. Fâ-Hien, however, was after all unable to go there; but
having received the (above) accounts from men of the country, he has narrated
them.

NOTES

(1) Said to be the ancient name of the Deccan. As to the various marvels in the
chapter, it must be borne in mind that our author, as he tells us at the end,
only gives them from hearsay. See “Buddhist Records of the Western
World,” vol. ii, pp. 214, 215, where the description, however, is very
different.

(2) Compare the account of Buddha’s great stride of fifteen yojanas in
Ceylon, as related in chapter xxxviii.

(3) See the same phrase in the Books of the Later Han dynasty, the
twenty-fourth Book of Biographies, p. 9b.

CHAPTER XXXVI.
IN PATNA. FÂ-HIEN’S LABOURS IN TRANSCRIPTION OF MANUSCRIPTS, AND INDIAN
STUDIES FOR THREE YEARS.

From Varanasi (the travellers) went back east to Pataliputtra. Fâ-Hien’s
original object had been to search for (copies of) the Vinaya. In the various
kingdoms of North India, however, he had found one master transmitting orally
(the rules) to another, but no written copies which he could transcribe. He had
therefore travelled far and come on to Central India. Here, in the mahayana
monastery,(1) he found a copy of the Vinaya, containing the Mahasanghika(2)
rules,—those which were observed in the first Great Council, while Buddha
was still in the world. The original copy was handed down in the Jetavana
vihâra. As to the other eighteen schools,(3) each one has the views and
decisions of its own masters. Those agree (with this) in the general meaning,
but they have small and trivial differences, as when one opens and another
shuts.(4) This copy (of the rules), however, is the most complete, with the
fullest explanations.(5)

He further got a transcript of the rules in six or seven thousand gathas,(6)
being the sarvastivadah(7) rules,—those which are observed by the
communities of monks in the land of Ts’in; which also have all been
handed down orally from master to master without being committed to writing. In
the community here, moreover, we got the
Samyuktabhi-dharma-hridaya-(sastra),(8) containing about six or seven thousand
gathas; he also got a Sutra of 2500 gathas; one chapter of the
Parinir-vana-vaipulya Sutra,(9) of about 5000 gathas; and the Mahasan-ghikah
Abhidharma.

In consequence (of this success in his quest) Fâ-Hien stayed here for three
years, learning Sanskrit books and the Sanskrit speech, and writing out the
Vinaya rules. When Tao-ching arrived in the Central Kingdom, and saw the rules
observed by the Sramanas, and the dignified demeanour in their societies which
he remarked under all occurring circumstances, he sadly called to mind in what
a mutilated and imperfect condition the rules were among the monkish
communities in the land of Ts’in, and made the following
aspiration:—“From this time forth till I come to the state of
Buddha, let me not be born in a frontier land.”(10) He remained
accordingly (in India), and did not return (to the land of Han). Fâ-Hien,
however, whose original purpose had been to secure the introduction of the
complete Vinaya rules into the land of Han, returned there alone.

NOTES

(1) Mentioned before in chapter xxvii.

(2) Mahasanghikah simply means “the Great Assembly,” that is, of
monks. When was this first assembly in the time of Sâkyamuni held? It does not
appear that the rules observed at it were written down at the time. The
document found by Fâ-Hien would be a record of those rules; or rather a copy
of that record. We must suppose that the original record had disappeared from
the Jetavana vihâra, or Fâ-Hien would probably have spoken of it when he was
there, and copied it, if he had been allowed to do so.

(3) The eighteen pu {.}. Four times in this chapter the character called pu
occurs, and in the first and two last instances it can only have the meaning,
often belonging to it, of “copy.” The second instance, however, is
different. How should there be eighteen copies, all different from the
original, and from one another, in minor matters? We are compelled to
translate—“the eighteen schools,” an expression well known in
all Buddhist writings. See Rhys Davids’ Manual, p. 218, and the
authorities there quoted.

(4) This is equivalent to the “binding” and “loosing,”
“opening” and “shutting,” which found their way into
the New Testament, and the Christian Church, from the schools of the Jewish
Rabbins.

(5) It was afterwards translated by Fâ-Hien into Chinese. See Nanjio’s
Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka, columns 400 and 401, and Nos. 1119 and
1150, columns 247 and 253.

(6) A gatha is a stanza, generally consisting, it has seemed to me, of a few,
commonly of two, lines somewhat metrically arranged; but I do not know that its
length is strictly defined.

(7) “A branch,” says Eitel, “of the great vaibhashika school,
asserting the reality of all visible phenomena, and claiming the authority of
Rahula.”

(8) See Nanjio’s Catalogue, No. 1287. He does not mention it in his
account of Fâ-Hien, who, he says, translated the Samyukta-pitaka Sutra.

(9) Probably Nanjio’s Catalogue, No. 120; at any rate, connected with it.

(10) This then would be the consummation of the Sramana’s being,—to
get to be Buddha, the Buddha of his time in his Kalpa; and Tao-ching thought
that he could attain to this consummation by a succession of births; and was
likely to attain to it sooner by living only in India. If all this was not in
his mind, he yet felt that each of his successive lives would be happier, if
lived in India.

CHAPTER XXXVII.
TO CHAMPA AND TAMALIPTI. STAY AND LABOURS THERE FOR THREE YEARS. TAKES SHIP TO
SINGHALA, OR CEYLON.

Following the course of the Ganges, and descending eastwards for eighteen
yojanas, he found on the southern bank the great kingdom of Champa,(1) with
topes reared at the places where Buddha walked in meditation by his vihâra, and
where he and the three Buddhas, his predecessors, sat. There were monks
residing at them all. Continuing his journey east for nearly fifty yojanas, he
came to the country of Tamalipti,(2) (the capital of which is) a seaport. In
the country there are twenty-two monasteries, at all of which there are monks
residing. The Law of Buddha is also flourishing in it. Here Fâ-Hien stayed two
years, writing out his Sûtras,(3) and drawing pictures of images.

After this he embarked in a large merchant-vessel, and went floating over the
sea to the south-west. It was the beginning of winter, and the wind was
favourable; and, after fourteen days, sailing day and night, they came to the
country of Singhala.(4) The people said that it was distant (from Tamalipti)
about 700 yojanas.

The kingdom is on a large island, extending from east to west fifty yojanas,
and from north to south thirty. Left and right from it there are as many as 100
small islands, distant from one another ten, twenty, or even 200 le; but all
subject to the large island. Most of them produce pearls and precious stones of
various kinds; there is one which produces the pure and brilliant
pearl,(5)—an island which would form a square of about ten le. The king
employs men to watch and protect it, and requires three out of every ten such
pearls, which the collectors find.

NOTES

(1) Probably the modern Champanagur, three miles west of Baglipoor, lat. 25°
14′ N., lon. 56° 55′ E.

(2) Then the principal emporium for the trade with Ceylon and China; the modern
Tam-look, lat. 22° 17′ N., lon. 88° 2′ E.; near the mouth of the
Hoogly.

(3) Perhaps Ching {.} is used here for any portions of the Tripitaka which he
had obtained.

(4) “The Kingdom of the Lion,” Ceylon. Singhala was the name of a
merchant adventurer from India, to whom the founding of the kingdom was
ascribed. His father was named Singha, “the Lion,” which became the
name of the country;—Singhala, or Singha-Kingdom, “the Country of
the Lion.”

(5) Called the mani pearl or bead. Mani is explained as meaning “free
from stain,” “bright and growing purer.” It is a symbol of
Buddha and of his Law. The most valuable rosaries are made of manis.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
AT CEYLON. RISE OF THE KINGDOM. FEATS OF BUDDHA. TOPES AND MONASTERIES. STATUE
OF BUDDHA IN JADE. BO TREE. FESTIVAL OF BUDDHA’S TOOTH.

The country originally had no human inhabitants,(1) but was occupied only by
spirits and nagas, with which merchants of various countries carried on a
trade. When the trafficking was taking place, the spirits did not show
themselves. They simply set forth their precious commodities, with labels of
the price attached to them; while the merchants made their purchases according
to the price; and took the things away.

Through the coming and going of the merchants (in this way), when they went
away, the people of (their) various countries heard how pleasant the land was,
and flocked to it in numbers till it became a great nation. The (climate) is
temperate and attractive, without any difference of summer and winter. The
vegetation is always luxuriant. Cultivation proceeds whenever men think fit:
there are no fixed seasons for it.

When Buddha came to this country,(2) wishing to transform the wicked nagas, by
his supernatural power he planted one foot at the north of the royal city, and
the other on the top of a mountain,(3) the two being fifteen yojanas apart.
Over the footprint at the north of the city the king built a large tope, 400
cubits high, grandly adorned with gold and silver, and finished with a
combination of all the precious substances. By the side of the top he further
built a monastery, called the Abhayagiri,(4) where there are (now) five
thousand monks. There is in it a hall of Buddha, adorned with carved and inlaid
works of gold and silver, and rich in the seven precious substances, in which
there is an image (of Buddha) in green jade, more than twenty cubits in height,
glittering all over with those substances, and having an appearance of solemn
dignity which words cannot express. In the palm of the right hand there is a
priceless pearl. Several years had now elapsed since Fâ-Hien left the land of
Han; the men with whom he had been in intercourse had all been of regions
strange to him; his eyes had not rested on an old and familiar hill or river,
plant or tree; his fellow-travellers, moreover, had been separated from him,
some by death, and others flowing off in different directions; no face or
shadow was now with him but his own, and a constant sadness was in his heart.
Suddenly (one day), when by the side of this image of jade, he saw a merchant
presenting as his offering a fan of white silk;(5) and the tears of sorrow
involuntarily filled his eyes and fell down.

A former king of the country had sent to Central India and got a slip of the
patra tree,(6) which he planted by the side of the hall of Buddha, where a tree
grew up to the height of about 200 cubits. As it bent on one side towards the
south-east, the king, fearing it would fall, propped it with a post eight or
nine spans round. The tree began to grow at the very heart of the prop, where
it met (the trunk); (a shoot) pierced through the post, and went down to the
ground, where it entered and formed roots, that rose (to the surface) and were
about four spans round. Although the post was split in the middle, the outer
portions kept hold (of the shoot), and people did not remove them. Beneath the
tree there has been built a vihâra, in which there is an image (of Buddha)
seated, which the monks and commonalty reverence and look up to without ever
becoming wearied. In the city there has been reared also the vihâra of
Buddha’s tooth, on which, as well as on the other, the seven precious
substances have been employed.

The king practises the Brahmanical purifications, and the sincerity of the
faith and reverence of the population inside the city are also great. Since the
establishment of government in the kingdom there has been no famine or
scarcity, no revolution or disorder. In the treasuries of the monkish
communities there are many precious stones, and the priceless manis. One of the
kings (once) entered one of those treasuries, and when he looked all round and
saw the priceless pearls, his covetous greed was excited, and he wished to take
them to himself by force. In three days, however, he came to himself, and
immediately went and bowed his head to the ground in the midst of the monks, to
show his repentance of the evil thought. As a sequel to this, he informed the
monks (of what had been in his mind), and desired them to make a regulation
that from that day forth the king should not be allowed to enter the treasury
and see (what it contained), and that no bhikshu should enter it till after he
had been in orders for a period of full forty years.(7)

In the city there are many Vaisya elders and Sabaean(8) merchants, whose houses
are stately and beautiful. The lanes and passages are kept in good order. At
the heads of the four principal streets there have been built preaching halls,
where, on the eighth, fourteenth, and fifteenth days of the month, they spread
carpets, and set forth a pulpit, while the monks and commonalty from all
quarters come together to hear the Law. The people say that in the kingdom
there may be altogether sixty thousand monks, who get their food from their
common stores. The king, besides, prepares elsewhere in the city a common
supply of food for five or six thousand more. When any want, they take their
great bowls, and go (to the place of distribution), and take as much as the
vessels will hold, all returning with them full.

The tooth of Buddha is always brought forth in the middle of the third month.
Ten days beforehand the king grandly caparisons a large elephant, on which he
mounts a man who can speak distinctly, and is dressed in royal robes, to beat a
large drum, and make the following proclamation:—“The Bodhisattva,
during three Asankhyeya-kalpas,(9) manifested his activity, and did not spare
his own life. He gave up kingdom, city, wife, and son; he plucked out his eyes
and gave them to another;(10) he cut off a piece of his own flesh to ransom the
life of a dove;(10) he cut off his head and gave it as an alms;(11) he gave his
body to feed a starving tigress;(11) he grudged not his marrow and his brains.
In many such ways as these did he undergo pain for the sake of all living. And
so it was, that, having become Buddha, he continued in the world for forty-five
years, preaching his Law, teaching and transforming, so that those who had no
rest found rest, and the unconverted were converted. When his connexion with
the living was completed,(12) he attained to pari-nirvâna (and died). Since
that event, for 1497 years, the light of the world has gone out,(13) and all
living beings have had long-continued sadness. Behold! ten days after this,
Buddha’s tooth will be brought forth, and taken to the Abhayagiri-vihâra.
Let all and each, whether monks or laics, who wish to amass merit for
themselves, make the roads smooth and in good condition, grandly adorn the
lanes and by-ways, and provide abundant store of flowers and incense to be used
as offerings to it.”

When this proclamation is over, the king exhibits, so as to line both sides of
the road, the five hundred different bodily forms in which the Bodhisattva has
in the course of his history appeared:—here as Sudana,(14) there as
Sama;(15) now as the king of elephants;(16) and then as a stag or a horse.(16)
All these figures are brightly coloured and grandly executed, looking as if
they were alive. After this the tooth of Buddha is brought forth, and is
carried along in the middle of the road. Everywhere on the way offerings are
presented to it, and thus it arrives at the hall of Buddha in the
Abhayagiri-vihâra. There monks and laics are collected in crowds. They burn
incense, light lamps, and perform all the prescribed services, day and night
without ceasing, till ninety days have been completed, when (the tooth) is
returned to the vihâra within the city. On fast-days the door of that vihâra is
opened, and the forms of ceremonial reverence are observed according to the
rules.

Forty le to the east of the Abhayagiri-vihâra there is a hill, with a vihâra on
it, called the Chaitya,(17) where there may be 2000 monks. Among them there is
a Sramana of great virtue, named Dharma-gupta,(18) honoured and looked up to by
all the kingdom. He has lived for more than forty years in an apartment of
stone, constantly showing such gentleness of heart, that he has brought snakes
and rats to stop together in the same room, without doing one another any harm.

NOTES

(1) It is desirable to translate {.} {.}, for which “inhabitants”
or “people” is elsewhere sufficient, here by “human
inhabitants.” According to other accounts Singhala was originally
occupied by Rakshasas or Rakshas, “demons who devour men,” and
“beings to be feared,” monstrous cannibals or anthropophagi, the
terror of the shipwrecked mariner. Our author’s “spirits” {.}
{.} were of a gentler type. His dragons or nagas have come before us again and
again.

(2) That Sâkyamuni ever visited Ceylon is to me more than doubtful. Hardy, in
M. B., pp. 207-213, has brought together the legends of three visits,—in
the first, fifth, and eighth years of his Buddhaship. It is plain, however,
from Fâ-Hien’s narrative, that in the beginning of our fifth century,
Buddhism prevailed throughout the island. Davids in the last chapter of his
“Buddhism” ascribes its introduction to one of Asoka’s
missions, after the Council of Patna, under his son Mahinda, when Tissa,
“the delight of the gods,” was king (B.C. 250-230).

(3) This would be what is known as “Adam’s peak,” having,
according to Hardy (pp. 211, 212, notes), the three names of Selesumano,
Samastakuta, and Samanila. “There is an indentation on the top of
it,” a superficial hollow, 5 feet 3 34 inches long, and about 2 12
feet wide. The Hindus regard it as the footprint of Siva; the Mohameddans, as
that of Adam; and the Buddhists, as in the text,—as having been made by
Buddha.

(4) Meaning “The Fearless Hill.” There is still the Abhayagiri
tope, the highest in Ceylon, according to Davids, 250 feet in height, and built
about B.C. 90, by Watta Gamini, in whose reign, about 160 years after the
Council of Patna, and 330 years after the death of Sâkyamuni, the Tripitaka was
first reduced to writing in Ceylon;—“Buddhism,” p. 234.

(5) We naturally suppose that the merchant-offerer was a Chinese, as indeed the
Chinese texts say, and the fan such as Fâ-Hien had seen and used in his native
land.

(6) This should be the pippala, or bodhidruma, generally spoken of, in
connexion with Buddha, as the Bo tree, under which he attained to the
Buddhaship. It is strange our author should have confounded them as he seems to
do. In what we are told of the tree here, we have, no doubt, his account of the
planting, growth, and preservation of the famous Bo tree, which still exists in
Ceylon. It has been stated in a previous note that Asoka’s son, Mahinda,
went as the apostle of Buddhism to Ceylon. By-and-by he sent for his sister
Sanghamitta, who had entered the order at the same time as himself, and whose
help was needed, some of the king’s female relations having signified
their wish to become nuns. On leaving India, she took with her a branch of the
sacred Bo tree at Buddha Gaya, under which Sâkyamuni had become Buddha. Of how
the tree has grown and still lives we have an account in Davids’
“Buddhism.” He quotes the words of Sir Emerson Tennent, that it is
“the oldest historical tree in the world;” but this must be denied
if it be true, as Eitel says, that the tree at Buddha Gaya, from which the slip
that grew to be this tree was taken more than 2000 years ago, is itself still
living in its place. We must conclude that Fâ-Hien, when in Ceylon, heard
neither of Mahinda nor Sanghamitta.

(7) Compare what is said in chap. xvi, about the inquiries made at monasteries
as to the standing of visitors in the monkhood, and duration of their ministry.

(8) The phonetic values of the two Chinese characters here are in Sanskrit sa;
and va, bo or bha. “Sabaean” is Mr. Beal’s reading of them,
probably correct. I suppose the merchants were Arabs, forerunners of the
so-called Moormen, who still form so important a part of the mercantile
community in Ceylon.

(9) A Kalpa, we have seen, denotes a great period of time; a period during
which a physical universe is formed and destroyed. Asankhyeya denotes the
highest sum for which a conventional term exists;—according to Chinese
calculations equal to one followed by seventeen ciphers; according to Thibetan
and Singhalese, equal to one followed by ninety-seven ciphers. Every Maha-kalpa
consists of four Asankhyeya-kalpas. Eitel, p. 15.

(10) See chapter ix.

(11) See chapter xi.

(12) He had been born in the Sakya house, to do for the world what the
character of all his past births required, and he had done it.

(13) They could no more see him, the World-honoured one. Compare the Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist Suttas, pp. 89, 121, and note on p. 89.

(14) Sudana or Sudatta was the name of the Bodhisattva in the birth which
preceded his appearance as Sâkyamuni or Gotama, when he became the Supreme
Buddha. This period is known as the Vessantara Jataka, of which Hardy, M. B.,
pp. 116-124, gives a long account; see also “Buddhist Birth
Stories,” the Nidana Katha, p. 158. In it, as Sudana, he fulfilled
“the Perfections,” his distinguishing attribute being entire
self-renunciation and alms-giving, so that in the Nidana Katha is made to say
(“Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 159):—
    “This earth, unconscious though she be, and ignorant of joy or grief,
Even she by my free-giving’s mighty power was shaken seven
times.”
    Then, when he passed away, he appeared in the Tushita heaven, to enter in
due time the womb of Maha-maya, and be born as Sâkyamuni.

(15) I take the name Sama from Beal’s revised version. He says in a note
that the Sama Jataka, as well as the Vessantara, is represented in the Sanchi
sculptures. But what the Sama Jataka was I do not yet know. But adopting this
name, the two Chinese characters in the text should be translated “the
change into Sama.” Rémusat gives for them, “la transformation en
eclair;” Beal, in his first version, “his appearance as a bright
flash of light;” Giles, “as a flash of lightning.”
Julien’s Methode does not give the phonetic value in Sanskrit of {.}.

(16) In an analysis of the number of times and the different forms in which
Sâkyamuni had appeared in his Jataka births, given by Hardy (M. B., p. 100), it
is said that he had appeared six times as an elephant; ten times as a deer; and
four times as a horse.

(17) Chaitya is a general term designating all places and objects of religious
worship which have a reference to ancient Buddhas, and including therefore
Stupas and temples as well as sacred relics, pictures, statues, &c. It is
defined as “a fane,” “a place for worship and presenting
offerings.” Eitel, p. 141. The hill referred to is the sacred hill of
Mihintale, about eight miles due east of the Bo tree;—Davids’
Buddhism, pp. 230, 231.

(18) Eitel says (p. 31): “A famous ascetic, the founder of a school,
which flourished in Ceylon, A.D. 400.” But Fâ-Hien gives no intimation
of Dharma-gupta’s founding a school.

CHAPTER XXXIX.
CREMATION OF AN ARHAT. SERMON OF A DEVOTEE.

South of the city seven le there is a vihâra, called the Maha-vihâra, where
3000 monks reside. There had been among them a Sramana, of such lofty virtue,
and so holy and pure in his observance of the disciplinary rules, that the
people all surmised that he was an Arhat. When he drew near his end, the king
came to examine into the point; and having assembled the monks according to
rule, asked whether the bhikshu had attained to the full degree of Wisdom.(1)
They answered in the affirmative, saying that he was an Arhat. The king
accordingly, when he died, buried him after the fashion of an Arhat, as the
regular rules prescribed. Four of five le east from the vihâra there was reared
a great pile of firewood, which might be more than thirty cubits square, and
the same in height. Near the top were laid sandal, aloe, and other kinds of
fragrant wood.

On the four sides (of the pile) they made steps by which to ascend it. With
clean white hair-cloth, almost like silk, they wrapped (the body) round and
round.(2) They made a large carriage-frame, in form like our funeral car, but
without the dragons and fishes.(3)

At the time of the cremation, the king and the people, in multitudes from all
quarters, collected together, and presented offerings of flowers and incense.
While they were following the car to the burial-ground,(4) the king himself
presented flowers and incense. When this was finished, the car was lifted on
the pile, all over which oil of sweet basil was poured, and then a light was
applied. While the fire was blazing, every one, with a reverent heart, pulled
off his upper garment, and threw it, with his feather-fan and umbrella, from a
distance into the midst of the flames, to assist the burning. When the
cremation was over, they collected and preserved the bones, and proceeded to
erect a tope. Fâ-Hien had not arrived in time (to see the distinguished
Shaman) alive, and only saw his burial.

At that time the king,(5) who was a sincere believer in the Law of Buddha and
wished to build a new vihâra for the monks, first convoked a great assembly.
After giving the monks a meal of rice, and presenting his offerings (on the
occasion), he selected a pair of first-rate oxen, the horns of which were
grandly decorated with gold, silver, and the precious substances. A golden
plough had been provided, and the king himself turned up a furrow on the four
sides of the ground within which the building was supposed to be. He then
endowed the community of the monks with the population, fields, and houses,
writing the grant on plates of metal, (to the effect) that from that time
onwards, from generation to generation, no one should venture to annul or alter
it.

In this country Fâ-Hien heard an Indian devotee, who was reciting a Sutra from
the pulpit, say:—“Buddha’s alms-bowl was at first in Vaisali,
and now it is in Gandhara.(6) After so many hundred years” (he gave, when
Fâ-Hien heard him, the exact number of years, but he has forgotten it),
“it will go to Western Tukhara;(7) after so many hundred years, to
Khoten; after so many hundred years, to Kharachar;(8) after so many hundred
years, to the land of Han; after so many hundred years, it will come to
Sinhala; and after so many hundred years, it will return to Central India.
After that, it will ascend to the Tushita heaven; and when the Bodhisattva
Maitreya sees it, he will say with a sigh, ‘The alms-bowl of Sâkyamuni
Buddha is come;’ and with all the devas he will present to it flowers and
incense for seven days. When these have expired, it will return to Jambudvipa,
where it will be received by the king of the sea nagas, and taken into his naga
palace. When Maitreya shall be about to attain to perfect Wisdom (and become
Buddha), it will again separate into four bowls,(9) which will return to the
top of mount Anna,(9) whence they came. After Maitreya has become Buddha, the
four deva kings will again think of the Buddha (with their bowls as they did in
the case of the previous Buddha). The thousand Buddhas of this Bhadra-kalpa,
indeed, will all use the same alms-bowl; and when the bowl has disappeared, the
Law of Buddha will go on gradually to be extinguished. After that extinction
has taken place, the life of man will be shortened, till it is only a period of
five years. During this period of a five years’ life, rice, butter, and
oil will all vanish away, and men will become exceedingly wicked. The grass and
trees which they lay hold of will change into swords and clubs, with which they
will hurt, cut, and kill one another. Those among them on whom there is
blessing will withdraw from society among the hills; and when the wicked have
exterminated one another, they will again come forth, and say among themselves,
‘The men of former times enjoyed a very great longevity; but through
becoming exceedingly wicked, and doing all lawless things, the length of our
life has been shortened and reduced even to five years. Let us now unite
together in the practice of what is good, cherishing a gentle and sympathising
heart, and carefully cultivating good faith and righteousness. When each one in
this way practises that faith and righteousness, life will go on to double its
length till it reaches 80,000 years. When Maitreya appears in the world, and
begins to turn the wheel of his Law, he will in the first place save those
among the disciples of the Law left by the Sakya who have quitted their
families, and those who have accepted the three Refuges, undertaken the five
Prohibitions and the eight Abstinences, and given offerings to the three
Precious Ones; secondly and thirdly, he will save those between whom and
conversion there is a connexion transmitted from the past.’”(10)

(Such was the discourse), and Fâ-Hien wished to write it down as a portion of
doctrine; but the man said, “This is taken from no Sutra, it is only the
utterance of my own mind.”

NOTES

(1) Possibly, “and asked the bhikshu,” &c. I prefer the other
way of construing, however.

(2) It seems strange that this should have been understood as a wrapping of the
immense pyre with the cloth. There is nothing in the text to necessitate such a
version, but the contrary. Compare “Buddhist Suttas,” pp. 92, 93.

(3) See the description of a funeral car and its decorations in the Sacred
Books of the East, vol. xxviii, the Li Ki, Book XIX. Fâ-Hien’s {.} {.},
“in this (country),” which I have expressed by “our,”
shows that whatever notes of this cremation he had taken at the time, the
account in the text was composed after his return to China, and when he had the
usages there in his mind and perhaps before his eyes. This disposes of all
difficulty occasioned by the “dragons” and “fishes.”
The {.} at the end is merely the concluding particle.

(4) The pyre served the purpose of a burial-ground or grave, and hence our
author writes of it as such.

(5) This king must have been Maha-nana (A.D. 410-432). In the time of his
predecessor, Upatissa (A.D. 368-410), the pitakas were first translated into
Singhalese. Under Maha-nana, Buddhaghosha wrote his commentaries. Both were
great builders of vihâras. See the Mahavansa, pp. 247, foll.

(6) See chapter xii. Fâ-Hien had seen it at Purushapura, which Eitel says was
“the ancient capital of Gandhara.”

(7) Western Tukhara ({.} {.}) is the same probably as the Tukhara ({.}) of
chapter xii, a king of which is there described as trying to carry off the bowl
from Purushapura.

(8) North of the Bosteng lake at the foot of the Thien-shan range (E. H., p.
56).

(9) See chap. xii, note 9. Instead of “Anna” the Chinese recensions
have Vina; but Vina or Vinataka, and Ana for Sudarsana are names of one or
other of the concentric circles of rocks surrounding mount Meru, the fabled
home of the deva guardians of the bowl.

(10) That is, those whose Karma in the past should be rewarded by such
conversion in the present.

CHAPTER XL.
AFTER TWO YEARS TAKES SHIP FOR CHINA. DISASTROUS PASSAGE TO JAVA; AND THENCE TO
CHINA; ARRIVES AT SHAN-TUNG; AND GOES TO NANKING. CONCLUSION OR L’ENVOI
BY ANOTHER WRITER.

Fâ-Hien abode in this country two years; and, in addition (to his acquisitions
in Patna), succeeded in getting a copy of the Vinaya-pitaka of the Mahisasakah
(school);(1) the Dirghagama and Samyuktagama(2) (Sûtras); and also the
Samyukta-sanchaya-pitaka;(3)—all being works unknown in the land of Han.
Having obtained these Sanskrit works, he took passage in a large merchantman,
on board of which there were more than 200 men, and to which was attached by a
rope a smaller vessel, as a provision against damage or injury to the large one
from the perils of the navigation. With a favourable wind, they proceeded
eastwards for three days, and then they encountered a great wind. The vessel
sprang a leak and the water came in. The merchants wished to go to the small
vessel; but the men on board it, fearing that too many would come, cut the
connecting rope. The merchants were greatly alarmed, feeling their risk of
instant death. Afraid that the vessel would fill, they took their bulky goods
and threw them into the water. Fâ-Hien also took his pitcher(4) and
washing-basin, with some other articles, and cast them into the sea; but
fearing that the merchants would cast overboard his books and images, he could
only think with all his heart of Kwan-she-yin,(5) and commit his life to (the
protection of) the church of the land of Han,(6) (saying in effect), “I
have travelled far in search of our Law. Let me, by your dread and supernatural
(power), return from my wanderings, and reach my resting-place!”

In this way the tempest(7) continued day and night, till on the thirteenth day
the ship was carried to the side of an island, where, on the ebbing of the
tide, the place of the leak was discovered, and it was stopped, on which the
voyage was resumed. On the sea (hereabouts) there are many pirates, to meet
with whom is speedy death. The great ocean spreads out, a boundless expanse.
There is no knowing east or west; only by observing the sun, moon, and stars
was it possible to go forward. If the weather were dark and rainy, (the ship)
went as she was carried by the wind, without any definite course. In the
darkness of the night, only the great waves were to be seen, breaking on one
another, and emitting a brightness like that of fire, with huge turtles and
other monsters of the deep (all about). The merchants were full of terror, not
knowing where they were going. The sea was deep and bottomless, and there was
no place where they could drop anchor and stop. But when the sky became clear,
they could tell east and west, and (the ship) again went forward in the right
direction. If she had come on any hidden rock, there would have been no way of
escape.

After proceeding in this way for rather more than ninety days, they arrived at
a country called Java-dvipa, where various forms of error and Brahmanism are
flourishing, while Buddhism in it is not worth speaking of. After staying there
for five months, (Fâ-Hien) again embarked in another large merchantman, which
also had on board more than 200 men. They carried provisions for fifty days,
and commenced the voyage on the sixteenth day of the fourth month.

Fâ-Hien kept his retreat on board the ship. They took a course to the
north-east, intending to fetch Kwang-chow. After more than a month, when the
night-drum had sounded the second watch, they encountered a black wind and
tempestuous rain, which threw the merchants and passengers into consternation.
Fâ-Hien again with all his heart directed his thoughts to Kwan-she-yin and the
monkish communities of the land of Han; and, through their dread and mysterious
protection, was preserved to day-break. After day-break, the Brahmans
deliberated together and said, “It is having this Sramana on board which
has occasioned our misfortune and brought us this great and bitter suffering.
Let us land the bhikshu and place him on some island-shore. We must not for the
sake of one man allow ourselves to be exposed to such imminent peril.” A
patron of Fâ-Hien, however, said to them, “If you land the bhikshu, you
must at the same time land me; and if you do not, then you must kill me. If you
land this Sramana, when I get to the land of Han, I will go to the king, and
inform against you. The king also reveres and believes the Law of Buddha, and
honours the bhikshus.” The merchants hereupon were perplexed, and did not
dare immediately to land (Fâ-Hien).

At this time the sky continued very dark and gloomy, and the sailing-masters
looked at one another and made mistakes. More than seventy days passed (from
their leaving Java), and the provisions and water were nearly exhausted. They
used the salt-water of the sea for cooking, and carefully divided the (fresh)
water, each man getting two pints. Soon the whole was nearly gone, and the
merchants took counsel and said, “At the ordinary rate of sailing we
ought to have reached Kwang-chow, and now the time is passed by many
days;—must we not have held a wrong course?” Immediately they
directed the ship to the north-west, looking out for land; and after sailing
day and night for twelve days, they reached the shore on the south of mount
Lao,(8) on the borders of the prefecture of Ch’ang-kwang,(8) and
immediately got good water and vegetables. They had passed through many perils
and hardships, and had been in a state of anxious apprehension for many days
together; and now suddenly arriving at this shore, and seeing those
(well-known) vegetables, the lei and kwoh,(9) they knew indeed that it was the
land of Han. Not seeing, however, any inhabitants nor any traces of them, they
did not know whereabouts they were. Some said that they had not yet got to
Kwang-chow, and others that they had passed it. Unable to come to a definite
conclusion, (some of them) got into a small boat and entered a creek, to look
for some one of whom they might ask what the place was. They found two hunters,
whom they brought back with them, and then called on Fâ-Hien to act as
interpreter and question them. Fâ-Hien first spoke assuringly to them, and
then slowly and distinctly asked them, “Who are you?” They replied,
“We are disciples of Buddha?” He then asked, “What are you
looking for among these hills?” They began to lie,(10) and said,
“To-morrow is the fifteenth day of the seventh month. We wanted to get
some peaches to present(11) to Buddha.” He asked further, “What
country is this?” They replied, “This is the border of the
prefecture of Ch’ang-kwang, a part of Ts’ing-chow under the
(ruling) House of Tsin.” When they heard this, the merchants were glad,
immediately asked for (a portion of) their money and goods, and sent men to
Ch’ang-kwang city.

The prefect Le E was a reverent believer in the Law of Buddha. When he heard
that a Sramana had arrived in a ship across the sea, bringing with him books
and images, he immediately came to the seashore with an escort to meet (the
traveller), and receive the books and images, and took them back with him to
the seat of his government. On this the merchants went back in the direction of
Yang-chow;(12) (but) when (Fâ-Hien) arrived at Ts’ing-chow, (the prefect
there)(13) begged him (to remain with him) for a winter and a summer. After the
summer retreat was ended, Fâ-Hien, having been separated for a long time from
his (fellow-)masters, wished to hurry to Ch’ang-gan; but as the business
which he had in hand was important, he went south to the Capital;(14) and at an
interview with the masters (there) exhibited the Sûtras and the collection of
the Vinaya (which he had procured).

After Fâ-Hien set out from Ch’ang-gan, it took him six years to reach
Central India;(15) stoppages there extended over (other) six years; and on his
return it took him three years to reach Ts’ing-chow. The countries
through which he passed were a few under thirty. From the sandy desert
westwards on to India, the beauty of the dignified demeanour of the monkhood
and of the transforming influence of the Law was beyond the power of language
fully to describe; and reflecting how our masters had not heard any complete
account of them, he therefore (went on) without regarding his own poor life, or
(the dangers to be encountered) on the sea upon his return, thus incurring
hardships and difficulties in a double form. He was fortunate enough, through
the dread power of the three Honoured Ones,(15) to receive help and protection
in his perils; and therefore he wrote out an account of his experiences, that
worthy readers might share with him in what he had heard and said.(15)

It was in the year Keah-yin,(16) the twelfth year of the period E-he of the
(Eastern) Tsin dynasty, the year-star being in Virgo-Libra, in the summer, at
the close of the period of retreat, that I met the devotee Fâ-Hien. On his
arrival I lodged him with myself in the winter study,(17) and there, in our
meetings for conversation, I asked him again and again about his travels. The
man was modest and complaisant, and answered readily according to the truth. I
thereupon advised him to enter into details where he had at first only given a
summary, and he proceeded to relate all things in order from the beginning to
the end. He said himself, “When I look back on what I have gone through,
my heart is involuntarily moved, and the perspiration flows forth. That I
encountered danger and trod the most perilous places, without thinking of or
sparing myself, was because I had a definite aim, and thought of nothing but to
do my best in my simplicity and straightforwardness. Thus it was that I exposed
my life where death seemed inevitable, if I might accomplish but a
ten-thousandth part of what I hoped.” These words affected me in turn,
and I thought:—“This man is one of those who have seldom been seen
from ancient times to the present. Since the Great Doctrine flowed on to the
East there has been no one to be compared with Hien in his forgetfulness of
self and search for the Law. Henceforth I know that the influence of sincerity
finds no obstacle, however great, which it does not overcome, and that force of
will does not fail to accomplish whatever service it undertakes. Does not the
accomplishing of such service arise from forgetting (and disregarding) what is
(generally) considered as important, and attaching importance to what is
(generally) forgotten?”

NOTES

(1) No. 1122 in Nanjio’s Catalogue, translated into Chinese by Buddhajiva
and a Chinese Sramana about A.D. 425. Mahisasakah means “the school of
the transformed earth,” or “the sphere within which the Law of
Buddha is influential.” The school is one of the subdivisions of the
Sarvastivadah.

(2) Nanjio’s 545 and 504. The Agamas are Sûtras of the hinayana, divided,
according to Eitel, pp. 4, 5, into four classes, the first or Dirghagamas (long
Agamas) being treatises on right conduct, while the third class contains the
Samyuktagamas (mixed Agamas).

(3) Meaning “Miscellaneous Collections;” a sort of fourth Pitaka.
See Nanjio’s fourth division of the Canon, containing Indian and Chinese
miscellaneous works. But Dr. Davids says that no work of this name is known
either in Sanskrit or Pâli literature.

(4) We have in the text a phonetisation of the Sanskrit Kundika, which is
explained in Eitel by the two characters that follow, as=“washing
basin,” but two things evidently are intended.

(5) See chap. xvi, note 23.

(6) At his novitiate Fâ-Hien had sought the refuge of the “three
Precious Ones” (the three Refuges {.} {.} of last chapter), of which the
congregation or body of the monks was one; and here his thoughts turn naturally
to the branch of it in China. His words in his heart were not exactly words of
prayer, but very nearly so.

(7) In the text {.} {.}, ta-fung, “the great wind,”=the typhoon.

(8) They had got to the south of the Shan-tung promontory, and the foot of
mount Lao, which still rises under the same name on the extreme south of the
peninsula, east from Keao Chow, and having the district of Tsieh-mih on the
east of it. All the country there is included in the present Phing-too Chow of
the department Lae-chow. The name Phing-too dates from the Han dynasty, but
under the dynasty of the After Ch’e {.} {.}, (A.D. 479-501), it was
changed into Ch’ang-kwang. Fâ-Hien may have lived, and composed the
narrative of his travels, after the change of name was adopted. See the
Topographical Tables of the different Dynasties ({.} {.} {.} {.} {.}),
published in 1815.

(9) What these vegetables exactly were it is difficult to say; and there are
different readings of the characters for them. Williams’ Dictionary,
under kwoh, brings the two names together in a phrase, but the rendering of it
is simply “a soup of simples.” For two or three columns here,
however, the text appears to me confused and imperfect.

(10) I suppose these men were really hunters; and, when brought before
Fâ-Hien, because he was a Sramana, they thought they would please him by
saying they were disciples of Buddha. But what had disciples of Buddha to do
with hunting and taking life? They were caught in their own trap, and said they
were looking for peaches.

(11) The Chinese character here has occurred twice before, but in a different
meaning and connexion. Rémusat, Beal, and Giles take it as equivalent to
“to sacrifice.” But his followers do not “sacrifice” to
Buddha. That is a priestly term, and should not be employed of anything done at
Buddhistic services.

(12) Probably the present department of Yang-chow in Keang-soo; but as I have
said in a previous note, the narrative does not go on so clearly as it
generally does.

(13) Was, or could, this prefect be Le E?

(14) Probably not Ch’ang-gan, but Nan-king, which was the capital of the
Eastern Tsin dynasty under another name.

(15) The whole of this paragraph is probably Fâ-Hien’s own conclusion of
his narrative. The second half of the second sentence, both in sentiment and
style in the Chinese text, seems to necessitate our ascribing it to him,
writing on the impulse of his own thoughts, in the same indirect form which he
adopted for his whole narrative. There are, however, two peculiar phraseologies
in it which might suggest the work of another hand. For the name India, where
the first (15) is placed, a character is employed which is similarly applied
nowhere else; and again, “the three Honoured Ones,” at which the
second (15) is placed, must be the same as “the three Precious
Ones,” which we have met with so often; unless we suppose that {.} {.} is
printed in all the revisions for {.} {.}, “the World-honoured one,”
which has often occurred. On the whole, while I accept this paragraph as
Fâ-Hien’s own, I do it with some hesitation. That the following and
concluding paragraph is from another hand, there can be no doubt. And it is as
different as possible in style from the simple and straightforward narrative of
Fâ-Hien.

(16) There is an error of date here, for which it is difficult to account. The
year Keah-yin was A.D. 414; but that was the tenth year of the period E-he, and
not the twelfth, the cyclical designation of which was Ping-shin. According to
the preceding paragraph, Fâ-Hien’s travels had occupied him fifteen
years, so that counting from A.D. 399, the year Ke-hae, as that in which he set
out, the year of his getting to Ts’ing-chow would have been Kwei-chow,
the ninth year of the period E-he; and we might join on “This year
Keah-yin” to that paragraph, as the date at which the narrative was
written out for the bamboo-tablets and the silk, and then begins the Envoy,
“In the twelfth year of E-he.” This would remove the error as it
stands at present, but unfortunately there is a particle at the end of the
second date ({.}), which seems to tie the twelfth year of E-he to Keah-yin, as
another designation of it. The “year-star” is the planet Jupiter,
the revolution of which, in twelve years, constitutes “a great
year.” Whether it would be possible to fix exactly by mathematical
calculation in what year Jupiter was in the Chinese zodiacal sign embracing
part of both Virgo and Scorpio, and thereby help to solve the difficulty of the
passage, I do not know, and in the meantime must leave that difficulty as I
have found it.

(17) We do not know who the writer of the Envoy was. “The winter study or
library” would be the name of the apartment in his monastery or house,
where he sat and talked with Fâ-Hien.