SearchMy library
← Table of contents
A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms

Chapter I · FROM CH’ANG-GAN TO THE SANDY DESERT

James Legge translation

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

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · (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 tNote 2 · (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 prNote 3 · (3) These, like Fâ-Hien itself, are all what we might call “clerical” names, appellations given to the parties as monks or sramanas.Note 4 · (4) The Buddhist tripitaka or canon consists of three collections, containing, according to Eitel (p. 150), “doctrinal aphorisms (or statemeNote 5 · (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-seNote 6 · (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, wiNote 7 · (7) Under varshas or vashavasana (Pâli, vassa; Spence Hardy, vass), Eitel (p. 163) says:—“One of the most ancient institutions of Buddhist dNote 8 · (8) During the troubled period of the Tsin dynasty, there were five (usurping) Leang sovereignties in the western part of the empire ({.} {.Note 9 · (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 frNote 10 · (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 prNote 11 · (11) Of these pilgrims with their clerical names, the most distinguished was Pao-yun, who translated various Sanskrit works on his return frNote 12 · (12) This was the second summer since the pilgrims left Ch’ang-gan. We are now therefore, probably, in A.D. 400.Note 13 · (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 Note 14 · (14) Who this envoy was, and where he was going, we do not know. The text will not admit of any other translation.Note 15 · (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-hwanNote 16 · (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 befor
Explore with AITake your curiosity a little further.
ChatGPTPerplexityGrok

Reading settings