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diff --git a/old/2124.txt b/old/2124.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f4fafb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2124.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5798 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, by Fa-Hsien + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms + +Author: Fa-Hsien + +Translator: James Legge + +Release Date: March 28, 2006 [EBook #2124] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers; Dagny + + + + + +A RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS + +Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hsien of his Travels in +India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in Search of the Buddhist Books of +Discipline + +Translated and annotated with a Corean recension of the Chinese text + +BY + +JAMES LEGGE + + + + +PREFACE + +Several times during my long residence in Hong Kong I endeavoured to +read through the "Narrative of Fa-Hsien;" 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien'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 Remusat, "Revu, +complete, et augmente d'eclaircissements 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" (Trubner'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 I-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 Fa-Hsien'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 Remusat'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 Fa-Hsien; 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Sutras 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 Sakyamuni's history, which were +current so early (as it seems to us) as the time of Fa-Hsien, 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 Pali 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 Fa-Hsien'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-chau 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. + + +[ Picture: Sketch Map Of Fa-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 Fa-Hsien's route. + +There is no difficulty in laying it down after he crossed the Indus +from east to west into the Punjab, 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 43d 25s N., 81d 15s 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 Fa-Hsien +recrossed the Indus into Udyana 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 +Punjab. 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 Fa-Hsien went on from Nan-king to Ch'ang-an, but +the Narrative does not record the fact of his doing so. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +Life of Fa-Hien; Genuineness and Integrity of the Text of his +Narrative; Number of the Adherents of Buddhism. + +1. Nothing of great importance is known about Fa-Hsien 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 Wu-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. Fa-Hsien 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 Sakyamuni, "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 Fa-Hsien'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 Fa-Hsien 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, Fa-Hsien;" and again, on +page 13, we have "Narrative of Fa-Hsien in two Books," and "Narrative +of Fa-Hsien'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, Fa-Hsien;" and then, more at +large, "Incidents of Travels in India, by the Sramana of the Eastern +Tsin, Fa-Hsien, recorded by himself." + +There is still earlier attestation of the existence of our little work +than the Suy Catalogue. The Catalogue Raisonne 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 Fa-Hsien." + +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 Fa-Hsien" 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 Raisonne intimate their doubts of the +good taste and reliability of all Fa-Hsien'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 Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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. ('Melanges Asiatiques de St. Petersbourg,' 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 1_2, Buddhists to about 40, and Jews to about +1_2. + +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 1_2 millions of Chinese from his +total of 500, and there remain only 85 1_2 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 FA-HIEN + +or RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS + + + +CHAPTER I + +FROM CH'ANG-GAN TO THE SANDY DESERT + +Fa-Hsien 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 Hwang-che, being the Ke-hae year of the +cycle,(2) he entered into an engagement with Kwuy-king, Tao-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 Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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. Fa-Hsien would find him at his capital, somewhere in the present + department of Lan-chow, Kan-suh. + + (7) Under varshas or vashavasana (Pali, 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 Fa-Hsien 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 nirvana; 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. 39d 40s N.; lon. 94d 50s 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. +Fa-Hsien, 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. Fa-Hsien +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. 38d E. the Tarim + flows. Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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 nirvana. 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 Fa-Hsien'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 (Pali, 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 Fa-Hsien, 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. + 37d N., and lon. 80d 35s 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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 nirvana, may + be compared to a huge vehicle. See Davids on the "Key-note of the + 'Great Vehicle,'" Hibbert Lectures, p. 254. + + (3) Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien, + is, no doubt, a phonetisation of the Sanskrit stupa or Pali 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. Remusat 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 Sakyamuni 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-nirvana. 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 Fa-Hsien 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) Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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. 30d 11s N., lon. 73d + 54s 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, Fa-Hsien 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 nirvana. 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 Sakyamuni'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 Sakyamuni 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Sutras and Books of Discipline. Now the +image was set up rather more than 300 years after the nirvana(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 Remusat (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 Sakyamuni's becoming Buddha on attaining to + nirvana, or more probably to his pari-nirvana 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) Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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) Udyana, meaning "the Park;" just north of the Punjab, 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 nirvana. 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 Sakyamuni + 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 Udyana. 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 Sakyamuni, and every Buddhist saint. He + appears several times in Fa-Hsien'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 viharas 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. 35d 48s N., lon. 72d 44s 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 Punjab, 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 + Fa-Hsien 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-nirvana,(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 Fa-Hsien went forward +alone towards the place of the flat-bone of Buddha's skull. + + NOTES + + (1) The modern Peshawur, lat. 34d 8s N., lon. 71d 30s E. + + (2) A first cousin of Sakyamuni, 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 Sakyamuni 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-nirvana + 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 nirvana, Sakyamuni 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-nirvana, 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-nirvana 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, Fa-Hsien 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 Punjab, 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 Remusat should give for this--"et s'en + retournent apres." But Fa-Hsien'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 vihara(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 vihara, 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 vihara 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 vihara, +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 vihara, 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 vihara, 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 vihara 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, (Fa-Hsien) 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 vihara also +has been built at which offerings are made. The staff is made of +Gosirsha 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 vihara, 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, Fa-Hsien 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 Hilda, west of Peshawur, and five miles south of + Jellalabad. + + (3) "The vihara," 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 viharas. + + (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 nirvana. 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 + Sakyamuni, 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 Gosirsha 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 nirvana). 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, Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien, "I cannot live any +longer. Do you immediately go away, that we do not all die here;" and +with these words he died.(3) Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien. 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 Punjab, between 32d 10s and 33d 15s N. + lat., and 70d 26s and 72d 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 Punjab;" 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-nirvana,(6) the kings of the various +countries and the heads of the Vaisyas(7) built viharas 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 Sutras 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 Sutras. +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 nirvana 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. 27d 30s N., lon. 77d 43s 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 Pali, 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-nirvana 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 Fa-Hsien'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 Sakyamuni; 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 Sakyamuni, 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 Sakyamuni, 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 Sakyamuni. 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 Sakyamuni'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. Fa-Hsien 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 Sakyamuni 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 nirvana:--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 nirvana." + 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. Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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 nirvana 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 vihara over the steps, with a standing image, sixteen cubits +in height, right over the middle flight. Behind the vihara 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 Sakyamuni 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 +vihara. 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 +nirvana 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. 27d 3s N., lon. 79d 50s 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 one 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 Sakyamuni, 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 + Fa-Hsien, 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, Fa-Hsien 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 + Fa-Hsien deemed it. The Chinese term means "outside" or "foreign;"--in + Pali, anna-titthiya,="those belonging to another school." + + (16) These three predecessors of Sakyamuni 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 + (Pali, 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 (Pali, 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 (Pali, 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 + (Pali, 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 Fa-Hsien's usage of {.} and {.} + throughout his narrative is quite marked. {.} always refers to the + doings of Sakyamuni; {.}, "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. + +Fa-Hsien stayed at the Dragon vihara 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 Fa-Hsien 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 vihara 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-nirvana. 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 vihara, 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 vihara.(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 Gosirsha Chandana wood,(9) and put in the place where he +usually sat. When Buddha on his return entered the vihara, Buddha said +to it, "Return to your seat. After I have attained to pari-nirvana, +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 vihara on the south side +(of the other), a different place from that containing the image, and +twenty paces distant from it. + +The Jetavana vihara 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 +vihara, 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 vihara on the east was opened, there +was immediately seen the original image. They were all greatly +rejoiced, and co-operated in restoring the vihara. When they had +succeeded in completing two storeys, they removed the image back to +its former place. + +When Fa-Hsien 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 vihara 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 vihara.(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 vihara, to which she invited Buddha and his monks, and +which is still existing. + +To each of the great residences for monks at the Jetavana vihara 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 +vihara 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 +vihara 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 vihara 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 vihara 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 vihara 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 vihara 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 vihara 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 vihara 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 Sakyamuni 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 Sakyamuni 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 Sakyamuni. + 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 Sakyamuni, 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 Fa-Hsien'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 + Pali 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 vihara in the suburbs of Sravasti, + erected in a park which Anatha-pindika bought of prince Jeta, the son + of Prasenajit. Sakyamuni made this place his favourite residence for + many years. Most of the Sutras (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 Fa-Hsien 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 Pali 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 Sakyamuni. 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 Sutras, 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. Fa-Hsien, 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 Fa-Hsien:--"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. Remusat + 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 Fa-Hsien'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 + Trubner'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-nirvana, +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-nirvana, 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-nirvana, 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 + Remusat, 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 Sakyamuni 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 Sakyamuni, 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. 26d 46s N., lon. 83d 19s 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 Sakyamuni. 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 Sakyamuni, 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 Sakyamuni; 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. Fa-Hsien does + not say that there were memorial topes at all these places. + + (7) Asita; see Eitel, p. 15. He is called in Pali 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 + nirvana 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) Fa-Hsien 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 Sakyamuni's skeleton. + + (4) Fa-Hsien, 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-nirvana (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-nirvana, 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 Sakyamuni finally left his palace + and family to fulfil the course to which he felt that he was called. + Chandaka, in Pali 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 {.}. + Remusat has "la tour des charbons." It was over the place of Buddha's + cremation. + + (3) In Pali 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 nirvana a few moments before + Sakyamuni; 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 Fa-Hsien + 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 Fa-Hsien 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 vihara(1) where Buddha dwelt, and the tope over +half the body of Ananda.(2) Inside the city the woman Ambapali(3) +built a vihara 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-nirvana, +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-nirvana;" 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-nirvana +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 vihara + 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, Sakyamuni'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;" + Remusat, "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 Fa-Hsien's narrative + will have sent the thoughts of some of my readers to the exposure of + the infant Moses, as related in Exodus. (Certainly did.--JB.) + + (6) See chap. xiii, note 14. + + (7) Thus Sakyamuni 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 Fa-Hsien 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-nirvana 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-nirvana 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 viharas; 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 Sakyamuni, 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 + nirvana, 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 Fa-Hsien 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 vihara 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. 25d 28s N., lon. 85d 15s 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 + Fa-Hsien 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? Fa-Hsien 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-nirvana. 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 vihara +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 Fa-Hsien had in mind. It bears an + oblong terrace covered with the ruins of several buildings, especially + of a vihara. + + (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 Fa-Hsien 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 Sutras ("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 Sakyamuni'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 + Fa-Hsien ascribes it to Ajatasatru. I suppose the son finished what the + father had begun. + + (8) One of the five first followers of Sakyamuni. He is also called + Asvajit; in Pali 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 Fa-Hsien), 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 Sakyamuni. 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. FA-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 Fa-Hsien 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, +Fa-Hsien, 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien. + + (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 Fa-Hsien, 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 Fa-Hsien "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) vihara is still in existence, with a company of monks, who +keep (the ground about it) swept and watered. + +North of the vihara 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 nirvana(5) of Buddha, 500 Arhats collected the +Sutras. When they brought the Sutras 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-nirvana;(15) (and died). + + NOTES + + (1) Karanda Venuvana; a park presented to Buddha by king Bimbisara, + who also built a vihara 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 Fa-Hsien + 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 Sutras 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 Sutras, 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-nirvana. + + (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 nirvana. 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 nirvana. 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-nirvana. + + NOTES + + (1) Gaya, a city of Magadha, was north-west of the present Gayah (lat. + 24d 47s N., lon. 85d 1s E). It was here that Sakyamuni 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 Fa-Hsien. + + (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 Sakyamuni 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 + Sakyamuni; 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 Sakyamuni, 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. + +Fa-Hsien(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 vihara, 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 vihara 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 nirvana; 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 vihara 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 vihara of the Deer-wild park for +thirteen yojanas, there is a kingdom named Kausambi.(12) Its vihara 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) Fa-Hsien 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. 25d 23s + N., lon. 83d 5s 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 Sakyamuni, who gave + him the name of Ajnata, meaning automat; and hence he often appears as + Ajnata Kaundinya. He and his four friends had followed Sakyamuni + 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 nirvana had come without observation. These friends knew it not; + and they were offended by what they considered Sakyamuni'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 Fa-Hsien'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 "Sakyamuni,"="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. 25d 41s N., lon. + 81d 27s 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 vihara to Buddha. Hardy (M. B., p. 356) quotes a statement + from a Singhalese authority that Sakyamuni 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. Fa-Hsien, +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. FA-HIEN'S LABOURS IN TRANSCRIPTION OF MANUSCRIPTS, AND +INDIAN STUDIES FOR THREE YEARS. + +From Varanasi (the travellers) went back east to Pataliputtra. +Fa-Hsien'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 +vihara. 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) Fa-Hsien 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). Fa-Hsien, 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 Sakyamuni held? It + does not appear that the rules observed at it were written down at the + time. The document found by Fa-Hsien 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 vihara, or Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien, 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 vihara, 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 Fa-Hsien +stayed two years, writing out his Sutras,(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. 25d 14s N., lon. 56d 55s E. + + (2) Then the principal emporium for the trade with Ceylon and China; + the modern Tam-look, lat. 22d 17s N., lon. 88d 2s 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 Fa-Hsien 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 vihara, 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 vihara 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-nirvana (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-vihara. 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-vihara. 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 vihara within the city. On fast-days the door of that +vihara is opened, and the forms of ceremonial reverence are observed +according to the rules. + +Forty le to the east of the Abhayagiri-vihara there is a hill, with a +vihara 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 Sakyamuni 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 Fa-Hsien'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 3_4 inches long, and about 2 1_2 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 Sakyamuni, 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Sakyamuni 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 Fa-Hsien, + 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 Sakyamuni 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 Sakyamuni. + + (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." Remusat 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 Sakyamuni 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 Fa-Hsien 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 vihara, called the Maha-vihara, +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 vihara 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. Fa-Hsien 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 vihara 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien 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 Sakyamuni 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 Fa-Hsien 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. Fa-Hsien'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 viharas. See the Mahavansa, + pp. 247, foll. + + (6) See chapter xii. Fa-Hsien 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. + +Fa-Hsien 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) (Sutras); 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. Fa-Hsien 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, (Fa-Hsien) 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. + +Fa-Hsien 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. Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien, 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 (Fa-Hsien). + +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 Fa-Hsien to act as +interpreter and question them. Fa-Hsien 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 +(Fa-Hsien) 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, Fa-Hsien, 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 Sutras and the collection of the Vinaya (which he had procured). + +After Fa-Hsien 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 Fa-Hsien. 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 Sutras 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 Pali 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 Fa-Hsien 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. Fa-Hsien 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 + Fa-Hsien, 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. Remusat, 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 Fa-Hsien'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 + Fa-Hsien'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 Fa-Hsien. + + (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, Fa-Hsien'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 Fa-Hsien. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, by Fa-Hsien + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS *** + +***** This file should be named 2124.txt or 2124.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/2124/ + +Produced by John Bickers; Dagny and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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