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diff --git a/2124-0.txt b/2124-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a402170 --- /dev/null +++ b/2124-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5822 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, by Fâ-Hien + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms + +Author: Fâ-Hien + +Release Date: March, 2000 [eBook #2124] +[Most recently updated: February 18, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: John Bickers; Dagny and David Widger + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS *** + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms + +Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fâ-Hien +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 + + +Contents + + PREFACE + INTRODUCTION + THE TRAVELS OF FÂ-HIEN + + CHAPTER I. + CHAPTER II. + CHAPTER III. + CHAPTER IV. + CHAPTER V. + CHAPTER VI. + CHAPTER VII. + CHAPTER VIII. + CHAPTER IX. + CHAPTER X. + CHAPTER XI. + CHAPTER XII. + CHAPTER XIII. + CHAPTER XIV. + CHAPTER XV. + CHAPTER XVI. + CHAPTER XVII. + CHAPTER XVIII. + CHAPTER XIX. + CHAPTER XX. + CHAPTER XXI. + CHAPTER XXII. + CHAPTER XXIII. + CHAPTER XXIV. + CHAPTER XXV. + CHAPTER XXVI. + CHAPTER XXVII. + CHAPTER XXVIII. + CHAPTER XXIX. + CHAPTER XXX. + CHAPTER XXXI. + CHAPTER XXXII. + CHAPTER XXXIII. + CHAPTER XXXIV. + CHAPTER XXXV. + CHAPTER XXXVI. + CHAPTER XXXVII. + CHAPTER XXXVIII. + CHAPTER XXXIX. + CHAPTER XL. + + + + +PREFACE + + +Several times during my long residence in Hong Kong I endeavoured to +read through the “Narrative of Fâ-Hien;” but though interested with the +graphic details of much of the work, its columns bristled so +constantly—now with his phonetic representations of Sanskrit words, and +now with his substitution for them of their meanings in Chinese +characters, and I was, moreover, so much occupied with my own special +labours on the Confucian Classics, that my success was far from +satisfactory. When Dr. Eitel’s “Handbook for the Student of Chinese +Buddhism” appeared in 1870, the difficulty occasioned by the Sanskrit +words and names was removed, but the other difficulty remained; and I +was not able to look into the book again for several years. Nor had I +much inducement to do so in the two copies of it which I had been able +to procure, on poor paper, and printed from blocks badly cut at first, +and so worn with use as to yield books the reverse of attractive in +their appearance to the student. + +In the meantime I kept studying the subject of Buddhism from various +sources; and in 1878 began to lecture, here in Oxford, on the Travels +with my Davis Chinese scholar, who was at the same time Boden Sanskrit +scholar. As we went on, I wrote out a translation in English for my own +satisfaction of nearly half the narrative. In the beginning of last +year I made Fâ-Hien again the subject of lecture, wrote out a second +translation, independent of the former, and pushed on till I had +completed the whole. + +The want of a good and clear text had been supplied by my friend, Mr. +Bunyiu Nanjio, who sent to me from Japan a copy, the text of which is +appended to the translation and notes, and of the nature of which some +account is given in the Introduction, and towards the end of this +Preface. + +The present work consists of three parts: the Translation of Fâ-Hien’s +Narrative of his Travels; copious Notes; and the Chinese Text of my +copy from Japan. + +It is for the Translation that I hold myself more especially +responsible. Portions of it were written out three times, and the whole +of it twice. While preparing my own version I made frequent reference +to previous translations:—those of M. Abel Rémusat, “Revu, complété, et +augmenté d’éclaircissements nouveaux par MM. Klaproth et Landress” +(Paris, 1836); of the Rev. Samuel Beal (London, 1869), and his revision +of it, prefixed to his “Buddhist Records of the Western World” +(Trübner’s Oriental Series, 1884); and of Mr. Herbert A. Giles, of +H.M.’s Consular Service in China (1877). To these I have to add a +series of articles on “Fa-hsien and his English Translators,” by Mr. T. +Watters, British Consul at Î-Chang (China Review, 1879, 1880). Those +articles are of the highest value, displaying accuracy of Chinese +scholarship and an extensive knowledge of Buddhism. I have regretted +that Mr. Watters, while reviewing others, did not himself write out and +publish a version of the whole of Fâ-Hien’s narrative. If he had done +so, I should probably have thought that, on the whole, nothing more +remained to be done for the distinguished Chinese pilgrim in the way of +translation. Mr. Watters had to judge of the comparative merits of the +versions of Beal and Giles, and pronounce on the many points of +contention between them. I have endeavoured to eschew those matters, +and have seldom made remarks of a critical nature in defence of +renderings of my own. + +The Chinese narrative runs on without any break. It was Klaproth who +divided Rémusat’s translation into forty chapters. The division is +helpful to the reader, and I have followed it excepting in three or +four instances. In the reprinted Chinese text the chapters are +separated by a circle in the column. + +In transliterating the names of Chinese characters I have generally +followed the spelling of Morrison rather than the Pekinese, which is +now in vogue. We cannot tell exactly what the pronunciation of them +was, about fifteen hundred years ago, in the time of Fâ-Hien; but the +southern mandarin must be a shade nearer to it than that of Peking at +the present day. In transliterating the Indian names I have for the +most part followed Dr. Eitel, with such modification as seemed good and +in harmony with growing usage. + +For the Notes I can do little more than claim the merit of selection +and condensation. My first object in them was to explain what in the +text required explanation to an English reader. All Chinese texts, and +Buddhist texts especially, are new to foreign students. One has to do +for them what many hundreds of the ablest scholars in Europe have done +for the Greek and Latin Classics during several hundred years, and what +the thousands of critics and commentators have been doing of our Sacred +Scriptures for nearly eighteen centuries. There are few predecessors in +the field of Chinese literature into whose labours translators of the +present century can enter. This will be received, I hope, as a +sufficient apology for the minuteness and length of some of the notes. +A second object in them was to teach myself first, and then others, +something of the history and doctrines of Buddhism. I have thought that +they might be learned better in connexion with a lively narrative like +that of Fâ-Hien than by reading didactic descriptions and argumentative +books. Such has been my own experience. The books which I have +consulted for these notes have been many, besides Chinese works. My +principal help has been the full and masterly handbook of Eitel, +mentioned already, and often referred to as E.H. Spence Hardy’s +“Eastern Monachism” (E.M.) and “Manual of Buddhism” (M.B.) have been +constantly in hand, as well as Rhys Davids’ Buddhism, published by the +Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, his Hibbert Lectures, and +his Buddhist Suttas in the Sacred Books of the East, and other +writings. I need not mention other authorities, having endeavoured +always to specify them where I make use of them. My proximity and +access to the Bodleian Library and the Indian Institute have been of +great advantage. + +I may be allowed to say that, so far as my own study of it has gone, I +think there are many things in the vast field of Buddhist literature +which still require to be carefully handled. How far, for instance, are +we entitled to regard the present Sûtras as genuine and sufficiently +accurate copies of those which were accepted by the Councils before our +Christian era? Can anything be done to trace the rise of the legends +and marvels of Sâkyamuni’s history, which were current so early (as it +seems to us) as the time of Fâ-Hien, and which startle us so frequently +by similarities between them and narratives in our Gospels? Dr. Hermann +Oldenberg, certainly a great authority on Buddhistic subjects, says +that “a biography of Buddha has not come down to us from ancient times, +from the age of the Pâli texts; and, we can safely say, no such +biography existed then” (“Buddha—His Life, His Doctrine, His Order,” as +translated by Hoey, p. 78). He has also (in the same work, pp. 99, 416, +417) come to the conclusion that the hitherto unchallenged tradition +that the Buddha was “a king’s son” must be given up. The name “king’s +son” (in Chinese {...}), always used of the Buddha, certainly requires +to be understood in the highest sense. I am content myself to wait for +further information on these and other points, as the result of +prolonged and careful research. + +Dr. Rhys Davids has kindly read the proofs of the Translation and +Notes, and I most certainly thank him for doing so, for his many +valuable corrections in the Notes, and for other suggestions which I +have received from him. I may not always think on various points +exactly as he does, but I am not more forward than he is to say with +Horace,— + + “Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri.” + +I have referred above, and also in the Introduction, to the Corean text +of Fâ-Hien’s narrative, which I received from Mr. Nanjio. It is on the +whole so much superior to the better-known texts, that I determined to +attempt to reproduce it at the end of the little volume, so far as our +resources here in Oxford would permit. To do so has not been an easy +task. The two fonts of Chinese types in the Clarendon Press were +prepared primarily for printing the translation of our Sacred +Scriptures, and then extended so as to be available for printing also +the Confucian Classics; but the Buddhist work necessarily requires many +types not found in them, while many other characters in the Corean +recension are peculiar in their forms, and some are what Chinese +dictionaries denominate “vulgar.” That we have succeeded so well as we +have done is owing chiefly to the intelligence, ingenuity, and untiring +attention of Mr. J. C. Pembrey, the Oriental Reader. + +The pictures that have been introduced were taken from a superb edition +of a History of Buddha, republished recently at Hang-châu in +Cheh-kiang, and profusely illustrated in the best style of Chinese art. +I am indebted for the use of it to the Rev. J. H. Sedgwick, University +Chinese Scholar. + +JAMES LEGGE. + +Oxford: +June, 1886. + +[Illustration: Sketch Map Of Fâ-Hien’s Travels] + +The accompanying Sketch-Map, taken in connexion with the notes on the +different places in the Narrative, will give the reader a sufficiently +accurate knowledge of Fâ-Hien’s route. + +There is no difficulty in laying it down after he crossed the Indus +from east to west into the Punjâb, all the principal places, at which +he touched or rested, having been determined by Cunningham and other +Indian geographers and archaeologists. Most of the places from +Ch’ang-an to Bannu have also been identified. Woo-e has been put down +as near Kutcha, or Kuldja, in 43° 25′ N., 81° 15′ E. The country of +K’ieh-ch’a was probably Ladak, but I am inclined to think that the +place where the traveller crossed the Indus and entered it must have +been further east than Skardo. A doubt is intimated on page 24 as to +the identification of T’o-leih with Darada, but Greenough’s “Physical +and Geological Sketch-Map of British India” shows “Dardu Proper,” all +lying on the east of the Indus, exactly in the position where the +Narrative would lead us to place it. The point at which Fâ-Hien +recrossed the Indus into Udyâna on the west of it is unknown. +Takshasila, which he visited, was no doubt on the west of the river, +and has been incorrectly accepted as the Taxila of Arrian in the +Punjâb. It should be written Takshasira, of which the Chinese +phonetisation will allow;—see a note of Beal in his “Buddhist Records +of the Western World,” i. 138. + +We must suppose that Fâ-Hien went on from Nan-king to Ch’ang-an, but +the Narrative does not record the fact of his doing so. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Life of Fâ-Hien; Genuineness and Integrity of the Text of his +Narrative; Number of the Adherents of Buddhism. + +1. Nothing of great importance is known about Fâ-Hien in addition to +what may be gathered from his own record of his travels. I have read +the accounts of him in the “Memoirs of Eminent Monks,” compiled in A.D. +519, and a later work, the “Memoirs of Marvellous Monks,” by the third +emperor of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1403-1424), which, however, is nearly +all borrowed from the other; and all in them that has an appearance of +verisimilitude can be brought within brief compass. + +His surname, they tell us, was Kung, and he was a native of Wû-yang in +P’ing-Yang, which is still the name of a large department in Shan-hsi. +He had three brothers older than himself; but when they all died before +shedding their first teeth, his father devoted him to the service of +the Buddhist society, and had him entered as a Sramanera, still keeping +him at home in the family. The little fellow fell dangerously ill, and +the father sent him to the monastery, where he soon got well and +refused to return to his parents. + +When he was ten years old, his father died; and an uncle, considering +the widowed solitariness and helplessness of the mother, urged him to +renounce the monastic life, and return to her, but the boy replied, “I +did not quit the family in compliance with my father’s wishes, but +because I wished to be far from the dust and vulgar ways of life. This +is why I chose monkhood.” The uncle approved of his words and gave over +urging him. When his mother also died, it appeared how great had been +the affection for her of his fine nature; but after her burial he +returned to the monastery. + +On one occasion he was cutting rice with a score or two of his +fellow-disciples, when some hungry thieves came upon them to take away +their grain by force. The other Sramaneras all fled, but our young hero +stood his ground, and said to the thieves, “If you must have the grain, +take what you please. But, Sirs, it was your former neglect of charity +which brought you to your present state of destitution; and now, again, +you wish to rob others. I am afraid that in the coming ages you will +have still greater poverty and distress;—I am sorry for you +beforehand.” With these words he followed his companions into the +monastery, while the thieves left the grain and went away, all the +monks, of whom there were several hundred, doing homage to his conduct +and courage. + +When he had finished his noviciate and taken on him the obligations of +the full Buddhist orders, his earnest courage, clear intelligence, and +strict regulation of his demeanour were conspicuous; and soon after, he +undertook his journey to India in search of complete copies of the +Vinaya-pitaka. What follows this is merely an account of his travels in +India and return to China by sea, condensed from his own narrative, +with the addition of some marvellous incidents that happened to him, on +his visit to the Vulture Peak near Rajagriha. + +It is said in the end that after his return to China, he went to the +capital (evidently Nanking), and there, along with the Indian Sramana +Buddha-bhadra, executed translations of some of the works which he had +obtained in India; and that before he had done all that he wished to do +in this way, he removed to King-chow (in the present Hoo-pih), and died +in the monastery of Sin, at the age of eighty-eight, to the great +sorrow of all who knew him. It is added that there is another larger +work giving an account of his travels in various countries. + +Such is all the information given about our author, beyond what he +himself has told us. Fâ-Hien was his clerical name, and means +“Illustrious in the Law,” or “Illustrious master of the Law.” The Shih +which often precedes it is an abbreviation of the name of Buddha as +Sâkyamuni, “the Sakya, mighty in Love, dwelling in Seclusion and +Silence,” and may be taken as equivalent to Buddhist. It is sometimes +said to have belonged to “the eastern Tsin dynasty” (A.D. 317-419), and +sometimes to “the Sung,” that is, the Sung dynasty of the House of Liu +(A.D. 420-478). If he became a full monk at the age of twenty, and went +to India when he was twenty-five, his long life may have been divided +pretty equally between the two dynasties. + +2. If there were ever another and larger account of Fâ-Hien’s travels +than the narrative of which a translation is now given, it has long +ceased to be in existence. + +In the Catalogue of the imperial library of the Suy dynasty (A.D. +589-618), the name Fâ-Hien occurs four times. Towards the end of the +last section of it (page 22), after a reference to his travels, his +labours in translation at Kin-ling (another name for Nanking), in +conjunction with Buddha-bhadra, are described. In the second section, +page 15, we find “A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms;”—with a note, saying +that it was the work of the “Sramana, Fâ-Hien;” and again, on page 13, +we have “Narrative of Fâ-Hien in two Books,” and “Narrative of +Fâ-Hien’s Travels in one Book.” But all these three entries may +possibly belong to different copies of the same work, the first and the +other two being in separate subdivisions of the Catalogue. + +In the two Chinese copies of the narrative in my possession the title +is “Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms.” In the Japanese or Corean recension +subjoined to this translation, the title is twofold; first, “Narrative +of the Distinguished Monk, Fâ-Hien;” and then, more at large, +“Incidents of Travels in India, by the Sramana of the Eastern Tsin, +Fâ-Hien, recorded by himself.” + +There is still earlier attestation of the existence of our little work +than the Suy Catalogue. The Catalogue Raisonné of the imperial library +of the present dynasty (chap. 71) mentions two quotations from it by Le +Tao-yuen, a geographical writer of the dynasty of the Northern Wei +(A.D. 386-584), one of them containing 89 characters, and the other +276; both of them given as from the “Narrative of Fâ-Hien.” + +In all catalogues subsequent to that of Suy our work appears. The +evidence for its authenticity and genuineness is all that could be +required. It is clear to myself that the “Record of Buddhistic +Kingdoms” and the “Narrative of his Travels by Fâ-Hien” were +designations of one and the same work, and that it is doubtful whether +any larger work on the same subject was ever current. With regard to +the text subjoined to my translation, it was published in Japan in +1779. The editor had before him four recensions of the narrative; those +of the Sung and Ming dynasties, with appendixes on the names of certain +characters in them; that of Japan; and that of Corea. He wisely adopted +the Corean text, published in accordance with a royal rescript in 1726, +so far as I can make out; but the different readings of the other texts +are all given in top-notes, instead of foot-notes as with us, this +being one of the points in which customs in the east and west go by +contraries. Very occasionally, the editor indicates by a single +character, equivalent to “right” or “wrong,” which reading in his +opinion is to be preferred. In the notes to the present republication +of the Corean text, S stands for Sung, M for Ming, and J for Japanese; +R for right, and W for wrong. I have taken the trouble to give all the +various readings (amounting to more than 300), partly as a curiosity +and to make my text complete, and partly to show how, in the +transcription of writings in whatever language, such variations are +sure to occur, + + “maculae, quas aut incuria fudit, + Aut humana parum cavit nature,” + +while on the whole they very slightly affect the meaning of the +document. + +The editors of the Catalogue Raisonné intimate their doubts of the good +taste and reliability of all Fâ-Hien’s statements. It offends them that +he should call central India the “Middle Kingdom,” and China, which to +them was the true and only Middle Kingdom, but “a Border land;”—it +offends them as the vaunting language of a Buddhist writer, whereas the +reader will see in the expressions only an instance of what Fâ-Hien +calls his “simple straightforwardness.” + +As an instance of his unreliability they refer to his account of the +Buddhism of Khoten, whereas it is well known, they say, that the +Khoteners from ancient times till now have been Mohammedans;—as if they +could have been so 170 years before Mohammed was born, and 222 years +before the year of the Hegira! And this is criticism in China. The +Catalogue was ordered by the K’ien-lung emperor in 1722. Between three +and four hundred of the “Great Scholars” of the empire were engaged on +it in various departments, and thus egregiously ignorant did they show +themselves of all beyond the limits of their own country, and even of +the literature of that country itself. + +Much of what Fâ-Hien tells his readers of Buddhist miracles and legends +is indeed unreliable and grotesque; but we have from him the truth as +to what he saw and heard. + +3. In concluding this introduction I wish to call attention to some +estimates of the number of Buddhists in the world which have become +current, believing, as I do, that the smallest of them is much above +what is correct. + +i. In a note on the first page of his work on the Bhilsa Topes (1854), +General Cunningham says: “The Christians number about 270 millions; the +Buddhists about 222 millions, who are distributed as follows:—China 170 +millions, Japan 25, Anam 14, Siam 3, Ava 8, Nepal 1, and Ceylon 1; +total, 222 millions.” + +ii. In his article on M. J. Barthelemy Saint Hilaire’s “Le Bouddha et +sa Religion,” republished in his “Chips from a German Workshop,” vol. +i. (1868), Professor Max Muller (p. 215) says, “The young prince became +the founder of a religion which, after more than two thousand years, is +still professed by 455 millions of human beings,” and he appends the +following note: “Though truth is not settled by majorities, it would be +interesting to know which religion counts at the present moment the +largest numbers of believers. Berghaus, in his ‘Physical Atlas,’ gives +the following division of the human race according to +religion:—‘Buddhists 31.2 per cent, Christians 30.7, Mohammedans 15.7, +Brahmanists 13.4, Heathens 8.7, and Jews 0.3.’ As Berghaus does not +distinguish the Buddhists in China from the followers of Confucius and +Laotse, the first place on the scale really belongs to Christianity. It +is difficult to say to what religion a man belongs, as the same person +may profess two or three. The emperor himself, after sacrificing +according to the ritual of Confucius, visits a Tao-sse temple, and +afterwards bows before an image of Fo in a Buddhist chapel. (‘Mélanges +Asiatiques de St. Pétersbourg,’ vol. ii. p. 374.)” + +iii. Both these estimates are exceeded by Dr. T. W. Rhys Davids +(intimating also the uncertainty of the statements, and that numbers +are no evidence of truth) in the introduction to his “Manual of +Buddhism.” The Buddhists there appear as amounting in all to 500 +millions:—30 millions of Southern Buddhists, in Ceylon, Burma, Siam, +Anam, and India (Jains); and 470 millions of North Buddhists, of whom +nearly 33 millions are assigned to Japan, and 414,686,974 to the +eighteen provinces of China proper. According to him, Christians amount +to about 26 per cent of mankind, Hindus to about 13, Mohammedans to +about 12 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 FÂ-HIEN +or RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS + + + + +CHAPTER I. +FROM CH’ANG-GAN TO THE SANDY DESERT + + +Fâ-Hien had been living in Ch’ang-gan.(1) Deploring the mutilated and +imperfect state of the collection of the Books of Discipline, in the +second year of the period Hwăng-che, being the Ke-hâe year of the +cycle,(2) he entered into an engagement with Kwuy-king, Tâo-ching, +Hwuy-ying, and Hwuy-wei,(3) that they should go to India and seek for +the Disciplinary Rules.(4) + +After starting from Ch’ang-gan, they passed through Lung,(5) and came +to the kingdom of K’een-kwei,(6) where they stopped for the summer +retreat.(7) When that was over, they went forward to the kingdom of +Now-t’an,(8) crossed the mountain of Yang-low, and reached the emporium +of Chang-yih.(9) There they found the country so much disturbed that +travelling on the roads was impossible for them. Its king, however, was +very attentive to them, kept them (in his capital), and acted the part +of their danapati.(10) + +Here they met with Che-yen, Hwuy-keen, Sang-shao, Pao-yun, and +Sang-king;(11) and in pleasant association with them, as bound on the +same journey with themselves, they passed the summer retreat (of that +year)(12) together, resuming after it their travelling, and going on to +T’un-hwang,(13) (the chief town) in the frontier territory of defence +extending for about 80 le from east to west, and about 40 from north to +south. Their company, increased as it had been, halted there for some +days more than a month, after which Fâ-Hien and his four friends +started first in the suite of an envoy,(14) having separated (for a +time) from Pao-yun and his associates. + +Le Hao,(15) the prefect of T’un-hwang, had supplied them with the means +of crossing the desert (before them), in which there are many evil +demons and hot winds. (Travellers) who encounter them perish all to a +man. There is not a bird to be seen in the air above, nor an animal on +the ground below. Though you look all round most earnestly to find +where you can cross, you know not where to make your choice, the only +mark and indication being the dry bones of the dead (left upon the +sand).(16) + +NOTES + +(1) Ch’ang-gan is still the name of the principal district (and its +city) in the department of Se-gan, Shen-se. It had been the capital of +the first empire of Han (B.C. 202-A.D. 24), as it subsequently was that +of Suy (A.D. 589-618). The empire of the eastern Tsin, towards the +close of which Fâ-Hien lived, had its capital at or near Nan-king, and +Ch’ang-gan was the capital of the principal of the three Ts’in +kingdoms, which, with many other minor ones, maintained a +semi-independence of Tsin, their rulers sometimes even assuming the +title of emperor. + +(2) The period Hwang-che embraced from A.D. 399 to 414, being the +greater portion of the reign of Yao Hing of the After Ts’in, a powerful +prince. He adopted Hwang-che for the style of his reign in 399, and the +cyclical name of that year was Kang-tsze. It is not possible at this +distance of time to explain, if it could be explained, how Fâ-Hien came +to say that Ke-hae was the second year of the period. It seems most +reasonable to suppose that he set out on his pilgrimage in A.D. 399, +the cycle name of which was Ke-hae, as {.}, the second year, instead of +{.}, the first, might easily creep into the text. In the “Memoirs of +Eminent Monks” it is said that our author started in the third year of +the period Lung-gan of the eastern Tsin, which was A.D. 399. + +(3) These, like Fâ-Hien itself, are all what we might call “clerical” +names, appellations given to the parties as monks or sramanas. + +(4) The Buddhist tripitaka or canon consists of three collections, +containing, according to Eitel (p. 150), “doctrinal aphorisms (or +statements, purporting to be from Buddha himself); works on discipline; +and works on metaphysics:”—called sutra, vinaya, and abhidharma; in +Chinese, king {.}, leuh {.}, and lun {.}, or texts, laws or rules, and +discussions. Dr. Rhys Davids objects to the designation of +“metaphysics” as used of the abhidharma works, saying that “they bear +much more the relation to ‘dharma’ which ‘by-law’ bears to ‘law’ than +that which ‘metaphysics’ bears to ‘physics’” (Hibbert Lectures, p. 49). +However this be, it was about the vinaya works that Fâ-Hien was chiefly +concerned. He wanted a good code of the rules for the government of +“the Order” in all its internal and external relations. + +(5) Lung embraced the western part of Shen-se and the eastern part of +Kan-suh. The name remains in Lung Chow, in the extreme west of Shen-se. + +(6) K’een-kwei was the second king of “the Western Ts’in.” His family +was of northern or barbarous origin, from the tribe of the Seen-pe, +with the surname of K’eih-fuh. The first king was Kwo-kin, and received +his appointment from the sovereign of the chief Ts’in kingdom in 385. +He was succeeded in 388 by his brother, the K’een-kwei of the text, who +was very prosperous in 398, and took the title of king of Ts’in. +Fâ-Hien would find him at his capital, somewhere in the present +department of Lan-chow, Kan-suh. + +(7) Under varshas or vashavasana (Pâli, vassa; Spence Hardy, vass), +Eitel (p. 163) says:—“One of the most ancient institutions of Buddhist +discipline, requiring all ecclesiastics to spend the rainy season in a +monastery in devotional exercises. Chinese Buddhists naturally +substituted the hot season for the rainy (from the 16th day of the 5th +to the 15th of the 9th Chinese month).” + +(8) During the troubled period of the Tsin dynasty, there were five +(usurping) Leang sovereignties in the western part of the empire ({.} +{.}). The name Leang remains in the department of Leang-chow in the +northern part of Kan-suh. The “southern Leang” arose in 397 under a +Tuh-fah Wu-ku, who was succeeded in 399 by a brother, Le-luh-koo; and +he again by his brother, the Now-t’an of the text, in 402, who was not +yet king therefore when Fâ-Hien and his friends reached his capital. +How he is represented as being so may be accounted for in various ways, +of which it is not necessary to write. + +(9) Chang-yih is still the name of a district in Kan-chow department, +Kan-suh. It is a long way north and west from Lan-chow, and not far +from the Great Wall. Its king at this time was, probably, Twan-yeh of +“the northern Leang.” + +(10) Dana is the name for religious charity, the first of the six +paramitas, or means of attaining to nirvâna; and a danapati is “one who +practises dana and thereby crosses {.} the sea of misery.” It is given +as “a title of honour to all who support the cause of Buddhism by acts +of charity, especially to founders and patrons of monasteries;”—see +Eitel, p. 29. + +(11) Of these pilgrims with their clerical names, the most +distinguished was Pao-yun, who translated various Sanskrit works on his +return from India, of which only one seems to be now existing. He died +in 449. See Nanjio’s Catalogue of the Tripitaka, col. 417. + +(12) This was the second summer since the pilgrims left Ch’ang-gan. We +are now therefore, probably, in A.D. 400. + +(13) T’un-hwang (lat. 39° 40′ N.; lon. 94° 50′ E.) is still the name of +one of the two districts constituting the department of Gan-se, the +most western of the prefectures of Kan-suh; beyond the termination of +the Great Wall. + +(14) Who this envoy was, and where he was going, we do not know. The +text will not admit of any other translation. + +(15) Le Hao was a native of Lung-se, a man of learning, able and kindly +in his government. He was appointed governor or prefect of T’un-hwang +by the king of “the northern Leang,” in 400; and there he sustained +himself, becoming by and by “duke of western Leang,” till he died in +417. + +(16) “The river of sand;” the great desert of Kobi or Gobi; having +various other names. It was a great task which the pilgrims had now +before them,—to cross this desert. The name of “river” in the Chinese +misleads the reader, and he thinks of crossing it as of crossing a +stream; but they had to traverse it from east to west. In his +“Vocabulary of Proper Names,” p. 23, Dr. Porter Smith says:—“It extends +from the eastern frontier of Mongolia, south-westward to the further +frontier of Turkestan, to within six miles of Ilchi, the chief town of +Khoten. It thus comprises some twenty-three degrees of longitude in +length, and from three to ten degrees of latitude in breadth, being +about 2,100 miles in its greatest length. In some places it is arable. +Some idea may be formed of the terror with which this ‘Sea of Sand,’ +with its vast billows of shifting sands, is regarded, from the legend +that in one of the storms 360 cities were all buried within the space +of twenty-four hours.” So also Gilmour’s “Among the Mongols,” chap. 5. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +ON TO SHEN-SHEN AND THENCE TO KHOTEN + + +After travelling for seventeen days, a distance we may calculate of +about 1500 le, (the pilgrims) reached the kingdom of Shen-shen,(1) a +country rugged and hilly, with a thin and barren soil. The clothes of +the common people are coarse, and like those worn in our land of +Han,(2) some wearing felt and others coarse serge or cloth of +hair;—this was the only difference seen among them. The king professed +(our) Law, and there might be in the country more than four thousand +monks,(3) who were all students of the hinayana.(4) The common people +of this and other kingdoms (in that region), as well as the sramans,(5) +all practise the rules of India,(6) only that the latter do so more +exactly, and the former more loosely. So (the travellers) found it in +all the kingdoms through which they went on their way from this to the +west, only that each had its own peculiar barbarous speech.(7) (The +monks), however, who had (given up the worldly life) and quitted their +families, were all students of Indian books and the Indian language. +Here they stayed for about a month, and then proceeded on their +journey, fifteen days walking to the north-west bringing them to the +country of Woo-e.(8) In this also there were more than four thousand +monks, all students of the hinayana. They were very strict in their +rules, so that sramans from the territory of Ts’in(9) were all +unprepared for their regulations. Fâ-Hien, through the management of +Foo Kung-sun, _maitre d’hotellerie_,(10) was able to remain (with his +company in the monastery where they were received) for more than two +months, and here they were rejoined by Pao-yun and his friends.(11) (At +the end of that time) the people of Woo-e neglected the duties of +propriety and righteousness, and treated the strangers in so niggardly +a manner that Che-yen, Hwuy-keen, and Hwuy-wei went back towards +Kao-ch’ang,(12) hoping to obtain there the means of continuing their +journey. Fâ-Hien and the rest, however, through the liberality of Foo +Kung-sun, managed to go straight forward in a south-west direction. +They found the country uninhabited as they went along. The difficulties +which they encountered in crossing the streams and on their route, and +the sufferings which they endured, were unparalleled in human +experience, but in the course of a month and five days they succeeded +in reaching Yu-teen.(13) + +NOTES + +(1) An account is given of the kingdom of Shen-shen in the 96th of the +Books of the first Han dynasty, down to its becoming a dependency of +China, about B.C. 80. The greater portion of that is now accessible to +the English reader in a translation by Mr. Wylie in the “Journal of the +Anthropological Institute,” August, 1880. Mr. Wylie says:—“Although we +may not be able to identify Shen-shen with certainty, yet we have +sufficient indications to give an appropriate idea of its position, as +being south of and not far from lake Lob.” He then goes into an +exhibition of those indications, which I need not transcribe. It is +sufficient for us to know that the capital city was not far from Lob or +Lop Nor, into which in lon. 38° E. the Tarim flows. Fâ-Hien estimated +its distance to be 1500 le from T’un-hwang. He and his companions must +have gone more than twenty-five miles a day to accomplish the journey +in seventeen days. + +(2) This is the name which Fâ-Hien always uses when he would speak of +China, his native country, as a whole, calling it from the great +dynasty which had ruled it, first and last, for between four and five +centuries. Occasionally, as we shall immediately see, he speaks of “the +territory of Ts’in or Ch’in,” but intending thereby only the kingdom or +Ts’in, having its capital, as described in the first note on the last +chapter, in Ch’ang-gan. + +(3) So I prefer to translate the character {.} (sang) rather than by +“priests.” Even in Christianity, beyond the priestly privilege which +belongs to all believers, I object to the ministers of any denomination +or church calling themselves or being called “priests;” and much more +is the name inapplicable to the sramanas or bhikshus of Buddhism which +acknowledges no God in the universe, no soul in man, and has no +services of sacrifice or prayer in its worship. The only difficulty in +the use of “monks” is caused by the members of the sect in Japan which, +since the middle of the fifteenth century, has abolished the +prohibition against marrying on the part of its ministers, and other +prohibitions in diet and dress. Sang and sang-kea represent the +Sanskrit sangha, constituted by at least four members, and empowered to +hear confession, to grant absolution, to admit persons to holy orders, +&c.; secondly, the third constituent of the Buddhistic Trinity, a +deification of the _communio sanctorum_, or the Buddhist order. The +name is used by our author of the monks collectively or individually as +belonging to the class, and may be considered as synonymous with the +name sramana, which will immediately claim our attention. + +(4) Meaning the “small vehicle, or conveyance.” There are in Buddhism +the triyana, or “three different means of salvation, i.e. of conveyance +across the samsara, or sea of transmigration, to the shores of nirvâna. +Afterwards the term was used to designate the different phases of +development through which the Buddhist dogma passed, known as the +mahayana, hinayana, and madhyamayana.” “The hinayana is the simplest +vehicle of salvation, corresponding to the first of the three degrees +of saintship. Characteristics of it are the preponderance of active +moral asceticism, and the absence of speculative mysticism and +quietism.” E. H., pp. 151-2, 45, and 117. + +(5) The name for India is here the same as in the former chapter and +throughout the book,—T’een-chuh ({.} {.}), the chuh being pronounced, +probably, in Fâ-Hien’s time as tuk. How the earliest name for India, +Shin-tuk or duk=Scinde, came to be changed into Thien-tuk, it would +take too much space to explain. I believe it was done by the Buddhists, +wishing to give a good auspicious name to the fatherland of their Law, +and calling it “the Heavenly Tuk,” just as the Mohammedans call Arabia +“the Heavenly region” ({.} {.}), and the court of China itself is +called “the Celestial” ({.} {.}). + +(6) Sraman may in English take the place of Sramana (Pâli, Samana; in +Chinese, Sha-man), the name for Buddhist monks, as those who have +separated themselves from (left) their families, and quieted their +hearts from all intrusion of desire and lust. “It is employed, first, +as a general name for ascetics of all denominations, and, secondly, as +a general designation of Buddhistic monks.” E. H., pp. 130, 131. + +(7) Tartar or Mongolian. + +(8) Woo-e has not been identified. Watters (“China Review,” viii. 115) +says:—“We cannot be far wrong if we place it in Kharaschar, or between +that and Kutscha.” It must have been a country of considerable size to +have so many monks in it. + +(9) This means in one sense China, but Fâ-Hien, in his use of the name, +was only thinking of the three Ts’in states of which I have spoken in a +previous note; perhaps only of that from the capital of which he had +himself set out. + +(10) This sentence altogether is difficult to construe, and Mr. +Watters, in the “China Review,” was the first to disentangle more than +one knot in it. I am obliged to adopt the reading of {.} {.} in the +Chinese editions, instead of the {.} {.} in the Corean text. It seems +clear that only one person is spoken of as assisting the travellers, +and his name, as appears a few sentences farther on, was Foo Kung-sun. +The {.} {.} which immediately follows the surname Foo {.}, must be +taken as the name of his office, corresponding, as the {.} shows, to +that of _le maitre d’hotellerie_ in a Roman Catholic abbey. I was once +indebted myself to the kind help of such an officer at a monastery in +Canton province. The Buddhistic name for him is uddesika=overseer. The +Kung-sun that follows his surname indicates that he was descended from +some feudal lord in the old times of the Chow dynasty. We know indeed +of no ruling house which had the surname of Foo, but its adoption by +the grandson of a ruler can be satisfactorily accounted for; and his +posterity continued to call themselves Kung-sun, duke or lord’s +grandson, and so retain the memory of the rank of their ancestor. + +(11) Whom they had left behind them at T’un-hwang. + +(12) The country of the Ouighurs, the district around the modern Turfan +or Tangut. + +(13) Yu-teen is better known as Khoten. Dr. P. Smith gives (p. 11) the +following description of it:—“A large district on the south-west of the +desert of Gobi, embracing all the country south of Oksu and Yarkand, +along the northern base of the Kwun-lun mountains, for more than 300 +miles from east to west. The town of the same name, now called Ilchi, +is in an extensive plain on the Khoten river, in lat. 37° N., and lon. +80° 35′ E. After the Tungani insurrection against Chinese rule in 1862, +the Mufti Haji Habeeboolla was made governor of Khoten, and held the +office till he was murdered by Yakoob Beg, who became for a time the +conqueror of all Chinese Turkestan. Khoten produces fine linen and +cotton stuffs, jade ornaments, copper, grain, and fruits.” The name in +Sanskrit is Kustana. (E. H., p. 60). + + + + +CHAPTER III. +KHOTEN. PROCESSIONS OF IMAGES. THE KING’S NEW MONASTERY. + + +Yu-teen is a pleasant and prosperous kingdom, with a numerous and +flourishing population. The inhabitants all profess our Law, and join +together in its religious music for their enjoyment.(1) The monks +amount to several myriads, most of whom are students of the +mahayana.(2) They all receive their food from the common store.(3) +Throughout the country the houses of the people stand apart like +(separate) stars, and each family has a small tope(4) reared in front +of its door. The smallest of these may be twenty cubits high, or rather +more.(5) They make (in the monasteries) rooms for monks from all +quarters,(5) the use of which is given to travelling monks who may +arrive, and who are provided with whatever else they require. + +The lord of the country lodged Fâ-Hien and the others comfortably, and +supplied their wants, in a monastery(6) called Gomati,(6) of the +mahayana school. Attached to it there are three thousand monks, who are +called to their meals by the sound of a bell. When they enter the +refectory, their demeanour is marked by a reverent gravity, and they +take their seats in regular order, all maintaining a perfect silence. +No sound is heard from their alms-bowls and other utensils. When any of +these pure men(7) require food, they are not allowed to call out (to +the attendants) for it, but only make signs with their hands. + +Hwuy-king, Tao-ching, and Hwuy-tah set out in advance towards the +country of K’eeh-ch’a;(8) but Fâ-Hien and the others, wishing to see +the procession of images, remained behind for three months. There are +in this country four(9) great monasteries, not counting the smaller +ones. Beginning on the first day of the fourth month, they sweep and +water the streets inside the city, making a grand display in the lanes +and byways. Over the city gate they pitch a large tent, grandly adorned +in all possible ways, in which the king and queen, with their ladies +brilliantly arrayed,(10) take up their residence (for the time). + +The monks of the Gomati monastery, being mahayana students, and held in +great reverence by the king, took precedence of all others in the +procession. At a distance of three or four le from the city, they made +a four-wheeled image car, more than thirty cubits high, which looked +like the great hall (of a monastery) moving along. The seven precious +substances(11) were grandly displayed about it, with silken streamers +and canopies hanging all around. The (chief) image(12) stood in the +middle of the car, with two Bodhisattvas(13) in attendance upon it, +while devas(14) were made to follow in waiting, all brilliantly carved +in gold and silver, and hanging in the air. When (the car) was a +hundred paces from the gate, the king put off his crown of state, +changed his dress for a fresh suit, and with bare feet, carrying in his +hands flowers and incense, and with two rows of attending followers, +went out at the gate to meet the image; and, with his head and face +(bowed to the ground), he did homage at its feet, and then scattered +the flowers and burnt the incense. When the image was entering the +gate, the queen and the brilliant ladies with her in the gallery above +scattered far and wide all kinds of flowers, which floated about and +fell promiscuously to the ground. In this way everything was done to +promote the dignity of the occasion. The carriages of the monasteries +were all different, and each one had its own day for the procession. +(The ceremony) began on the first day of the fourth month, and ended on +the fourteenth, after which the king and queen returned to the palace. + +Seven or eight le to the west of the city there is what is called the +King’s New Monastery, the building of which took eighty years, and +extended over three reigns. It may be 250 cubits in height, rich in +elegant carving and inlaid work, covered above with gold and silver, +and finished throughout with a combination of all the precious +substances. Behind the tope there has been built a Hall of Buddha,(15) +of the utmost magnificence and beauty, the beams, pillars, venetianed +doors, and windows being all overlaid with gold-leaf. Besides this, the +apartments for the monks are imposingly and elegantly decorated, beyond +the power of words to express. Of whatever things of highest value and +preciousness the kings in the six countries on the east of the (Ts’ung) +range of mountains(16) are possessed, they contribute the greater +portion (to this monastery), using but a small portion of them +themselves.(17) + +NOTES + +(1) This fondness for music among the Khoteners is mentioned by Hsuan +and Ch’wang and others. + +(2) Mahayana. It is a later form of the Buddhist doctrine, the second +phase of its development corresponding to the state of a Bodhisattva, +who, being able to transport himself and all mankind to nirvâna, may be +compared to a huge vehicle. See Davids on the “Key-note of the ‘Great +Vehicle,’” Hibbert Lectures, p. 254. + +(3) Fâ-Hien supplies sufficient information of how the common store or +funds of the monasteries were provided, farther on in chapters xvi and +xxxix, as well as in other passages. As the point is important, I will +give here, from Davids’ fifth Hibbert Lecture (p. 178), some of the +words of the dying Buddha, taken from “The Book of the Great Decease,” +as illustrating the statement in this text:—“So long as the brethren +shall persevere in kindness of action, speech, and thought among the +saints, both in public and private; so long as they shall divide +without partiality, and share in common with the upright and holy, all +such things as they receive in accordance with the just provisions of +the order, down even to the mere contents of a begging bowl; . . . so +long may the brethren be expected not to decline, but to prosper.” + +(4) The Chinese {.} (t’ah; in Cantonese, t’ap), as used by Fâ-Hien, is, +no doubt, a phonetisation of the Sanskrit stupa or Pâli thupa; and it +is well in translating to use for the structures described by him the +name of topes,—made familiar by Cunningham and other Indian +antiquarians. In the thirteenth chapter there is an account of one +built under the superintendence of Buddha himself, “as a model for all +topes in future.” They were usually in the form of bell-shaped domes, +and were solid, surmounted by a long tapering pinnacle formed with a +series of rings, varying in number. But their form, I suppose, was +often varied; just as we have in China pagodas of different shapes. +There are several topes now in the Indian Institute at Oxford, brought +from Buddha Gaya, but the largest of them is much smaller than “the +smallest” of those of Khoten. They were intended chiefly to contain the +relics of Buddha and famous masters of his Law; but what relics could +there be in the Tiratna topes of chapter xvi? + +(5) The meaning here is much disputed. The author does not mean to say +that the monk’s apartments were made “square,” but that the monasteries +were made with many guest-chambers or spare rooms. + +(6) The Sanskrit term for a monastery is used here,—Sangharama, +“gardens of the assembly,” originally denoting only “the surrounding +park, but afterwards transferred to the whole of the premises” (E. H., +p. 118). Gomati, the name of this monastery, means “rich in cows.” + +(7) A denomination for the monks as vimala, “undefiled” or “pure.” +Giles makes it “the menials that attend on the monks,” but I have not +met with it in that application. + +(8) K’eeh-ch’a has not been clearly identified. Rémusat made it +Cashmere; Klaproth, Iskardu; Beal makes it Kartchou; and Eitel, Khas’a, +“an ancient tribe on the Paropamisus, the Kasioi of Ptolemy.” I think +it was Ladak, or some well-known place in it. Hwuy-tah, unless that +name be an alias, appears here for the first time. + +(9) Instead of “four,” the Chinese copies of the text have “fourteen;” +but the Corean reading is, probably, more correct. + +(10) There may have been, as Giles says, “maids of honour;” but the +character does not say so. + +(11) The Sapta-ratna, gold, silver, lapis lazuli, rock crystal, rubies, +diamonds or emeralds, and agate. See Sacred Books of the East (Davids’ +Buddhist Suttas), vol. xi., p. 249. + +(12) No doubt that of Sâkyamuni himself. + +(13) A Bodhisattva is one whose essence has become intelligence; a +Being who will in some future birth as a man (not necessarily or +usually the next) attain to Buddhahood. The name does not include those +Buddhas who have not yet attained to pari-nirvâna. The symbol of the +state is an elephant fording a river. Popularly, its abbreviated form +P’u-sa is used in China for any idol or image; here the name has its +proper signification. + +(14) {.} {.}, “all the thien,” or simply “the thien” taken as plural. +But in Chinese the character called thien {.} denotes heaven, or +Heaven, and is interchanged with Ti and Shang Ti, meaning God. With the +Buddhists it denotes the devas or Brahmanic gods, or all the +inhabitants of the six devalokas. The usage shows the antagonism +between Buddhism and Brahmanism, and still more that between it and +Confucianism. + +(15) Giles and Williams call this “the oratory of Buddha.” But +“oratory” gives the idea of a small apartment, whereas the name here +leads the mind to think of a large “hall.” I once accompanied the monks +of a large monastery from their refectory to the Hall of Buddha, which +was a lofty and spacious apartment splendidly fitted up. + +(16) The Ts’ung, or “Onion” range, called also the Belurtagh mountains, +including the Karakorum, and forming together the connecting links +between the more northern T’een-shan and the Kwun-lun mountains on the +north of Thibet. It would be difficult to name the six countries which +Fâ-Hien had in mind. + +(17) This seems to be the meaning here. My first impression of it was +that the author meant to say that the contributions which they received +were spent by the monks mainly on the buildings, and only to a small +extent for themselves; and I still hesitate between that view and the +one in the version. + There occurs here the binomial phrase kung-yang {.} {.}, which is + one of the most common throughout the narrative, and is used not + only of support in the way of substantial contributions given to + monks, monasteries, and Buddhism, but generally of all Buddhistic + worship, if I may use that term in the connexion. Let me here quote + two or three sentences from Davids’ Manual (pp. 168-170):—“The + members of the order are secured from want. There is no place in + the Buddhist scheme for churches; the offering of flowers before + the sacred tree or image of the Buddha takes the place of worship. + Buddhism does not acknowledge the efficacy of prayers; and in the + warm countries where Buddhists live, the occasional reading of the + law, or preaching of the word, in public, can take place best in + the open air, by moonlight, under a simple roof of trees or palms. + There are five principal kinds of meditation, which in Buddhism + takes the place of prayer.” + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +THROUGH THE TS’UNG OR “ONION” MOUNTAINS TO K’EEH-CH’A;—PROBABLY SKARDO, +OR SOME CITY MORE TO THE EAST IN LADAK. + + +When the processions of images in the fourth month were over, +Sang-shao, by himself alone, followed a Tartar who was an earnest +follower of the Law,(1) and proceeded towards Kophene.(2) Fâ-Hien and +the others went forward to the kingdom of Tsze-hoh, which it took them +twenty-five days to reach.(3) Its king was a strenuous follower of our +Law,(4) and had (around him) more than a thousand monks, mostly +students of the mahayana. Here (the travellers) abode fifteen days, and +then went south for four days, when they found themselves among the +Ts’ung-ling mountains, and reached the country of Yu-hwuy,(5) where +they halted and kept their retreat.(6) When this was over, they went on +among the hills(7) for twenty-five days, and got to K’eeh-ch’a,(8) +there rejoining Hwuy-king(9) and his two companions. + +NOTES + +(1) This Tartar is called a {.} {.}, “a man of the Tao,” or faith of +Buddha. It occurs several times in the sequel, and denotes the man who +is not a Buddhist outwardly only, but inwardly as well, whose faith is +always making itself manifest in his ways. The name may be used of +followers of other systems of faith besides Buddhism. + +(2) See the account of the kingdom of Kophene, in the 96th Book of the +first Han Records, p. 78, where its capital is said to be 12,200 le +from Ch’ang-gan. It was the whole or part of the present Cabulistan. +The name of Cophene is connected with the river Kophes, supposed to be +the same as the present Cabul river, which falls into the Indus, from +the west, at Attock, after passing Peshawar. The city of Cabul, the +capital of Afghanistan, may be the Kophene of the text; but we do not +know that Sang-shao and his guide got so far west. The text only says +that they set out from Khoten “towards it.” + +(3) Tsze-hoh has not been identified. Beal thinks it was Yarkand, +which, however, was north-west from Khoten. Watters (“China Review,” p. +135) rather approves the suggestion of “Tashkurgan in Sirikul” for it. +As it took Fâ-Hien twenty-five days to reach it, it must have been at +least 150 miles from Khoten. + +(4) The king is described here by a Buddhistic phrase, denoting the +possession of viryabala, “the power of energy; persevering exertion—one +of the five moral powers” (E. H., p. 170). + +(5) Nor has Yu-hwuy been clearly identified. Evidently it was directly +south from Tsze-hoh, and among the “Onion” mountains. Watters hazards +the conjecture that it was the Aktasch of our present maps. + +(6) This was the retreat already twice mentioned as kept by the +pilgrims in the summer, the different phraseology, “quiet rest,” +without any mention of the season, indicating their approach to India, +E. H., p. 168. Two, if not three, years had elapsed since they left +Ch’ang-gan. Are we now with them in 402? + +(7) This is the Corean reading {.}, much preferable to the {.} of the +Chinese editions. + +(8) Watters approves of Klaproth’s determination of K’eeh-ch’a to be +Iskardu or Skardo. There are difficulties in connexion with the view, +but it has the advantage, to my mind very great, of bringing the +pilgrims across the Indus. The passage might be accomplished with ease +at this point of the river’s course, and therefore is not particularly +mentioned. + +(9) Who had preceded them from Khoten. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +GREAT QUINQUENNIAL ASSEMBLY OF MONKS. RELICS OF BUDDHA. PRODUCTIONS OF +THE COUNTRY. + + +It happened that the king of the country was then holding the pancha +parishad, that is, in Chinese, the great quinquennial assembly.(1) When +this is to be held, the king requests the presence of the Sramans from +all quarters (of his kingdom). They come (as if) in clouds; and when +they are all assembled, their place of session is grandly decorated. +Silken streamers and canopies are hung out in, and water-lilies in gold +and silver are made and fixed up behind the places where (the chief of +them) are to sit. When clean mats have been spread, and they are all +seated, the king and his ministers present their offerings according to +rule and law. (The assembly takes place), in the first, second, or +third month, for the most part in the spring. + +After the king has held the assembly, he further exhorts the ministers +to make other and special offerings. The doing of this extends over +one, two, three, five, or even seven days; and when all is finished, he +takes his own riding-horse, saddles, bridles, and waits on him +himself,(2) while he makes the noblest and most important minister of +the kingdom mount him. Then, taking fine white woollen cloth, all sorts +of precious things, and articles which the Sramans require, he +distributes them among them, uttering vows at the same time along with +all his ministers; and when this distribution has taken place, he again +redeems (whatever he wishes) from the monks.(3) + +The country, being among the hills and cold, does not produce the other +cereals, and only the wheat gets ripe. After the monks have received +their annual (portion of this), the mornings suddenly show the +hoar-frost, and on this account the king always begs the monks to make +the wheat ripen(4) before they receive their portion. There is in the +country a spitoon which belonged to Buddha, made of stone, and in +colour like his alms-bowl. There is also a tooth of Buddha, for which +the people have reared a tope, connected with which there are more than +a thousand monks and their disciples,(5) all students of the hinayana. +To the east of these hills the dress of the common people is of coarse +materials, as in our country of Ts’in, but here also(6) there were +among them the differences of fine woollen cloth and of serge or +haircloth. The rules observed by the Sramans are remarkable, and too +numerous to be mentioned in detail. The country is in the midst of the +Onion range. As you go forward from these mountains, the plants, trees, +and fruits are all different from those of the land of Han, excepting +only the bamboo, pomegranate,(7) and sugar-cane. + +NOTES + +(1) See Eitel, p. 89. He describes the assembly as “an ecclesiastical +conference, first instituted by king Asoka for general confession of +sins and inculcation of morality.” + +(2) The text of this sentence is perplexing; and all translators, +including myself, have been puzzled by it. + +(3) See what we are told of king Asoka’s grant of all the Jambudvipa to +the monks in chapter xxvii. There are several other instances of +similar gifts in the Mahavansa. + +(4) Watters calls attention to this as showing that the monks of +K’eeh-ch’a had the credit of possessing weather-controlling powers. + +(5) The text here has {.} {.}, not {.} alone. I often found in +monasteries boys and lads who looked up to certain of the monks as +their preceptors. + +(6) Compare what is said in chapter ii of the dress of the people of +Shen-shen. + +(7) Giles thinks the fruit here was the guava, because the ordinary +name for “pomegranate” is preceded by gan {.}; but the pomegranate was +called at first Gan Shih-lau, as having been introduced into China from +Gan-seih by Chang-k’een, who is referred to in chapter vii. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +ON TOWARDS NORTH INDIA. DARADA. IMAGE OF MAITREYA BODHISATTVA. + + +From this (the travellers) went westwards towards North India, and +after being on the way for a month, they succeeded in getting across +and through the range of the Onion mountains. The snow rests on them +both winter and summer. There are also among them venomous dragons, +which, when provoked, spit forth poisonous winds, and cause showers of +snow and storms of sand and gravel. Not one in ten thousand of those +who encounter these dangers escapes with his life. The people of the +country call the range by the name of “The Snow mountains.” When (the +travellers) had got through them, they were in North India, and +immediately on entering its borders, found themselves in a small +kingdom called T’o-leih,(1) where also there were many monks, all +students of the hinayana. + +In this kingdom there was formerly an Arhan,(2) who by his supernatural +power(3) took a clever artificer up to the Tushita heaven, to see the +height, complexion, and appearance of Maitreya Bodhisattva,(4) and then +return and make an image of him in wood. First and last, this was done +three times, and then the image was completed, eighty cubits in height, +and eight cubits at the base from knee to knee of the crossed legs. On +fast-days it emits an effulgent light. The kings of the (surrounding) +countries vie with one another in presenting offerings to it. Here it +is,—to be seen now as of old.(5) + +NOTES + +(1) Eitel and others identify this with Darada, the country of the +ancient Dardae, the region near Dardus; lat. 30° 11′ N., lon. 73° 54′ +E. See E. H. p. 30. I am myself in more than doubt on the point. +Cunningham (“Ancient Geography of India,” p. 82) says “Darel is a +valley on the right or western bank of the Indus, now occupied by +Dardus or Dards, from whom it received its name.” But as I read our +narrative, Fâ-Hien is here on the eastern bank of the Indus, and only +crosses to the western bank as described in the next chapter. + +(2) Lo-han, Arhat, Arahat, are all designations of the perfected Arya, +the disciple who has passed the different stages of the Noble Path, or +eightfold excellent way, who has conquered all passions, and is not to +be reborn again. Arhatship implies possession of certain supernatural +powers, and is not to be succeeded by Buddhaship, but implies the fact +of the saint having already attained nirvâna. Popularly, the Chinese +designate by this name the wider circle of Buddha’s disciples, as well +as the smaller ones of 500 and 18. No temple in Canton is better worth +a visit than that of the 500 Lo-han. + +(3) Riddhi-sakshatkriya, “the power of supernatural footsteps,“=”a body +flexible at pleasure,” or unlimited power over the body. E. H., p. 104. + +(4) Tushita is the fourth Devaloka, where all Bodhisattvas are reborn +before finally appearing on earth as Buddha. Life lasts in Tushita 4000 +years, but twenty-four hours there are equal to 400 years on earth. E. +H., p. 152. + +(5) Maitreya (Spence Hardy, Maitri), often styled Ajita, “the +Invincible,” was a Bodhisattva, the principal one, indeed, of +Sâkyamuni’s retinue, but is not counted among the ordinary (historical) +disciples, nor is anything told of his antecedents. It was in the +Tushita heaven that Sâkyamuni met him and appointed him as his +successor, to appear as Buddha after the lapse of 5000 years. Maitreya +is therefore the expected Messiah of the Buddhists, residing at present +in Tushita, and, according to the account of him in Eitel (H., p. 70), +“already controlling the propagation of the Buddhistic faith.” The name +means “gentleness” or “kindness;” and this will be the character of his +dispensation. + +(6) The combination of {.} {.} in the text of this concluding sentence, +and so frequently occurring throughout the narrative, has occasioned no +little dispute among previous translators. In the imperial thesaurus of +phraseology (P’ei-wan Yun-foo), under {.}, an example of it is given +from Chwang-tsze, and a note subjoined that {.} {.} is equivalent to +{.} {.}, “anciently and now.” + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +CROSSING OF THE INDUS. WHEN BUDDHISM FIRST CROSSED THE RIVER FOR THE +EAST + + +The travellers went on to the south-west for fifteen days (at the foot +of the mountains, and) following the course of their range. The way was +difficult and rugged, (running along) a bank exceedingly precipitous, +which rose up there, a hill-like wall of rock, 10,000 cubits from the +base. When one approaches the edge of it, his eyes become unsteady; and +if he wished to go forward in the same direction, there was no place on +which he could place his foot; and beneath where the waters of the +river called the Indus.(1) In former times men had chiselled paths +along the rocks, and distributed ladders on the face of them, to the +number altogether of 700, at the bottom of which there was a suspension +bridge of ropes, by which the river was crossed, its banks being there +eighty paces apart.(2) The (place and arrangements) are to be found in +the Records of the Nine Interpreters,(3) but neither Chang K’een(4) nor +Kan Ying(5) had reached the spot. + +The monks(6) asked Fâ-Hien if it could be known when the Law of Buddha +first went to the east. He replied, “When I asked the people of those +countries about it, they all said that it had been handed down by their +fathers from of old that, after the setting up of the image of Maitreya +Bodhisattva, there were Sramans of India who crossed this river, +carrying with them Sûtras and Books of Discipline. Now the image was +set up rather more than 300 years after the nirvâna(7) of Buddha, which +may be referred to the reign of king P’ing of the Chow dynasty.(8) +According to this account we may say that the diffusion of our great +doctrines (in the east) began from (the setting up of) this image. If +it had not been through that Maitreya,(9) the great spiritual +master(10) (who is to be) the successor of the Sakya, who could have +caused the ‘Three Precious Ones’(11) to be proclaimed so far, and the +people of those border lands to know our Law? We know of a truth that +the opening of (the way for such) a mysterious propagation is not the +work of man; and so the dream of the emperor Ming of Han(12) had its +proper cause.” + +NOTES + +(1) The Sindhu. We saw in a former note that the earliest name in China +for India was Shin-tuh. So, here, the river Indus is called by a name +approaching that in sound. + +(2) Both Beal and Watters quote from Cunningham (Ladak, pp. 88, 89) the +following description of the course of the Indus in these parts, in +striking accordance with our author’s account:—“From Skardo to Rongdo, +and from Rongdo to Makpou-i-shang-rong, for upwards of 100 miles, the +Indus sweeps sullen and dark through a mighty gorge in the mountains, +which for wild sublimity is perhaps unequalled. Rongdo means the +country of defiles. . . . Between these points the Indus raves from +side to side of the gloomy chasm, foaming and chafing with ungovernable +fury. Yet even in these inaccessible places has daring and ingenious +man triumphed over opposing nature. The yawning abyss is spanned by +frail rope bridges, and the narrow ledges of rocks are connected by +ladders to form a giddy pathway overhanging the seething cauldron +below.” + +(3) The Japanese edition has a different reading here from the Chinese +copies,—one which Rémusat (with true critical instinct) conjectured +should take the place of the more difficult text with which alone he +was acquainted. The “Nine Interpreters” would be a general name for the +official interpreters attached to the invading armies of Han in their +attempts to penetrate and subdue the regions of the west. The phrase +occurs in the memoir of Chang K’een, referred to in the next note. + +(4) Chang K’een, a minister of the emperor Woo of Han (B.C. 140-87), is +celebrated as the first Chinese who “pierced the void,” and penetrated +to “the regions of the west,” corresponding very much to the present +Turkestan. Through him, by B.C. 115, a regular intercourse was +established between China and the thirty-six kingdoms or states of that +quarter;—see Mayers’ Chinese Reader’s Manual, p. 5. The memoir of Chang +K’een, translated by Mr. Wylie from the Books of the first Han dynasty, +appears in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, referred to +already. + +(5) Less is known of Kan Ying than of Chang K’een. Being sent in A.D. +88 by his patron Pan Chao on an embassy to the Roman empire, he only +got as far as the Caspian sea, and returned to China. He extended, +however, the knowledge of his countrymen with regard to the western +regions;—see the memoir of Pan Chao in the Books of the second Han, and +Mayers’ Manual, pp. 167, 168. + +(6) Where and when? Probably at his first resting-place after crossing +the Indus. + +(7) This may refer to Sâkyamuni’s becoming Buddha on attaining to +nirvâna, or more probably to his pari-nirvâna and death. + +(8) As king P’ing’s reign lasted from B.C. 750 to 719, this would place +the death of Buddha in the eleventh century B.C., whereas recent +inquirers place it between B.C. 480 and 470, a year or two, or a few +years, after that of Confucius, so that the two great “Masters” of the +east were really contemporaries. But if Rhys Davids be correct, as I +think he is, in fixing the date of Buddha’s death within a few years of +412 B.C. (see Manual, p. 213), not to speak of Westergaard’s still +lower date, then the Buddha was very considerably the junior of +Confucius. + +(9) This confirms the words of Eitel, that Maitreya is already +controlling the propagation of the faith. + +(10) The Chinese characters for this simply mean “the great scholar or +officer;” but see Eitel’s Handbook, p. 99, on the term purusha. + +(11) “The precious Buddha,” “the precious Law,” and “the precious +Monkhood;” Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; the whole being equivalent to +Buddhism. + +(12) Fâ-Hien thus endorses the view that Buddhism was introduced into +China in this reign, A.D. 58-75. The emperor had his dream in A.D. 61. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +WOO-CHANG, OR UDYANA. MONASTERIES, AND THEIR WAYS. TRACES OF BUDDHA. + + +After crossing the river, (the travellers) immediately came to the +kingdom of Woo-chang,(1) which is indeed (a part) of North India. The +people all use the language of Central India, “Central India” being +what we should call the “Middle Kingdom.” The food and clothes of the +common people are the same as in that Central Kingdom. The Law of +Buddha is very (flourishing in Woo-chang). They call the places where +the monks stay (for a time) or reside permanently Sangharamas; and of +these there are in all 500, the monks being all students of the +hinayana. When stranger bhikshus(2) arrive at one of them, their wants +are supplied for three days, after which they are told to find a +resting-place for themselves. + +There is a tradition that when Buddha came to North India, he came at +once to this country, and that here he left a print of his foot, which +is long or short according to the ideas of the beholder (on the +subject). It exists, and the same thing is true about it, at the +present day. Here also are still to be seen the rock on which he dried +his clothes, and the place where he converted the wicked dragon.(3) The +rock is fourteen cubits high, and more than twenty broad, with one side +of it smooth. + +Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and Tao-ching went on ahead towards (the place of) +Buddha’s shadow in the country of Nagara;(4) but Fâ-Hien and the others +remained in Woo-chang, and kept the summer retreat.(5) That over, they +descended south, and arrived in the country of Soo-ho-to.(6) + +NOTES + +(1) Udyâna, meaning “the Park;” just north of the Punjâb, the country +along the Subhavastu, now called the Swat; noted for its forests, +flowers, and fruits (E. H., p. 153). + +(2) Bhikshu is the name for a monk as “living by alms,” a mendicant. +All bhikshus call themselves Sramans. Sometimes the two names are used +together by our author. + +(3) Naga is the Sanskrit name for the Chinese lung or dragon; often +meaning a snake, especially the boa. “Chinese Buddhists,” says Eitel, +p. 79, “when speaking of nagas as boa spirits, always represent them as +enemies of mankind, but when viewing them as deities of rivers, lakes, +or oceans, they describe them as piously inclined.” The dragon, +however, is in China the symbol of the Sovereign and Sage, a use of it +unknown in Buddhism, according to which all nagas need to be converted +in order to obtain a higher phase of being. The use of the character +too {.}, as here, in the sense of “to convert,” is entirely Buddhistic. +The six paramitas are the six virtues which carry men across {.} the +great sea of life and death, as the sphere of transmigration to +nirvâna. With regard to the particular conversion here, Eitel (p. 11) +says the Naga’s name was Apatala, the guardian deity of the Subhavastu +river, and that he was converted by Sâkyamuni shortly before the death +of the latter. + +(4) In Chinese Na-k’eeh, an ancient kingdom and city on the southern +bank of the Cabul river, about thirty miles west of Jellalabad. + +(5) We would seem now to be in 403. + +(6) Soo-ho-to has not been clearly identified. Beal says that later +Buddhist writers include it in Udyâna. It must have been between the +Indus and the Swat. I suppose it was what we now call Swastene. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +SOO-HO-TO. LEGEND OF BUDDHA. + + +In that country also Buddhism(1) is flourishing. There is in it the +place where Sakra,(2) Ruler of Devas, in a former age,(3) tried the +Bodhisattva, by producing(4) a hawk (in pursuit of a) dove, when (the +Bodhisattva) cut off a piece of his own flesh, and (with it) ransomed +the dove. After Buddha had attained to perfect wisdom,(5) and in +travelling about with his disciples (arrived at this spot), he informed +them that this was the place where he ransomed the dove with a piece of +his own flesh. In this way the people of the country became aware of +the fact, and on the spot reared a tope, adorned with layers(6) of gold +and silver plates. + +NOTES + +(1) Buddhism stands for the two Chinese characters {.} {.}, “the Law of +Buddha,” and to that rendering of the phrase, which is of frequent +occurrence, I will in general adhere. Buddhism is not an adequate +rendering of them any more than Christianity would be of {to euaggelion +Xristou}. The Fa or Law is the equivalent of dharma comprehending all +in the first Basket of the Buddhist teaching,—as Dr. Davids says +(Hibbert Lectures, p. 44), “its ethics and philosophy, and its system +of self-culture;” with the theory of karma, it seems to me, especially +underlying it. It has been pointed out (Cunningham’s “Bhilsa Topes,” p. +102) that dharma is the keystone of all king Priyadarsi or Asoka’s +edicts. The whole of them are dedicated to the attainment of one +object, “the advancement of dharma, or of the Law of Buddha.” His +native Chinese afforded no better character than {.} or Law, by which +our author could express concisely his idea of the Buddhistic system, +as “a law of life,” a directory or system of Rules, by which men could +attain to the consummation of their being. + +(2) Sakra is a common name for the Brahmanic Indra, adopted by Buddhism +into the circle of its own great adherents;—it has been said, “because +of his popularity.” He is generally styled, as here, T’een Ti, “God or +Ruler of Devas.” He is now the representative of the secular power, the +valiant protector of the Buddhist body, but is looked upon as inferior +to Sâkyamuni, and every Buddhist saint. He appears several times in +Fâ-Hien’s narrative. E. H., pp. 108 and 46. + +(3) The Chinese character is {.}, “formerly,” and is often, as in the +first sentence of the narrative, simply equivalent to that adverb. At +other times it means, as here, “in a former age,” some pre-existent +state in the time of a former birth. The incident related is “a Jataka +story.” + +(4) It occurs at once to the translator to render the characters {.} +{.} by “changed himself to.” Such is often their meaning in the sequel, +but their use in chapter xxiv may be considered as a crucial test of +the meaning which I have given them here. + +(5) That is, had become Buddha, or completed his course {.} {.}. + +(6) This seems to be the contribution of {.} (or {.}), to the force of +the binomial {.} {.}, which is continually occurring. + + + + +CHAPTER X. +GANDHARA. LEGENDS OF BUDDHA. + + +The travellers, going downwards from this towards the east, in five +days came to the country of Gandhara,(1) the place where +Dharma-vivardhana,(2) the son of Asoka,(3) ruled. When Buddha was a +Bodhisattva, he gave his eyes also for another man here;(4) and at the +spot they have also reared a large tope, adorned with layers of gold +and silver plates. The people of the country were mostly students of +the hinayana. + +NOTES + +(1) Eitel says “an ancient kingdom, corresponding to the region about +Dheri and Banjour.” But see note 5. + +(2) Dharma-vivardhana is the name in Sanskrit, represented by the Fa Yi +{.} {.} of the text. + +(3) Asoka is here mentioned for the first time;—the Constantine of the +Buddhist society, and famous for the number of vihâras and topes which +he erected. He was the grandson of Chandragupta (i.q. Sandracottus), a +rude adventurer, who at one time was a refugee in the camp of Alexander +the Great; and within about twenty years afterwards drove the Greeks +out of India, having defeated Seleucus, the Greek ruler of the Indus +provinces. He had by that time made himself king of Magadha. His +grandson was converted to Buddhism by the bold and patient demeanour of +an Arhat whom he had ordered to be buried alive, and became a most +zealous supporter of the new faith. Dr. Rhys Davids (Sacred Books of +the East, vol. xi, p. xlvi) says that “Asoka’s coronation can be fixed +with absolute certainty within a year or two either way of 267 B.C.” + +(4) This also is a Jataka story; but Eitel thinks it may be a myth, +constructed from the story of the blinding of Dharma-vivardhana. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. +TAKSHASILA. LEGENDS. THE FOUR GREAT TOPES. + + +Seven days’ journey from this to the east brought the travellers to the +kingdom of Takshasila,(1) which means “the severed head” in the +language of China. Here, when Buddha was a Bodhisattva, he gave away +his head to a man;(2) and from this circumstance the kingdom got its +name. + +Going on further for two days to the east, they came to the place where +the Bodhisattva threw down his body to feed a starving tigress.(2) In +these two places also large topes have been built, both adorned with +layers of all the precious substances. The kings, ministers, and +peoples of the kingdoms around vie with one another in making offerings +at them. The trains of those who come to scatter flowers and light +lamps at them never cease. The nations of those quarters all those (and +the other two mentioned before) “the four great topes.” + +NOTES + +(1) See Julien’s “Methode pour dechiffrer et transcrire les Nomes +Sanscrits,” p. 206. Eitel says, “The Taxila of the Greeks, the region +near Hoosun Abdaul in lat. 35° 48′ N., lon. 72° 44′ E.” But this +identification, I am satisfied, is wrong. Cunningham, indeed, takes +credit (“Ancient Geography of India,” pp. 108, 109) for determining +this to be the site of Arrian’s Taxila,—in the upper Punjâb, still +existing in the ruins of Shahdheri, between the Indus and Hydaspes (the +modern Jhelum). So far he may be correct; but the Takshasila of Fâ-Hien +was on the other, or western side of the Indus; and between the river +and Gandhara. It took him, indeed, seven days travelling eastwards to +reach it; but we do not know what stoppages he may have made on the +way. We must be wary in reckoning distances from his specifications of +days. + +(2) Two Jataka stories. See the account of the latter in Spence Hardy’s +“Manual of Buddhism,” pp. 91, 92. It took place when Buddha had been +born as a Brahman in the village of Daliddi; and from the merit of the +act, he was next born in a devaloka. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. +PURUSHAPURA, OR PESHAWUR. PROPHECY ABOUT KING KANISHKA AND HIS TOPE. +BUDDHA’S ALMS-BOWL. DEATH OF HWUY-YING. + + +Going southwards from Gandhara, (the travellers) in four days arrived +at the kingdom of Purushapura.(1) Formerly, when Buddha was travelling +in this country with his disciples, he said to Ananda,(2) “After my +pari-nirvâna,(3) there will be a king named Kanishka,(4) who shall on +this spot build a tope.” This Kanishka was afterwards born into the +world; and (once), when he had gone forth to look about him, Sakra, +Ruler of Devas, wishing to excite the idea in his mind, assumed the +appearance of a little herd-boy, and was making a tope right in the way +(of the king), who asked what sort of thing he was making. The boy +said, “I am making a tope for Buddha.” The king said, “Very good;” and +immediately, right over the boy’s tope, he (proceeded to) rear another, +which was more than four hundred cubits high, and adorned with layers +of all the precious substances. Of all the topes and temples which (the +travellers) saw in their journeyings, there was not one comparable to +this in solemn beauty and majestic grandeur. There is a current saying +that this is the finest tope in Jambudvipa.(5) When the king’s tope was +completed, the little tope (of the boy) came out from its side on the +south, rather more than three cubits in height. + +Buddha’s alms-bowl is in this country. Formerly, a king of Yueh-she(6) +raised a large force and invaded this country, wishing to carry the +bowl away. Having subdued the kingdom, as he and his captains were +sincere believers in the Law of Buddha, and wished to carry off the +bowl, they proceeded to present their offerings on a great scale. When +they had done so to the Three Precious Ones, he made a large elephant +be grandly caparisoned, and placed the bowl upon it. But the elephant +knelt down on the ground, and was unable to go forward. Again he caused +a four-wheeled waggon to be prepared in which the bowl was put to be +conveyed away. Eight elephants were then yoked to it, and dragged it +with their united strength; but neither were they able to go forward. +The king knew that the time for an association between himself and the +bowl had not yet arrived,(7) and was sad and deeply ashamed of himself. +Forthwith he built a tope at the place and a monastery, and left a +guard to watch (the bowl), making all sorts of contributions. + +There may be there more than seven hundred monks. When it is near +midday, they bring out the bowl, and, along with the common people,(8) +make their various offerings to it, after which they take their midday +meal. In the evening, at the time of incense, they bring the bowl out +again.(9) It may contain rather more than two pecks, and is of various +colours, black predominating, with the seams that show its fourfold +composition distinctly marked.(10) Its thickness is about the fifth of +an inch, and it has a bright and glossy lustre. When poor people throw +into it a few flowers, it becomes immediately full, while some very +rich people, wishing to make offering of many flowers, might not stop +till they had thrown in hundreds, thousands, and myriads of bushels, +and yet would not be able to fill it.(11) + +Pao-yun and Sang-king here merely made their offerings to the +alms-bowl, and (then resolved to) go back. Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and +Tao-ching had gone on before the rest to Negara,(12) to make their +offerings at (the places of) Buddha’s shadow, tooth, and the flat-bone +of his skull. (There) Hwuy-king fell ill, and Tao-ching remained to +look after him, while Hwuy-tah came alone to Purushapura, and saw the +others, and (then) he with Pao-yun and Sang-king took their way back to +the land of Ts’in. Hwuy-king(13) came to his end(14) in the monastery +of Buddha’s alms-bowl, and on this Fâ-Hien went forward alone towards +the place of the flat-bone of Buddha’s skull. + +NOTES + +(1) The modern Peshawur, lat. 34° 8′ N., lon. 71° 30′ E. + +(2) A first cousin of Sâkyamuni, and born at the moment when he +attained to Buddhaship. Under Buddha’s teaching, Ananda became an +Arhat, and is famous for his strong and accurate memory; and he played +an important part at the first council for the formation of the +Buddhist canon. The friendship between Sâkyamuni and Ananda was very +close and tender; and it is impossible to read much of what the dying +Buddha said to him and of him, as related in the Maha-pari-nirvâna +Sutra, without being moved almost to tears. Ananda is to reappear on +earth as Buddha in another Kalpa. See E. H., p. 9, and the Sacred Books +of the East, vol. xi. + +(3) On his attaining to nirvâna, Sâkyamuni became the Buddha, and had +no longer to mourn his being within the circle of transmigration, and +could rejoice in an absolute freedom from passion, and a perfect +purity. Still he continued to live on for forty-five years, till he +attained to pari-nirvâna, and had done with all the life of sense and +society, and had no more exercise of thought. He died; but whether he +absolutely and entirely _ceased_ to be, in any sense of the word +_being_, it would be difficult to say. Probably he himself would not +and could not have spoken definitely on the point. So far as our use of +language is concerned, apart from any assured faith in and hope of +immortality, his pari-nirvâna was his death. + +(4) Kanishka appeared, and began to reign, early in our first century, +about A.D. 10. He was the last of three brothers, whose original seat +was in Yueh-she, immediately mentioned, or Tukhara. Converted by the +sudden appearance of a saint, he became a zealous Buddhist, and +patronised the system as liberally as Asoka had done. The finest topes +in the north-west of India are ascribed to him; he was certainly a +great man and a magnificent sovereign. + +(5) Jambudvipa is one of the four great continents of the universe, +representing the inhabited world as fancied by the Buddhists, and so +called because it resembles in shape the leaves of the jambu tree. It +is south of mount Meru, and divided among four fabulous kings (E. H., +p. 36). It is often used, as here perhaps, merely as the Buddhist name +for India. + +(6) This king was perhaps Kanishka himself, Fâ-Hien mixing up, in an +inartistic way, different legends about him. Eitel suggests that a +relic of the old name of the country may still exist in that of the +Jats or Juts of the present day. A more common name for it is Tukhara, +and he observes that the people were the Indo-Scythians of the Greeks, +and the Tartars of Chinese writers, who, driven on by the Huns (180 +B.C.), conquered Transoxiana, destroyed the Bactrian kingdom (126 +B.C.), and finally conquered the Punjâb, Cashmere, and great part of +India, their greatest king being Kanishak (E. H., p. 152). + +(7) Watters, clearly understanding the thought of the author in this +sentence, renders—“his destiny did not extend to a connexion with the +bowl;” but the term “destiny” suggests a controlling or directing power +without. The king thought that his virtue in the past was not yet +sufficient to give him possession of the bowl. + +(8) The text is simply “those in white clothes.” This may mean “the +laity,” or the “upasakas;” but it is better to take the characters in +their common Chinese acceptation, as meaning “commoners,” “men who have +no rank.” See in Williams’ Dictionary under {.}. + +(9) I do not wonder that Rémusat should give for this—“et s’en +retournent apres.” But Fâ-Hien’s use of {.} in the sense of “in the +same way” is uniform throughout the narrative. + +(10) Hardy’s M. B., p. 183, says:—“The alms-bowl, given by Mahabrahma, +having vanished (about the time that Gotama became Buddha), each of the +four guardian deities brought him an alms-bowl of emerald, but he did +not accept them. They then brought four bowls made of stone, of the +colour of the mung fruit; and when each entreated that his own bowl +might be accepted, Buddha caused them to appear as if formed into a +single bowl, appearing at the upper rim as if placed one within the +other.” See the account more correctly given in the “Buddhist Birth +Stories,” p. 110. + +(11) Compare the narrative in Luke’s Gospel, xxi. 1-4. + +(12) See chapter viii. + +(13) This, no doubt, should be Hwuy-ying. King was at this time ill in +Nagara, and indeed afterwards he dies in crossing the Little Snowy +Mountains; but all the texts make him die twice. The confounding of the +two names has been pointed out by Chinese critics. + +(14) “Came to his end;” i.e., according to the text, “proved the +impermanence and uncertainty,” namely, of human life. See Williams’ +Dictionary under {.}. The phraseology is wholly Buddhistic. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. +NAGARA. FESTIVAL OF BUDDHA’S SKULL-BONE. OTHER RELICS, AND HIS SHADOW. + + +Going west for sixteen yojanas,(1) he came to the city He-lo(2) in the +borders of the country of Nagara, where there is the flat-bone of +Buddha’s skull, deposited in a vihâra(3) adorned all over with +gold-leaf and the seven sacred substances. The king of the country, +revering and honouring the bone, and anxious lest it should be stolen +away, has selected eight individuals, representing the great families +in the kingdom, and committing to each a seal, with which he should +seal (its shrine) and guard (the relic). At early dawn these eight men +come, and after each has inspected his seal, they open the door. This +done, they wash their hands with scented water and bring out the bone, +which they place outside the vihâra, on a lofty platform, where it is +supported on a round pedestal of the seven precious substances, and +covered with a bell of _lapis lazuli_, both adorned with rows of +pearls. Its colour is of a yellowish white, and it forms an imperfect +circle twelve inches round,(4) curving upwards to the centre. Every +day, after it has been brought forth, the keepers of the vihâra ascend +a high gallery, where they beat great drums, blow conchs, and clash +their copper cymbals. When the king hears them, he goes to the vihâra, +and makes his offerings of flowers and incense. When he has done this, +he (and his attendants) in order, one after another, (raise the bone), +place it (for a moment) on the top of their heads,(5) and then depart, +going out by the door on the west as they entered by that on the east. +The king every morning makes his offerings and performs his worship, +and afterwards gives audience on the business of his government. The +chiefs of the Vaisyas(6) also make their offerings before they attend +to their family affairs. Every day it is so, and there is no remissness +in the observance of the custom. When all the offerings are over, they +replace the bone in the vihâra, where there is a vimoksha tope,(7) of +the seven precious substances, and rather more than five cubits high, +sometimes open, sometimes shut, to contain it. In front of the door of +the vihâra, there are parties who every morning sell flowers and +incense,(8) and those who wish to make offerings buy some of all kinds. +The kings of various countries are also constantly sending messengers +with offerings. The vihâra stands in a square of thirty paces, and +though heaven should shake and earth be rent, this place would not +move. + +Going on, north from this, for a yojana, (Fâ-Hien) arrived at the +capital of Nagara, the place where the Bodhisattva once purchased with +money five stalks of flowers, as an offering to the Dipankara +Buddha.(9) In the midst of the city there is also the tope of Buddha’s +tooth, where offerings are made in the same way as to the flat-bone of +his skull. + +A yojana to the north-east of the city brought him to the mouth of a +valley, where there is Buddha’s pewter staff;(10) and a vihâra also has +been built at which offerings are made. The staff is made of Gosîrsha +Chandana, and is quite sixteen or seventeen cubits long. It is +contained in a wooden tube, and though a hundred or a thousand men ere +to (try to) lift it, they could not move it. + +Entering the mouth of the valley, and going west, he found Buddha’s +Sanghali,(11) where also there is reared a vihâra, and offerings are +made. It is a custom of the country when there is a great drought, for +the people to collect in crowds, bring out the robe, pay worship to it, +and make offerings, on which there is immediately a great rain from the +sky. + +South of the city, half a yojana, there is a rock-cavern, in a great +hill fronting the south-west; and here it was that Buddha left his +shadow. Looking at it from a distance of more than ten paces, you seem +to see Buddha’s real form, with his complexion of gold, and his +characteristic marks(12) in their nicety clearly and brightly +displayed. The nearer you approach, however, the fainter it becomes, as +if it were only in your fancy. When the kings from the regions all +around have sent skilful artists to take a copy, none of them have been +able to do so. Among the people of the country there is a saying +current that “the thousand Buddhas(13) must all leave their shadows +here.” + +Rather more than four hundred paces west from the shadow, when Buddha +was at the spot, he shaved his hair and clipt his nails, and proceeded, +along with his disciples, to build a tope seventy or eighty cubits +high, to be a model for all future topes; and it is still existing. By +the side of it there is a monastery, with more than seven hundred monks +in it. At this place there are as many as a thousand topes(14) of +Arhans and Pratyeka Buddhas.(15) + +NOTES + +(1) Now in India, Fâ-Hien used the Indian measure of distance; but it +is not possible to determine exactly what its length then was. The +estimates of it are very different, and vary from four and a half or +five miles to seven, and sometimes more. See the subject exhaustively +treated in Davids’ “Ceylon Coins and Measures,” pp. 15-17. + +(2) The present Hidda, west of Peshawur, and five miles south of +Jellalabad. + +(3) “The vihâra,” says Hardy, “is the residence of a recluse or +priest;” and so Davids:—“the clean little hut where the mendicant +lives.” Our author, however, does not use the Indian name here, but the +Chinese characters which express its meaning—tsing shay, “a pure +dwelling.” He uses the term occasionally, and evidently, in this sense; +more frequently it occurs in his narrative in connexion with the +Buddhist relic worship; and at first I translated it by “shrine” and +“shrine-house;” but I came to the conclusion, at last, to employ always +the Indian name. The first time I saw a shrine-house was, I think, in a +monastery near Foo-chow;—a small pyramidical structure, about ten feet +high, glittering as if with the precious substances, but all, it seemed +to me, of tinsel. It was in a large apartment of the building, having +many images in it. The monks said it was the most precious thing in +their possession, and that if they opened it, as I begged them to do, +there would be a convulsion that would destroy the whole establishment. +See E. H., p. 166. The name of the province of Behar was given to it in +consequence of its many vihâras. + +(4) According to the characters, “square, round, four inches.” +Hsuan-chwang says it was twelve inches round. + +(5) In Williams’ Dictionary, under {.}, the characters, used here, are +employed in the phrase for “to degrade an officer,” that is, “to remove +the token of his rank worn on the crown of his head;” but to place a +thing on the crown is a Buddhistic form of religious homage. + +(6) The Vaisyas, or bourgeois caste of Hindu society, are described +here as “resident scholars.” + +(7) See Eitel’s Handbook under the name vimoksha, which is explained as +“the act of self-liberation,” and “the dwelling or state of liberty.” +There are eight acts of liberating one’s self from all subjective and +objective trammels, and as many states of liberty (vimukti) resulting +therefrom. They are eight degrees of self-inanition, and apparently +eight stages on the way to nirvâna. The tope in the text would be +emblematic in some way of the general idea of the mental progress +conducting to the Buddhistic consummation of existence. + +(8) This incense would be in long “sticks,” small and large, such as +are sold to-day throughout China, as you enter the temples. + +(9) “The illuminating Buddha,” the twenty-fourth predecessor of +Sâkyamuni, and who, so long before, gave him the assurance that he +would by-and-by be Buddha. See Jataka Tales, p. 23. + +(10) The staff was, as immediately appears, of Gosîrsha Chandana, or +“sandal-wood from the Cow’s-head mountain,” a species of copper-brown +sandal-wood, said to be produced most abundantly on a mountain of (the +fabulous continent) Ullarakuru, north of mount Meru, which resembles in +shape the head of a cow (E. H., pp. 42, 43). It is called a “pewter +staff” from having on it a head and rings and pewter. See Watters, +“China Review,” viii, pp. 227, 228, and Williams’ Dictionary, under +{.}. + +(11) Or Sanghati, the double or composite robe, part of a monk’s +attire, reaching from the shoulders to the knees, and fastened round +the waist (E. H., p. 118). + +(12) These were the “marks and beauties” on the person of a supreme +Buddha. The rishi Kala Devala saw them on the body of the infant Sakya +prince to the number of 328, those on the teeth, which had not yet come +out, being visible to his spirit-like eyes (M. B., pp. 148, 149). + +(13) Probably=“all Buddhas.” + +(14) The number may appear too great. But see what is said on the size +of topes in chapter iii, note 4. + +(15) In Singhalese, Pase Buddhas; called also Nidana Buddhas, and +Pratyeka Jinas, and explained by “individually intelligent,” +“completely intelligent,” “intelligent as regards the nidanas.” This, +says Eitel (pp. 96, 97), is “a degree of saintship unknown to primitive +Buddhism, denoting automats in ascetic life who attain to Buddhaship +‘individually,’ that is, without a teacher, and without being able to +save others. As the ideal hermit, the Pratyeka Buddha is compared with +the rhinoceros khadga that lives lonely in the wilderness. He is also +called Nidana Buddha, as having mastered the twelve nidanas (the twelve +links in the everlasting chain of cause and effect in the whole range +of existence, the understanding of which solves the riddle of life, +revealing the inanity of all forms of existence, and preparing the mind +for nirvâna). He is also compared to a horse, which, crossing a river, +almost buries its body under the water, without, however, touching the +bottom of the river. Thus in crossing samsara he ‘suppresses the errors +of life and thought, and the effects of habit and passion, without +attaining to absolute perfection.’” Whether these Buddhas were unknown, +as Eitel says, to primitive Buddhism, may be doubted. See Davids’ +Hibbert Lectures, p. 146. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. +DEATH OF HWUY-KING IN THE LITTLE SNOWY MOUNTAINS. LO-E. POHNA. CROSSING +THE INDUS TO THE EAST. + + +Having stayed there till the third month of winter, Fâ-Hien and the two +others,(1) proceeding southwards, crossed the Little Snowy +mountains.(2) On them the snow lies accumulated both winter and summer. +On the north (side) of the mountains, in the shade, they suddenly +encountered a cold wind which made them shiver and become unable to +speak. Hwuy-king could not go any farther. A white froth came from his +mouth, and he said to Fâ-Hien, “I cannot live any longer. Do you +immediately go away, that we do not all die here;” and with these words +he died.(3) Fâ-Hien stroked the corpse, and cried out piteously, “Our +original plan has failed;—it is fate.(4) What can we do?” He then again +exerted himself, and they succeeded in crossing to the south of the +range, and arrived in the kingdom of Lo-e,(5) where there were nearly +three thousand monks, students of both the mahayana and hinayana. Here +they stayed for the summer retreat,(6) and when that was over, they +went on to the south, and ten days’ journey brought them to the kingdom +of Poh-na,(7) where there are also more than three thousand monks, all +students of the hinayana. Proceeding from this place for three days, +they again crossed the Indus, where the country on each side was low +and level.(8) + +NOTES + +(1) These must have been Tao-ching and Hwuy-king. + +(2) Probably the Safeid Koh, and on the way to the Kohat pass. + +(3) All the texts have Kwuy-king. See chapter xii, note 13. + +(4) A very natural exclamation, but out of place and inconsistent from +the lips of Fâ-Hien. The Chinese character {.}, which he employed, may +be rendered rightly by “fate” or “destiny;” but the fate is not +unintelligent. The term implies a factor, or fa-tor, and supposes the +ordination of Heaven or God. A Confucian idea for the moment overcame +his Buddhism. + +(5) Lo-e, or Rohi, is a name for Afghanistan; but only a portion of it +can be here intended. + +(6) We are now therefore in 404. + +(7) No doubt the present district of Bannu, in the +Lieutenant-Governorship of the Punjâb, between 32° 10′ and 33° 15′ N. +lat., and 70° 26′ and 72° E. lon. See Hunter’s Gazetteer of India, i, +p. 393. + +(8) They had then crossed the Indus before. They had done so, indeed, +twice; first, from north to south, at Skardo or east of it; and second, +as described in chapter vii. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. +BHIDA. SYMPATHY OF MONKS WITH THE PILGRIMS. + + +After they had crossed the river, there was a country named Pe-t’oo,(1) +where Buddhism was very flourishing, and (the monks) studied both the +mahayana and hinayana. When they saw their fellow-disciples from Ts’in +passing along, they were moved with great pity and sympathy, and +expressed themselves thus: “How is it that these men from a border-land +should have learned to become monks,(2) and come for the sake of our +doctrines from such a distance in search of the Law of Buddha?” They +supplied them with what they needed, and treated them in accordance +with the rules of the Law. + +NOTES + +(1) Bhida. Eitel says, “The present Punjâb;” i.e. it was a portion of +that. + +(2) “To come forth from their families;” that is, to become celibates, +and adopt the tonsure. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. +ON TO MATHURA OR MUTTRA. CONDITION AND CUSTOMS OF CENTRAL INDIA; OF THE +MONKS, VIHARAS, AND MONASTERIES. + + +From this place they travelled south-east, passing by a succession of +very many monasteries, with a multitude of monks, who might be counted +by myriads. After passing all these places, they came to a country +named Ma-t’aou-lo.(1) They still followed the course of the P’oo-na(2) +river, on the banks of which, left and right, there were twenty +monasteries, which might contain three thousand monks; and (here) the +Law of Buddha was still more flourishing. Everywhere, from the Sandy +Desert, in all the countries of India, the kings had been firm +believers in that Law. When they make their offerings to a community of +monks, they take off their royal caps, and along with their relatives +and ministers, supply them with food with their own hands. That done, +(the king) has a carpet spread for himself on the ground, and sits down +in front of the chairman;—they dare not presume to sit on couches in +front of the community. The laws and ways, according to which the kings +presented their offerings when Buddha was in the world, have been +handed down to the present day. + +All south from this is named the Middle Kingdom.(3) In it the cold and +heat are finely tempered, and there is neither hoarfrost nor snow. The +people are numerous and happy; they have not to register their +households, or attend to any magistrates and their rules; only those +who cultivate the royal land have to pay (a portion of) the grain from +it. If they want to go, they go; if they want to stay on, they stay. +The king governs without decapitation or (other) corporal punishments. +Criminals are simply fined, lightly or heavily, according to the +circumstances (of each case). Even in cases of repeated attempts at +wicked rebellion, they only have their right hands cut off. The king’s +body-guards and attendants all have salaries. Throughout the whole +country the people do not kill any living creature, nor drink +intoxicating liquor, nor eat onions or garlic. The only exception is +that of the Chandalas.(4) That is the name for those who are (held to +be) wicked men, and live apart from others. When they enter the gate of +a city or a market-place, they strike a piece of wood to make +themselves known, so that men know and avoid them, and do not come into +contact with them. In that country they do not keep pigs and fowls, and +do not sell live cattle; in the markets there are no butchers’ shops +and no dealers in intoxicating drink. In buying and selling commodities +they use cowries.(5) Only the Chandalas are fishermen and hunters, and +sell flesh meat. + +After Buddha attained to pari-nirvâna,(6) the kings of the various +countries and the heads of the Vaisyas(7) built vihâras for the +priests, and endowed them with fields, houses, gardens, and orchards, +along with the resident populations and their cattle, the grants being +engraved on plates of metal,(8) so that afterwards they were handed +down from king to king, without any daring to annul them, and they +remain even to the present time. + +The regular business of the monks is to perform acts of meritorious +virtue, and to recite their Sûtras and sit wrapt in meditation. When +stranger monks arrive (at any monastery), the old residents meet and +receive them, carry for them their clothes and alms-bowl, give them +water to wash their feet, oil with which to anoint them, and the liquid +food permitted out of the regular hours.(9) When (the stranger) has +enjoyed a very brief rest, they further ask the number of years that he +has been a monk, after which he receives a sleeping apartment with its +appurtenances, according to his regular order, and everything is done +for him which the rules prescribe.(10) + +Where a community of monks resides, they erect topes to Sariputtra,(11) +to Maha-maudgalyayana,(12) and to Ananda,(13) and also topes (in +honour) of the Abhidharma, the Vinaya, and the Sûtras. A month after +the (annual season of) rest, the families which are looking out for +blessing stimulate one another(14) to make offerings to the monks, and +send round to them the liquid food which may be taken out of the +ordinary hours. All the monks come together in a great assembly, and +preach the Law;(15) after which offerings are presented at the tope of +Sariputtra, with all kinds of flowers and incense. All through the +night lamps are kept burning, and skilful musicians are employed to +perform.(16) + +When Sariputtra was a great Brahman, he went to Buddha, and begged (to +be permitted) to quit his family (and become a monk). The great Mugalan +and the great Kasyapa(17) also did the same. The bhikshunis(18) for the +most part make their offerings at the tope of Ananda, because it was he +who requested the World-honoured one to allow females to quit their +families (and become nuns). The Sramaneras(19) mostly make their +offerings to Rahula.(20) The professors of the Abhidharma make their +offerings to it; those of the Vinaya to it. Every year there is one +such offering, and each class has its own day for it. Students of the +mahayana present offerings to the Prajna-paramita,(21) to Manjusri,(22) +and to Kwan-she-yin.(23) When the monks have done receiving their +annual tribute (from the harvests),(24) the Heads of the Vaisyas and +all the Brahmans bring clothes and other such articles as the monks +require for use, and distribute among them. The monks, having received +them, also proceed to give portions to one another. From the nirvâna of +Buddha,(25) the forms of ceremony, laws, and rules, practised by the +sacred communities, have been handed down from one generation to +another without interruption. + +From the place where (the travellers) crossed the Indus to Southern +India, and on to the Southern Sea, a distance of forty or fifty +thousand le, all is level plain. There are no large hills with streams +(among them); there are simply the waters of the rivers. + +NOTES + +(1) Muttra, “the peacock city;” lat. 27° 30′ N., lon. 77° 43′ E. +(Hunter); the birthplace of Krishna, whose emblem is the peacock. + +(2) This must be the Jumna, or Yamuna. Why it is called, as here, the +P’oo-na has yet to be explained. + +(3) In Pâli, Majjhima-desa, “the Middle Country.” See Davids’ “Buddhist +Birth Stories,” page 61, note. + +(4) Eitel (pp. 145, 6) says, “The name Chandalas is explained by +‘butchers,’ ‘wicked men,’ and those who carry ‘the awful flag,’ to warn +off their betters;—the lowest and most despised caste of India, members +of which, however, when converted, were admitted even into the ranks of +the priesthood.” + +(5) “Cowries;” {.} {.}, not “shells and ivory,” as one might suppose; +but cowries alone, the second term entering into the name from the +marks inside the edge of the shell, resembling “the teeth of fishes.” + +(6) See chapter xii, note 3, Buddha’s pari-nirvâna is equivalent to +Buddha’s death. + +(7) See chapter xiii, note 6. The order of the characters is different +here, but with the same meaning. + +(8) See the preparation of such a deed of grant in a special case, as +related in chapter xxxix. No doubt in Fâ-Hien’s time, and long before +and after it, it was the custom to engrave such deeds on plates of +metal. + +(9) “No monk can eat solid food except between sunrise and noon,” and +total abstinence from intoxicating drinks is obligatory (Davids’ +Manual, p. 163). Food eaten at any other part of the day is called +vikala, and forbidden; but a weary traveller might receive unseasonable +refreshment, consisting, as Watters has shown (Ch. Rev. viii. 282), of +honey, butter, treacle, and sesamum oil. + +(10) The expression here is somewhat perplexing; but it occurs again in +chapter xxxviii; and the meaning is clear. See Watters, Ch. Rev. viii. +282, 3. The rules are given at length in the Sacred Books of the East, +vol. xx, p. 272 and foll., and p. 279 and foll. + +(11) Sariputtra (Singh. Seriyut) was one of the principal disciples of +Buddha, and indeed the most learned and ingenious of them all, so that +he obtained the title of {.} {.}, “knowledge and wisdom.” He is also +called Buddha’s “right-hand attendant.” His name is derived from that +of his mother Sarika, the wife of Tishya, a native of Nalanda. In +Spence Hardy, he often appears under the name of Upatissa (Upa-tishya), +derived from his father. Several Sastras are ascribed to him, and +indeed the followers of the Abhidharma look on him as their founder. He +died before Sâkyamuni; but is to reappear as a future Buddha. Eitel, +pp. 123, 124. + +(12) Mugalan, the Singhalese name of this disciple, is more +pronounceable. He also was one of the principal disciples, called +Buddha’s “left-hand attendant.” He was distinguished for his power of +vision, and his magical powers. The name in the text is derived from +the former attribute, and it was by the latter that he took up an +artist to Tushita to get a view of Sâkyamuni, and so make a statue of +him. (Compare the similar story in chap. vi.) He went to hell, and +released his mother. He also died before Sâkyamuni, and is to reappear +as Buddha. Eitel, p. 65. + +(13) See chapter xii, note 2. + +(14) A passage rather difficult to construe. The “families” would be +those more devout than their neighbours. + +(15) One rarely hears this preaching in China. It struck me most as I +once heard it at Osaka in Japan. There was a pulpit in a large hall of +the temple, and the audience sat around on the matted floor. One priest +took the pulpit after another; and the hearers nodded their heads +occasionally, and indicated their sympathy now and then by an audible +“h’m,” which reminded me of Carlyle’s description of meetings of “The +Ironsides” of Cromwell. + +(16) This last statement is wanting in the Chinese editions. + +(17) There was a Kasyapa Buddha, anterior to Sâkyamuni. But this +Maha-kasyapa was a Brahman of Magadha, who was converted by Buddha, and +became one of his disciples. He took the lead after Sâkyamuni’s death, +convoked and directed the first synod, from which his title of +Arya-sthavira is derived. As the first compiler of the Canon, he is +considered the fountain of Chinese orthodoxy, and counted as the first +patriarch. He also is to be reborn as Buddha. Eitel, p. 64. + +(18) The bhikshunis are the female monks or nuns, subject to the same +rules as the bhikshus, and also to special ordinances of restraint. See +Hardy’s E. M., chap. 17. See also Sacred Books of the East, vol. xx, p. +321. + +(19) The Sramaneras are the novices, male or female, who have vowed to +observe the Shikshapada, or ten commandments. Fâ-Hien was himself one +of them from his childhood. Having heard the Trisharana, or threefold +formula of Refuge,—“I take refuge in Buddha; the Law; the Church,—the +novice undertakes to observe the ten precepts that forbid—(1) +destroying life; (2) stealing; (3) impurity; (4) lying; (5) +intoxicating drinks; (6) eating after midday; (7) dancing, singing, +music, and stage-plays; (8) garlands, scents, unguents, and ornaments; +(9) high or broad couches; (10) receiving gold or silver.” Davids’ +Manual, p. 160; Hardy’s E. M., pp. 23, 24. + +(20) The eldest son of Sâkyamuni by Yasodhara. Converted to Buddhism, +he followed his father as an attendant; and after Buddha’s death became +the founder of a philosophical realistic school (vaibhashika). He is +now revered as the patron saint of all novices, and is to be reborn as +the eldest son of every future Buddha. Eitel, p. 101. His mother also +is to be reborn as Buddha. + +(21) There are six (sometimes increased to ten) paramitas, “means of +passing to nirvâna:—Charity; morality; patience; energy; tranquil +contemplation; wisdom (prajna); made up to ten by use of the proper +means; science; pious vows; and force of purpose. But it is only prajna +which carries men across the samsara to the shores of nirvâna.” Eitel, +p. 90. + +(22) According to Eitel (pp. 71, 72), A famous Bodhisattva, now +specially worshipped in Shan-se, whose antecedents are a hopeless +jumble of history and fable. Fâ-Hien found him here worshipped by +followers of the mahayana school; but Hsuan-chwang connects his worship +with the yogachara or tantra-magic school. The mahayana school regard +him as the apotheosis of perfect wisdom. His most common titles are +Mahamati, “Great wisdom,” and Kumara-raja, “King of teaching, with a +thousand arms and a hundred alms-bowls.” + +(23) Kwan-she-yin and the dogmas about him or her are as great a +mystery as Manjusri. The Chinese name is a mistranslation of the +Sanskrit name Avalokitesvra, “On-looking Sovereign,” or even +“On-looking Self-Existent,” and means “Regarding or Looking on the +sounds of the world,”=“Hearer of Prayer.” Originally, and still in +Thibet, Avalokitesvara had only male attributes, but in China and Japan +(Kwannon), this deity (such popularly she is) is represented as a +woman, “Kwan-yin, the greatly gentle, with a thousand arms and a +thousand eyes;” and has her principal seat in the island of P’oo-t’oo, +on the China coast, which is a regular place of pilgrimage. To the +worshippers of whom Fâ-Hien speaks, Kwan-she-yin would only be +Avalokitesvara. How he was converted into the “goddess of mercy,” and +her worship took the place which it now has in China, is a difficult +inquiry, which would take much time and space, and not be brought after +all, so far as I see, to a satisfactory conclusion. See Eitel’s +Handbook, pp. 18-20, and his Three Lectures on Buddhism (third +edition), pp. 124-131. I was talking on the subject once with an +intelligent Chinese gentleman, when he remarked, “Have you not much the +same thing in Europe in the worship of Mary?” + +(24) Compare what is said in chap. v. + +(25) This nirvâna of Buddha must be—not his death, but his attaining to +Buddhaship. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. +SANKASYA. BUDDHA’S ASCENT TO AND DESCENT FROM THE TRAYASTRIMSAS HEAVEN, +AND OTHER LEGENDS. + + +From this they proceeded south-east for eighteen yojanas, and found +themselves in a kingdom called Sankasya,(1) at the place where Buddha +came down, after ascending to the Trayastrimsas heaven,(2) and there +preaching for three months his Law for the benefit of his mother.(3) +Buddha had gone up to this heaven by his supernatural power,(4) without +letting his disciples know; but seven days before the completion (of +the three months) he laid aside his invisibility,(4) and Anuruddha,(5) +with his heavenly eyes,(5) saw the World-honoured one, and immediately +said to the honoured one, the great Mugalan, “Do you go and salute the +World-honoured one.” Mugalan forthwith went, and with head and face did +homage at (Buddha’s) feet. They then saluted and questioned each other, +and when this was over, Buddha said to Mugalan, “Seven days after this +I will go down to Jambudvipa;” and thereupon Mugalan returned. At this +time the great kings of eight countries with their ministers and +people, not having seen Buddha for a long time, were all thirstily +looking up for him, and had collected in clouds in this kingdom to wait +for the World-honoured one. + +Then the bhikshuni Utpala(6) thought in her heart, “To-day the kings, +with their ministers and people, will all be meeting (and welcoming) +Buddha. I am (but) a woman; how shall I succeed in being the first to +see him?”(7) Buddha immediately, by his spirit-like power, changed her +into the appearance of a holy Chakravartti(8) king, and she was the +foremost of all in doing reverence to him. + +As Buddha descended from his position aloft in the Trayastrimsas +heaven, when he was coming down, there were made to appear three +flights of precious steps. Buddha was on the middle flight, the steps +of which were composed of the seven precious substances. The king of +Brahma-loka(9) also made a flight of silver steps appear on the right +side, (where he was seen) attending with a white chowry in his hand. +Sakra, Ruler of Devas, made (a flight of) steps of purple gold on the +left side, (where he was seen) attending and holding an umbrella of the +seven precious substances. An innumerable multitude of the devas +followed Buddha in his descent. When he was come down, the three +flights all disappeared in the ground, excepting seven steps, which +continued to be visible. Afterwards king Asoka, wishing to know where +their ends rested, sent men to dig and see. They went down to the +yellow springs(10) without reaching the bottom of the steps, and from +this the king received an increase to his reverence and faith, and +built a vihâra over the steps, with a standing image, sixteen cubits in +height, right over the middle flight. Behind the vihâra he erected a +stone pillar, about fifty cubits high,(11) with a lion on the top of +it.(12) Let into the pillar, on each of its four sides,(13) there is an +image of Buddha, inside and out(14) shining and transparent, and pure +as it were of _lapis lazuli_. Some teachers of another doctrine(15) +once disputed with the Sramanas about (the right to) this as a place of +residence, and the latter were having the worst of the argument, when +they took an oath on both sides on the condition that, if the place did +indeed belong to the Sramanas, there should be some marvellous +attestation of it. When these words had been spoken, the lion on the +top gave a great roar, thus giving the proof; on which their opponents +were frightened, bowed to the decision, and withdrew. + +Through Buddha having for three months partaken of the food of heaven, +his body emitted a heavenly fragrance, unlike that of an ordinary man. +He went immediately and bathed; and afterwards, at the spot where he +did so, a bathing-house was built, which is still existing. At the +place where the bhikshuni Utpala was the first to do reverence to +Buddha, a tope has now been built. + +At the places where Buddha, when he was in the world, cut his hair and +nails, topes are erected; and where the three Buddhas(16) that preceded +Sâkyamuni Buddha and he himself sat; where they walked,(17) and where +images of their persons were made. At all these places topes were made, +and are still existing. At the place where Sakra, Ruler of the Devas, +and the king of the Brahma-loka followed Buddha down (from the +Trayastrimsas heaven) they have also raised a tope. + +At this place the monks and nuns may be a thousand, who all receive +their food from the common store, and pursue their studies, some of the +mahayana and some of the hinayana. Where they live, there is a +white-eared dragon, which acts the part of danapati to the community of +these monks, causing abundant harvests in the country, and the +enriching rains to come in season, without the occurrence of any +calamities, so that the monks enjoy their repose and ease. In gratitude +for its kindness, they have made for it a dragon-house, with a carpet +for it to sit on, and appointed for it a diet of blessing, which they +present for its nourishment. Every day they set apart three of their +number to go to its house, and eat there. Whenever the summer retreat +is ended, the dragon straightway changes its form, and appears as a +small snake,(18) with white spots at the side of its ears. As soon as +the monks recognise it, they fill a copper vessel with cream, into +which they put the creature, and then carry it round from the one who +has the highest seat (at their tables) to him who has the lowest, when +it appears as if saluting them. When it has been taken round, +immediately it disappeared; and every year it thus comes forth once. +The country is very productive, and the people are prosperous, and +happy beyond comparison. When people of other countries come to it, +they are exceedingly attentive to them all, and supply them with what +they need. + +Fifty yojanas north-west from the monastery there is another, called +“The Great Heap.”(19) Great Heap was the name of a wicked demon, who +was converted by Buddha, and men subsequently at this place reared a +vihâra. When it was being made over to an Arhat by pouring water on his +hands,(20) some drops fell on the ground. They are still on the spot, +and however they may be brushed away and removed, they continue to be +visible, and cannot be made to disappear. + +At this place there is also a tope to Buddha, where a good spirit +constantly keeps (all about it) swept and watered, without any labour +of man being required. A king of corrupt views once said, “Since you +are able to do this, I will lead a multitude of troops and reside there +till the dirt and filth has increased and accumulated, and (see) +whether you can cleanse it away or not.” The spirit thereupon raised a +great wind, which blew (the filth away), and made the place pure. + +At this place there are a hundred small topes, at which a man may keep +counting a whole day without being able to know (their exact number). +If he be firmly bent on knowing it, he will place a man by the side of +each tope. When this is done, proceeding to count the number of men, +whether they be many or few, he will not get to know (the number).(21) + +There is a monastery, containing perhaps 600 or 700 monks, in which +there is a place where a Pratyeka Buddha used to take his food. The +nirvâna ground (where he was burned(22) after death) is as large as a +carriage wheel; and while grass grows all around, on this spot there is +none. The ground also where he dried his clothes produces no grass, but +the impression of them, where they lay on it, continues to the present +day. + +NOTES + +(1) The name is still remaining in Samkassam, a village forty-five +miles northwest of Canouge, lat. 27° 3′ N., lon. 79° 50′ E. + +(2) The heaven of Indra or Sakya, meaning “the heaven of thirty-three +classes,” a name which has been explained both historically and +mythologically. “The description of it,” says Eitel, p. 148, “tallies +in all respects with the Svarga of Brahmanic mythology. It is situated +between the four peaks of the Meru, and consists of thirty-two cities +of devas, eight on each of the four corners of the mountain. Indra’s +capital of Bellevue is in the centre. There he is enthroned, with a +thousand heads and a thousand eyes, and four arms grasping the vajra, +with his wife and 119,000 concubines. There he receives the monthly +reports of the four Maharajas, concerning the progress of good and evil +in the world,” &c. &c. + +(3) Buddha’s mother, Maya and Mahamaya, the _mater immaculata_ of the +Buddhists, died seven days after his birth. Eitel says, “Reborn in +Tushita, she was visited there by her son and converted.” The Tushita +heaven was a more likely place to find her than the Trayastrimsas; but +was the former a part of the latter? Hardy gives a long account of +Buddha’s visit to the Trayastrimsas (M. B., pp. 298-302), which he +calls Tawutisa, and speaks of his mother (Matru) in it, who had now +become a deva by the changing of her sex. + +(4) Compare the account of the Arhat’s conveyance of the artist to the +Tushita heaven in chap. v. The first expression here is more +comprehensive. + +(5) Anuruddha was a first cousin of Sâkyamuni, being the son of his +uncle Amritodana. He is often mentioned in the account we have of +Buddha’s last moments. His special gift was the divyachakshus or +“heavenly eye,” the first of the six abhijnas or “supernatural +talents,” the faculty of comprehending in one instantaneous view, or by +intuition, all beings in all worlds. “He could see,” says Hardy, M. B., +p. 232, “all things in 100,000 sakvalas as plainly as a mustard seed +held in the hand.” + +(6) Eitel gives the name Utpala with the same Chinese phonetisation as +in the text, but not as the name of any bhikshuni. The Sanskrit word, +however, is explained by “blue lotus flowers;” and Hsuan-chwang calls +her the nun “Lotus-flower colour ({.} {.} {.});”—the same as Hardy’s +Upulwan and Uppalawarna. + +(7) Perhaps we should read here “to see Buddha,” and then ascribe the +transformation to the nun herself. It depends on the punctuation which +view we adopt; and in the structure of the passage, there is nothing to +indicate that the stop should be made before or after “Buddha.” And the +one view is as reasonable, or rather as unreasonable, as the other. + +(8) “A holy king who turns the wheel;” that is, the military conqueror +and monarch of the whole or part of a universe. “The symbol,” says +Eitel (p. 142) “of such a king is the chakra or wheel, for when he +ascends the throne, a chakra falls from heaven, indicating by its +material (gold, silver, copper, or iron) the extent and character of +his reign. The office, however, of the highest Chakravartti, who hurls +his wheel among his enemies, is inferior to the peaceful mission of a +Buddha, who meekly turns the wheel of the Law, and conquers every +universe by his teaching.” + +(9) This was Brahma, the first person of the Brahmanical Trimurti, +adopted by Buddhism, but placed in an inferior position, and surpassed +by every Buddhist saint who attains to bodhi. + +(10) A common name for the earth below, where, on digging, water is +found. + +(11) The height is given as thirty chow, the chow being the distance +from the elbow to the finger-tip, which is variously estimated. + +(12) A note of Mr. Beal says on this:—“General Cunningham, who visited +the spot (1862), found a pillar, evidently of the age of Asoka, with a +well-carved elephant on the top, which, however, was minus trunk and +tail. He supposes this to be the pillar seen by Fâ-Hien, who mistook +the top of it for a lion. It is possible such a mistake may have been +made, as in the account of one of the pillars at Sravasti, Fâ-Hien says +an ox formed the capital, whilst Hsuan-chwang calls it an elephant (P. +19, Arch. Survey).” + +(13) That is, in niches on the sides. The pillar or column must have +been square. + +(14) Equivalent to “all through.” + +(15) Has always been translated “heretical teachers;” but I eschew the +terms _heresy_ and _heretical_. The parties would not be Buddhists of +any creed or school, but Brahmans or of some other false doctrine, as +Fâ-Hien deemed it. The Chinese term means “outside” or “foreign;”—in +Pâli, anna-titthiya,=“those belonging to another school.” + +(16) These three predecessors of Sâkyamuni were the three Buddhas of +the present or Maha-bhadra Kalpa, of which he was the fourth, and +Maitreya is to be the fifth and last. They were: (1) Krakuchanda (Pâli, +Kakusanda), “he who readily solves all doubts;” a scion of the Kasyapa +family. Human life reached in his time 40,000 years, and so many +persons were converted by him. (2) Kanakamuni (Pâli, Konagamana), “body +radiant with the colour of pure gold;” of the same family. Human life +reached in his time 30,000 years, and so many persons were converted by +him. (3) Kasyapa (Pâli, Kassapa), “swallower of light.” Human life +reached in his time 20,000 years, and so many persons were converted by +him. See Eitel, under the several names; Hardy’s M. B., pp. 95-97; and +Davids’ “Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 51. + +(17) That is, walked in meditation. Such places are called Chankramana +(Pâli, Chankama); promenades or corridors connected with a monastery, +made sometimes with costly stones, for the purpose of peripatetic +meditation. The “sitting” would be not because of weariness or for +rest, but for meditation. E. H., p. 144. + +(18) The character in my Corean copy is {.}, which must be a mistake +for the {.} of the Chinese editions. Otherwise, the meaning would be “a +small medusa.” + +(19) The reading here seems to me a great improvement on that of the +Chinese editions, which means “Fire Limit.” Buddha, it is said, {.} +converted this demon, which Chinese character Beal rendered at first by +“in one of his incarnations;” and in his revised version he has +“himself.” The difference between Fâ-Hien’s usage of {.} and {.} +throughout his narrative is quite marked. {.} always refers to the +doings of Sâkyamuni; {.}, “formerly,” is often used of him and others +in the sense of “in a former age or birth.” + +(20) See Hardy, M. B., p. 194:—“As a token of the giving over of the +garden, the king poured water upon the hands of Buddha; and from this +time it became one of the principal residences of the sage.” + +(21) This would seem to be absurd; but the writer evidently intended to +convey the idea that there was something mysterious about the number of +the topes. + +(22) This seems to be the meaning. The bodies of the monks are all +burned. Hardy’s E. M., pp. 322-324. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. +KANYAKUBJA, OR CANOUGE. BUDDHA’S PREACHING. + + +Fâ-Hien stayed at the Dragon vihâra till after the summer retreat,(1) +and then, travelling to the south-east for seven yojanas, he arrived at +the city of Kanyakubja,(2) lying along the Ganges.(3) There are two +monasteries in it, the inmates of which are students of the hinayana. +At a distance from the city of six or seven le, on the west, on the +northern bank of the Ganges, is a place where Buddha preached the Law +to his disciples. It has been handed down that his subjects of +discourse were such as “The bitterness and vanity (of life) as +impermanent and uncertain,” and that “The body is as a bubble or foam +on the water.” At this spot a tope was erected, and still exists. + +Having crossed the Ganges, and gone south for three yojanas, (the +travellers) arrived at a village named A-le,(4) containing places where +Buddha preached the Law, where he sat, and where he walked, at all of +which topes have been built. + +NOTES + +(1) We are now, probably, in 405. + +(2) Canouge, the latitude and longitude of which have been given in a +previous note. The Sanskrit name means “the city of humpbacked +maidens;” with reference to the legend of the hundred daughters of king +Brahma-datta, who were made deformed by the curse of the rishi +Maha-vriksha, whose overtures they had refused. E. H., p. 51. + +(3) Ganga, explained by “Blessed water,” and “Come from heaven to +earth.” + +(4) This village (the Chinese editions read “forest”) has hardly been +clearly identified. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. +SHA-CHE. LEGEND OF BUDDHA’S DANTA-KASHTHA. + + +Going on from this to the south-east for three yojanas, they came to +the great kingdom of Sha-che.(1) As you go out of the city of Sha-che +by the southern gate, on the east of the road (is the place) where +Buddha, after he had chewed his willow branch,(2) stuck it in the +ground, when it forthwith grew up seven cubits, (at which height it +remained) neither increasing nor diminishing. The Brahmans with their +contrary doctrines(3) became angry and jealous. Sometimes they cut the +tree down, sometimes they plucked it up, and cast it to a distance, but +it grew again on the same spot as at first. Here also is the place +where the four Buddhas walked and sat, and at which a tope was built +that is still existing. + +NOTES + +(1) Sha-che should probably be Sha-khe, making Cunningham’s +identification of the name with the present Saket still more likely. +The change of {.} into {.} is slight; and, indeed, the Khang-hsi +dictionary thinks the two characters should be but one and the same. + +(2) This was, no doubt, what was called the danta-kashtha, or “dental +wood,” mostly a bit of the _ficus Indicus_ or banyan tree, which the +monk chews every morning to cleanse his teeth, and for the purpose of +health generally. The Chinese, not having the banyan, have used, or at +least Fâ-Hien used, Yang ({.}, the general name for the willow) instead +of it. + +(3) Are two classes of opponents, or only one, intended here, so that +we should read “all the unbelievers and Brahmans,” or “heretics and +Brahmans?” I think the Brahmans were also “the unbelievers” and +“heretics,” having {.} {.}, views and ways outside of, and opposed to, +Buddha’s. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. +KOSALA AND SRAVASTI. THE JETAVANA VIHARA AND OTHER MEMORIALS AND +LEGENDS OF BUDDHA. SYMPATHY OF THE MONKS WITH THE PILGRIMS. + + +Going on from this to the south, for eight yojanas, (the travellers) +came to the city of Sravasti(1) in the kingdom of Kosala,(2) in which +the inhabitants were few and far between, amounting in all (only) to a +few more than two hundred families; the city where king Prasenajit(3) +ruled, and the place of the old vihâra of Maha-prajapti;(4) of the well +and walls of (the house of) the (Vaisya) head Sudatta;(5) and where the +Angulimalya(6) became an Arhat, and his body was (afterwards) burned on +his attaining to pari-nirvâna. At all these places topes were +subsequently erected, which are still existing in the city. The +Brahmans, with their contrary doctrine, became full of hatred and envy +in their hearts, and wished to destroy them, but there came from the +heavens such a storm of crashing thunder and flashing lightning that +they were not able in the end to effect their purpose. + +As you go out from the city by the south gate, and 1,200 paces from it, +the (Vaisya) head Sudatta built a vihâra, facing the south; and when +the door was open, on each side of it there was a stone pillar, with +the figure of a wheel on the top of that on the left, and the figure of +an ox on the top of that on the right. On the left and right of the +building the ponds of water clear and pure, the thickets of trees +always luxuriant, and the numerous flowers of various hues, constituted +a lovely scene, the whole forming what is called the Jetavana +vihâra.(7) + +When Buddha went up to the Trayastrimsas heaven,(8) and preached the +Law for the benefit of his mother, (after he had been absent for) +ninety days, Prasenajit, longing to see him, caused an image of him to +be carved in Gosîrsha Chandana wood,(9) and put in the place where he +usually sat. When Buddha on his return entered the vihâra, this image +immediately left its place, and came forth to meet him. Buddha said to +it, “Return to your seat. After I have attained to pari-nirvâna, you +will serve as a pattern to the four classes of my disciples,”(10) and +on this the image returned to its seat. This was the very first of all +the images (of Buddha), and that which men subsequently copied. Buddha +then removed, and dwelt in a small vihâra on the south side (of the +other), a different place from that containing the image, and twenty +paces distant from it. + +The Jetavana vihâra was originally of seven storeys. The kings and +people of the countries around vied with one another in their +offerings, hanging up about it silken streamers and canopies, +scattering flowers, burning incense, and lighting lamps, so as to make +the night as bright as the day. This they did day after day without +ceasing. (It happened that) a rat, carrying in its mouth the wick of a +lamp, set one of the streamers or canopies on fire, which caught the +vihâra, and the seven storeys were all consumed. The kings, with their +officers and people, were all very sad and distressed, supposing that +the sandal-wood image had been burned; but lo! after four or five days, +when the door of a small vihâra on the east was opened, there was +immediately seen the original image. They were all greatly rejoiced, +and co-operated in restoring the vihâra. When they had succeeded in +completing two storeys, they removed the image back to its former +place. + +When Fâ-Hien and Tao-ching first arrived at the Jetavana monastery, and +thought how the World-honoured one had formerly resided there for +twenty-five years, painful reflections arose in their minds. Born in a +border-land, along with their like-minded friends, they had travelled +through so many kingdoms; some of those friends had returned (to their +own land), and some had (died), proving the impermanence and +uncertainty of life; and to-day they saw the place where Buddha had +lived now unoccupied by him. They were melancholy through their pain of +heart, and the crowd of monks came out, and asked them from what +kingdom they were come. “We are come,” they replied, “from the land of +Han.” “Strange,” said the monks with a sigh, “that men of a border +country should be able to come here in search of our Law!” Then they +said to one another, “During all the time that we, preceptors and +monks,(11) have succeeded to one another, we have never seen men of +Han, followers of our system, arrive here.” + +Four le to the north-west of the vihâra there is a grove called “The +Getting of Eyes.” Formerly there were five hundred blind men, who lived +here in order that they might be near the vihâra.(12) Buddha preached +his Law to them, and they all got back their eyesight. Full of joy, +they stuck their staves in the earth, and with their heads and faces on +the ground, did reverence. The staves immediately began to grow, and +they grew to be great. People made much of them, and no one dared to +cut them down, so that they came to form a grove. It was in this way +that it got its name, and most of the Jetavana monks, after they had +taken their midday meal, went to the grove, and sat there in +meditation. + +Six or seven le north-east from the Jetavana, mother Vaisakha(13) built +another vihâra, to which she invited Buddha and his monks, and which is +still existing. + +To each of the great residences for monks at the Jetavana vihâra there +were two gates, one facing the east and the other facing the north. The +park (containing the whole) was the space of ground which the (Vaisya) +head Sudatta purchased by covering it with gold coins. The vihâra was +exactly in the centre. Here Buddha lived for a longer time than at any +other place, preaching his Law and converting men. At the places where +he walked and sat they also (subsequently) reared topes, each having +its particular name; and here was the place where Sundari(14) murdered +a person and then falsely charged Buddha (with the crime). Outside the +east gate of the Jetavana, at a distance of seventy paces to the north, +on the west of the road, Buddha held a discussion with the (advocates +of the) ninety-six schemes of erroneous doctrine, when the king and his +great officers, the householders, and people were all assembled in +crowds to hear it. Then a woman belonging to one of the erroneous +systems, by name Chanchamana,(15) prompted by the envious hatred in her +heart, and having put on (extra) clothes in front of her person, so as +to give her the appearance of being with child, falsely accused Buddha +before all the assembly of having acted unlawfully (towards her). On +this, Sakra, Ruler of Devas, changed himself and some devas into white +mice, which bit through the strings about her waist; and when this was +done, the (extra) clothes which she wore dropt down on the ground. The +earth at the same time was rent, and she went (down) alive into +hell.(16) (This) also is the place where Devadatta,(17) trying with +empoisoned claws to injure Buddha, went down alive into hell. Men +subsequently set up marks to distinguish where both these events took +place. + +Further, at the place where the discussion took place, they reared a +vihâra rather more than sixty cubits high, having in it an image of +Buddha in a sitting posture. On the east of the road there was a +devalaya(18) of (one of) the contrary systems, called “The Shadow +Covered,” right opposite the vihâra on the place of discussion, with +(only) the road between them, and also rather more than sixty cubits +high. The reason why it was called “The Shadow Covered” was this:—When +the sun was in the west, the shadow of the vihâra of the World-honoured +one fell on the devalaya of a contrary system; but when the sun was in +the east, the shadow of that devalaya was diverted to the north, and +never fell on the vihâra of Buddha. The mal-believers regularly +employed men to watch their devalaya, to sweep and water (all about +it), to burn incense, light the lamps, and present offerings; but in +the morning the lamps were found to have been suddenly removed, and in +the vihâra of Buddha. The Brahmans were indignant, and said, “Those +Sramanas take out lamps and use them for their own service of Buddha, +but we will not stop our service for you!”(19) On that night the +Brahmans themselves kept watch, when they saw the deva spirits which +they served take the lamps and go three times round the vihâra of +Buddha and present offerings. After this ministration to Buddha they +suddenly disappeared. The Brahmans thereupon knowing how great was the +spiritual power of Buddha, forthwith left their families, and became +monks.(20) It has been handed down, that, near the time when these +things occurred, around the Jetavana vihâra there were ninety-eight +monasteries, in all of which there were monks residing, excepting only +in one place which was vacant. In this Middle Kingdom(21) there are +ninety-six(21) sorts of views, erroneous and different from our system, +all of which recognise this world and the future world(22) (and the +connexion between them). Each had its multitude of followers, and they +all beg their food: only they do not carry the alms-bowl. They also, +moreover, seek (to acquire) the blessing (of good deeds) on +unfrequented ways, setting up on the road-side houses of charity, where +rooms, couches, beds, and food and drink are supplied to travellers, +and also to monks, coming and going as guests, the only difference +being in the time (for which those parties remain). + +There are also companies of the followers of Devadatta still existing. +They regularly make offerings to the three previous Buddhas, but not to +Sâkyamuni Buddha. + +Four le south-east from the city of Sravasti, a tope has been erected +at the place where the World-honoured one encountered king +Virudhaha,(23) when he wished to attack the kingdom of Shay-e,(23) and +took his stand before him at the side of the road.(24) + +NOTES + +(1) In Singhalese, Sewet; here evidently the capital of Kosala. It is +placed by Cunningham (Archaeological Survey) on the south bank of the +Rapti, about fifty-eight miles north of Ayodya or Oude. There are still +the ruins of a great town, the name being Sahet Mahat. It was in this +town, or in its neighbourhood, that Sâkyamuni spent many years of his +life after he became Buddha. + +(2) There were two Indian kingdoms of this name, a southern and a +northern. This was the northern, a part of the present Oudh. + +(3) In Singhalese, Pase-nadi, meaning “leader of the victorious army.” +He was one of the earliest converts and chief patrons of Sâkyamuni. +Eitel calls him (p. 95) one of the originators of Buddhist idolatory, +because of the statue which is mentioned in this chapter. See Hardy’s +M. B., pp. 283, 284, et al. + +(4) Explained by “Path of Love,” and “Lord of Life.” Prajapati was aunt +and nurse of Sâkyamuni, the first woman admitted to the monkhood, and +the first superior of the first Buddhistic convent. She is yet to +become a Buddha. + +(5) Sudatta, meaning “almsgiver,” was the original name of +Anatha-pindika (or Pindada), a wealthy householder, or Vaisya head, of +Sravasti, famous for his liberality (Hardy, Anepidu). Of his old house, +only the well and walls remained at the time of Fâ-Hien’s visit to +Sravasti. + +(6) The Angulimalya were a sect or set of Sivaitic fanatics, who made +assassination a religious act. The one of them here mentioned had +joined them by the force of circumstances. Being converted by Buddha, +he became a monk; but when it is said in the text that he “got the +Tao,” or doctrine, I think that expression implies more than his +conversion, and is equivalent to his becoming an Arhat. His name in +Pâli is Angulimala. That he did become an Arhat is clear from his +autobiographical poem in the “Songs of the Theras.” + +(7) Eitel (p. 37) says:—“A noted vihâra in the suburbs of Sravasti, +erected in a park which Anatha-pindika bought of prince Jeta, the son +of Prasenajit. Sâkyamuni made this place his favourite residence for +many years. Most of the Sûtras (authentic and supposititious) date from +this spot.” + +(8) See chapter xvii. + +(9) See chapter xiii. + +(10) Arya, meaning “honourable,” “venerable,” is a title given only to +those who have mastered the four spiritual truths:—(1) that “misery” is +a necessary condition of all sentient existence; this is duhkha: (2) +that the “accumulation” of misery is caused by the passions; this is +samudaya: (3) that the “extinction” of passion is possible; this is +nirodha: and (4) that the “path” leads to the extinction of passion; +which is marga. According to their attainment of these truths, the +Aryas, or followers of Buddha, are distinguished into four +classes,—Srotapannas, Sakridagamins, Anagamins, and Arhats. E. H., p. +14. + +(11) This is the first time that Fâ-Hien employs the name Ho-shang {.} +{.}, which is now popularly used in China for all Buddhist monks +without distinction of rank or office. It is the representative of the +Sanskrit term Upadhyaya, “explained,” says Eitel (p. 155) by “a +self-taught teacher,” or by “he who knows what is sinful and what is +not sinful,” with the note, “In India the vernacular of this term is +{.} {.} (? munshee (? Bronze)); in Kustana and Kashgar they say {.} {.} +(hwa-shay); and from the latter term are derived the Chinese synonyms, +{.} {.} (ho-shay) and {.} {.} (ho-shang).” The Indian term was +originally a designation for those who teach only a part of the Vedas, +the Vedangas. Adopted by Buddhists of Central Asia, it was made to +signify the priests of the older ritual, in distinction from the Lamas. +In China it has been used first as a synonym for {.} {.}, monks engaged +in popular teaching (teachers of the Law), in distinction from {.} {.}, +disciplinists, and {.} {.}, contemplative philosophers +(meditationists); then it was used to designate the abbots of +monasteries. But it is now popularly applied to all Buddhist monks. In +the text there seems to be implied some distinction between the +“teachers” and the “ho-shang;”—probably, the Pâli Akariya and +Upagghaya; see Sacred Books of the East, vol. xiii, Vinaya Texts, pp. +178, 179. + +(12) It might be added, “as depending on it,” in order to bring out the +full meaning of the {.} in the text. If I recollect aright, the help of +the police had to be called in at Hong Kong in its early years, to keep +the approaches to the Cathedral free from the number of beggars, who +squatted down there during service, hoping that the hearers would come +out with softened hearts, and disposed to be charitable. I found the +popular tutelary temples in Peking and other places, and the path up +Mount T’ai in Shan-lung similarly frequented. + +(13) The wife of Anatha-pindika, and who became “mother superior” of +many nunneries. See her history in M. B., pp. 220-227. I am surprised +it does not end with the statement that she is to become a Buddha. + +(14) See E. H., p. 136. Hsuan-chwang does not give the name of this +murderer; see in Julien’s “Vie et Voyages de Hiouen-thsang,” p. 125,—“a +heretical Brahman killed a woman and calumniated Buddha.” See also the +fuller account in Beal’s “Records of Western Countries,” pp. 7, 8, +where the murder is committed by several Brahmacharins. In this passage +Beal makes Sundari to be the name of the murdered person (a harlot). +But the text cannot be so construed. + +(15) Eitel (p. 144) calls her Chancha; in Singhalese, Chinchi. See the +story about her, M. B., pp. 275-277. + +(16) “Earth’s prison,” or “one of Earth’s prisons.” It was the Avichi +naraka to which she went, the last of the eight hot prisons, where the +culprits die, and are born again in uninterrupted succession (such +being the meaning of Avichi), though not without hope of final +redemption. E. H. p. 21. + +(17) Devadatta was brother of Ananda, and a near relative therefore of +Sâkyamuni. He was the deadly enemy, however, of the latter. He had +become so in an earlier state of existence, and the hatred continued in +every successive birth, through which they reappeared in the world. See +the accounts of him, and of his various devices against Buddha, and his +own destruction at the last, in M. B., pp. 315-321, 326-330; and still +better, in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, pp. +233-265. For the particular attempt referred to in the text, see “The +Life of the Buddha,” p. 107. When he was engulphed, and the flames were +around him, he cried out to Buddha to save him, and we are told that he +is expected yet to appear as a Buddha under the name of Devaraja, in a +universe called Deva-soppana. E. H., p. 39. + +(18) “A devalaya ({.} {.} or {.} {.}), a place in which a deva is +worshipped,—a general name for all Brahmanical temples” (Eitel, p. 30). +We read in the Khang-hsi dictionary under {.}, that when Kasyapa +Matanga came to the Western Regions, with his Classics or Sûtras, he +was lodged in the Court of State-Ceremonial, and that afterwards there +was built for him “The Court of the White-horse” ({.} {.} {.}), and in +consequence the name of Sze {.} came to be given to all Buddhistic +temples. Fâ-Hien, however, applies this term only to Brahmanical +temples. + +(19) Their speech was somewhat unconnected, but natural enough in the +circumstances. Compare the whole account with the narrative in I Samuel +v. about the Ark and Dagon, that “twice-battered god of Palestine.” + +(20) “Entered the doctrine or path.” Three stages in the Buddhistic +life are indicated by Fâ-Hien:—“entering it,” as here, by becoming +monks ({.} {.}); “getting it,” by becoming Arhats ({.} {.}); and +“completing it,” by becoming Buddha ({.} {.}). + +(21) It is not quite clear whether the author had in mind here Central +India as a whole, which I think he had, or only Kosala, the part of it +where he then was. In the older teaching, there were only thirty-two +sects, but there may have been three subdivisions of each. See Rhys +Davids’ “Buddhism,” pp. 98, 99. + +(22) This mention of “the future world” is an important difference +between the Corean and Chinese texts. The want of it in the latter has +been a stumbling-block in the way of all previous translators. Rémusat +says in a note that “the heretics limited themselves to speak of the +duties of man in his actual life without connecting it by the notion +that the metempsychosis with the anterior periods of existence through +which he had passed.” But this is just the opposite of what Fâ-Hien’s +meaning was, according to our Corean text. The notion of “the +metempsychosis” was just that in which all the ninety-six erroneous +systems agreed among themselves and with Buddhism. If he had wished to +say what the French sinologue thinks he does say, moreover, he would +probably have written {.} {.} {.} {.} {.}. Let me add, however, that +the connexion which Buddhism holds between the past world (including +the present) and the future is not that of a metempsychosis, or +transmigration of souls, for it does not appear to admit any separate +existence of the soul. Adhering to its own phraseology of “the wheel,” +I would call its doctrine that of “The Transrotation of Births.” See +Rhys Davids’ third Hibbert Lecture. + +(23) Or, more according to the phonetisation of the text, Vaidurya. He +was king of Kosala, the son and successor of Prasenajit, and the +destroyer of Kapilavastu, the city of the Sakya family. His hostility +to the Sakyas is sufficiently established, and it may be considered as +certain that the name Shay-e, which, according to Julien’s “Methode,” +p. 89, may be read Chia-e, is the same as Kia-e ({.} {.}), one of the +phonetisations of Kapilavastu, as given by Eitel. + +(24) This would be the interview in the “Life of the Buddha” in +Trübner’s Oriental Series, p. 116, when Virudhaha on his march found +Buddha under an old sakotato tree. It afforded him no shade; but he +told the king that the thought of the danger of “his relatives and +kindred made it shady.” The king was moved to sympathy for the time, +and went back to Sravasti; but the destruction of Kapilavastu was only +postponed for a short space, and Buddha himself acknowledged it to be +inevitable in the connexion of cause and effect. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. +THE THREE PREDECESSORS OF SAKYAMUNI IN THE BUDDHASHIP. + + +Fifty le to the west of the city bring (the traveller) to a town named +Too-wei,(1) the birthplace of Kasyapa Buddha.(1) At the place where he +and his father met,(2) and at that where he attained to pari-nirvâna, +topes were erected. Over the entire relic of the whole body of him, the +Kasyapa Tathagata,(3) a great tope was also erected. + +Going on south-east from the city of Sravasti for twelve yojanas, (the +travellers) came to a town named Na-pei-kea,(4) the birthplace of +Krakuchanda Buddha. At the place where he and his father met, and at +that where he attained to pari-nirvâna, topes were erected. Going north +from here less than a yojana, they came to a town which had been the +birthplace of Kanakamuni Buddha. At the place where he and his father +met, and where he attained to pari-nirvâna, topes were erected. + +NOTES + +(1) Identified, as Beal says, by Cunningham with Tadwa, a village nine +miles to the west of Sahara-mahat. The birthplace of Kasyapa Buddha is +generally thought to have been Benares. According to a calculation of +Rémusat, from his birth to A.D. 1832 there were 1,992,859 years! + +(2) It seems to be necessary to have a meeting between every Buddha and +his father. One at least is ascribed to Sâkyamuni and his father (real +or supposed) Suddhodana. + +(3) This is the highest epithet given to every supreme Buddha; in +Chinese {.} {.}, meaning, as Eitel, p. 147 says, “_Sic profectus sum_.” +It is equivalent to “Rightful Buddha, the true successor in the Supreme +Buddha Line.” Hardy concludes his account of the Kasyapa Buddha (M. B., +p. 97) with the following sentence:—“After his body was burnt, the +bones still remained in their usual position, presenting the appearance +of a perfect skeleton; and the whole of the inhabitants of Jambudvipa, +assembling together, erected a dagoba over his relics one yojana in +height!” + +(4) Na-pei-kea or Nabhiga is not mentioned elsewhere. Eitel says this +Buddha was born at the city of Gan-ho ({.} {.} {.}) and Hardy gives his +birthplace as Mekhala. It may be possible, by means of Sanskrit, to +reconcile these statements. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. +KAPILAVASTU. ITS DESOLATION. LEGENDS OF BUDDHA’S BIRTH, AND OTHER +INCIDENTS IN CONNEXION WITH IT. + + +Less than a yojana to the east from this brought them to the city of +Kapilavastu;(1) but in it there was neither king nor people. All was +mound and desolation. Of inhabitants there were only some monks and a +score or two of families of the common people. At the spot where stood +the old palace of king Suddhodana(2) there have been made images of the +prince (his eldest son) and his mother;(3) and at the places where that +son appeared mounted on a white elephant when he entered his mother’s +womb,(4) and where he turned his carriage round on seeing the sick man +after he had gone out of the city by the eastern gate,(5) topes have +been erected. The places (were also pointed out)(6) where (the rishi) +A-e(7) inspected the marks (of Buddhaship on the body) of the +heir-apparent (when an infant); where, when he was in company with +Nanda and others, on the elephant being struck down and drawn to one +side, he tossed it away;(8) where he shot an arrow to the south-east, +and it went a distance of thirty le, then entering the ground and +making a spring to come forth, which men subsequently fashioned into a +well from which travellers might drink;(9) where, after he had attained +to Wisdom, Buddha returned and saw the king, his father;(10) where five +hundred Sakyas quitted their families and did reverence to Upali(11) +while the earth shook and moved in six different ways; where Buddha +preached his Law to the devas, and the four deva kings and others kept +the four doors (of the hall), so that (even) the king, his father, +could not enter;(12) where Buddha sat under a nyagrodha tree, which is +still standing,(13) with his face to the east, and (his aunt) +Maja-prajapati presented him with a Sanghali;(14) and (where) king +Vaidurya slew the seed of Sakya, and they all in dying became +Srotapannas.(15) A tope was erected at this last place, which is still +existing. + +Several le north-east from the city was the king’s field, where the +heir-apparent sat under a tree, and looked at the ploughers.(16) + +Fifty le east from the city was a garden, named Lumbini,(17) where the +queen entered the pond and bathed. Having come forth from the pond on +the northern bank, after (walking) twenty paces, she lifted up her +hand, laid hold of a branch of a tree, and, with her face to the east, +gave birth to the heir-apparent.(18) When he fell to the ground, he +(immediately) walked seven paces. Two dragon-kings (appeared) and +washed his body. At the place where they did so, there was immediately +formed a well, and from it, as well as from the above pond, where (the +queen) bathed,(19) the monks (even) now constantly take the water, and +drink it. + +There are four places of regular and fixed occurrence (in the history +of) all Buddhas:—first, the place where they attained to perfect Wisdom +(and became Buddha); second, the place where they turned the wheel of +the Law;(20) third, the place where they preached the Law, discoursed +of righteousness, and discomfited (the advocates of) erroneous +doctrines; and fourth, the place where they came down, after going up +to the Trayatrimsas heaven to preach the Law for the benefit of their +mothers. Other places in connexion with them became remarkable, +according to the manifestations which were made at them at particular +times. + +The country of Kapilavastu is a great scene of empty desolation. The +inhabitants are few and far between. On the roads people have to be on +their guard against white elephants(21) and lions, and should not +travel incautiously. + +NOTES + +(1) Kapilavastu, “the city of beautiful virtue,” was the birthplace of +Sâkyamuni, but was destroyed, as intimated in the notes on last +chapter, during his lifetime. It was situated a short distance +north-west of the present Goruckpoor, lat. 26° 46′ N., lon. 83° 19′ E. +Davids says (Manual, p. 25), “It was on the banks of the river Rohini, +the modern Kohana, about 100 miles north-west of the city of Benares.” + +(2) The father, or supposed father, of Sâkyamuni. He is here called +“the king white and pure” ({.} {.} {.}). A more common appellation is +“the king of pure rice” ({.} {.} {.}); but the character {.}, or +“rice,” must be a mistake for {.}, “Brahman,” and the appellation= +“Pure Brahman king.” + +(3) The “eldest son,” or “prince” was Sâkyamuni, and his mother had no +other son. For “his mother,” see chap. xvii, note 3. She was a daughter +of Anjana or Anusakya, king of the neighbouring country of Koli, and +Yasodhara, an aunt of Suddhodana. There appear to have been various +intermarriages between the royal houses of Kapila and Koli. + +(4) In “The Life of the Buddha,” p. 15, we read that “Buddha was now in +the Tushita heaven, and knowing that his time was come (the time for +his last rebirth in the course of which he would become Buddha), he +made the necessary examinations; and having decided that Maha-maya was +the right mother, in the midnight watch he entered her womb under the +appearance of an elephant.” See M. B., pp. 140-143, and, still better, +Rhys Davids’ “Birth Stories,” pp. 58-63. + +(5) In Hardy’s M. B., pp. 154, 155, we read, “As the prince +(Siddhartha, the first name given to Sâkyamuni; see Eitel, under +Sarvarthasiddha) was one day passing along, he saw a deva under the +appearance of a leper, full of sores, with a body like a water-vessel, +and legs like the pestle for pounding rice; and when he learned from +his charioteer what it was that he saw, he became agitated, and +returned at once to the palace.” See also Rhys Davids’ “Buddhism,” p. +29. + +(6) This is an addition of my own, instead of “There are also topes +erected at the following spots,” of former translators. Fâ-Hien does +not say that there were memorial topes at all these places. + +(7) Asita; see Eitel, p. 15. He is called in Pâli Kala Devala, and had +been a minister of Suddhodana’s father. + +(8) In “The Life of Buddha” we read that the Lichchhavis of Vaisali had +sent to the young prince a very fine elephant; but when it was near +Kapilavastu, Devadatta, out of envy, killed it with a blow of his fist. +Nanda (not Ananda, but a half-brother of Siddhartha), coming that way, +saw the carcase lying on the road, and pulled it on one side; but the +Bodhisattva, seeing it there, took it by the tail, and tossed it over +seven fences and ditches, when the force of its fall made a great +ditch. I suspect that the characters in the column have been +disarranged, and that we should read {.} {.} {.} {.}, {.} {.}, {.} {.}. +Buddha, that is Siddhartha, was at this time only ten years old. + +(9) The young Sakyas were shooting when the prince thus surpassed them +all. He was then seventeen. + +(10) This was not the night when he finally fled from Kapilavastu, and +as he was leaving the palace, perceiving his sleeping father, and said, +“Father, though I love thee, yet a fear possesses me, and I may not +stay;”—The Life of the Buddha, p. 25. Most probably it was that related +in M. B., pp. 199-204. See “Buddhist Birth Stories,” pp. 120-127. + +(11) They did this, I suppose, to show their humility, for Upali was +only a Sudra by birth, and had been a barber; so from the first did +Buddhism assert its superiority to the conditions of rank and caste. +Upali was distinguished by his knowledge of the rules of discipline, +and praised on that account by Buddha. He was one of the three leaders +of the first synod, and the principal compiler of the original Vinaya +books. + +(12) I have not met with the particulars of this preaching. + +(13) Meaning, as explained in Chinese, “a tree without knots;” the +_ficus Indica_. See Rhys Davids’ note, Manual, p. 39, where he says +that a branch of one of these trees was taken from Buddha Gaya to +Anuradhapura in Ceylon in the middle of the third century B.C, and is +still growing there, the oldest historical tree in the world. + +(14) See chap. xiii, note 11. I have not met with the account of this +presentation. See the long account of Prajapati in M. B., pp. 306-315. + +(15) See chap. xx, note 10. The Srotapannas are the first class of +saints, who are not to be reborn in a lower sphere, but attain to +nirvâna after having been reborn seven times consecutively as men or +devas. The Chinese editions state there were “1000” of the Sakya seed. +The general account is that they were 500, all maidens, who refused to +take their place in king Vaidurya’s harem, and were in consequence +taken to a pond, and had their hands and feet cut off. There Buddha +came to them, had their wounds dressed, and preached to them the Law. +They died in the faith, and were reborn in the region of the four Great +Kings. Thence they came back and visited Buddha at Jetavana in the +night, and there they obtained the reward of Srotapanna. “The Life of +the Buddha,” p. 121. + +(16) See the account of this event in M. B., p. 150. The account of it +reminds me of the ploughing by the sovereign, which has been an +institution in China from the earliest times. But there we have no +magic and no extravagance. + +(17) “The place of Liberation;” see chap. xiii, note 7. + +(18) See the accounts of this event in M. B., pp. 145, 146; “The Life +of the Buddha,” pp. 15, 16; and “Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 66. + +(19) There is difficulty in construing the text of this last statement. +Mr. Beal had, no doubt inadvertently, omitted it in his first +translation. In his revised version he gives for it, I cannot say +happily, “As well as at the pool, the water of which came down from +above for washing (the child).” + +(20) See chap. xvii, note 8. See also Davids’ Manual, p. 45. The latter +says, that “to turn the wheel of the Law” means “to set rolling the +royal chariot wheel of a universal empire of truth and righteousness;” +but he admits that this is more grandiloquent than the phraseology was +in the ears of Buddhists. I prefer the words quoted from Eitel in the +note referred to. “They turned” is probably equivalent to “They began +to turn.” + +(21) Fâ-Hien does not say that he himself saw any of these white +elephants, nor does he speak of the lions as of any particular colour. +We shall find by-and-by, in a note further on, that, to make them +appear more terrible, they are spoken of as “black.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. +RAMA, AND ITS TOPE. + + +East from Buddha’s birthplace, and at a distance of five yojanas, there +is a kingdom called Rama.(1) The king of this country, having obtained +one portion of the relics of Buddha’s body,(2) returned with it and +built over it a tope, named the Rama tope. By the side of it there was +a pool, and in the pool a dragon, which constantly kept watch over (the +tope), and presented offerings to it day and night. When king Asoka +came forth into the world, he wished to destroy the eight topes (over +the relics), and to build (instead of them) 84,000 topes.(3) After he +had thrown down the seven (others), he wished next to destroy this +tope. But then the dragon showed itself, took the king into its +palace;(4) and when he had seen all the things provided for offerings, +it said to him, “If you are able with your offerings to exceed these, +you can destroy the tope, and take it all away. I will not contend with +you.” The king, however, knew that such appliances for offerings were +not to be had anywhere in the world, and thereupon returned (without +carrying out his purpose). + +(Afterwards), the ground all about became overgrown with vegetation, +and there was nobody to sprinkle and sweep (about the tope); but a herd +of elephants came regularly, which brought water with their trunks to +water the ground, and various kinds of flowers and incense, which they +presented at the tope. (Once) there came from one of the kingdoms a +devotee(5) to worship at the tope. When he encountered the elephants he +was greatly alarmed, and screened himself among the trees; but when he +saw them go through with the offerings in the most proper manner, the +thought filled him with great sadness—that there should be no monastery +here, (the inmates of which) might serve the tope, but the elephants +have to do the watering and sweeping. Forthwith he gave up the great +prohibitions (by which he was bound),(6) and resumed the status of a +Sramanera.(7) With his own hands he cleared away the grass and trees, +put the place in good order, and made it pure and clean. By the power +of his exhortations, he prevailed on the king of the country to form a +residence for monks; and when that was done, he became head of the +monastery. At the present day there are monks residing in it. This +event is of recent occurrence; but in all the succession from that time +till now, there has always been a Sramanera head of the establishment. + +NOTES + +(1) Rama or Ramagrama, between Kapilavastu and Kusanagara. + +(2) See the account of the eightfold division of the relics of Buddha’s +body in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist Suttas, pp. +133-136. + +(3) The bones of the human body are supposed to consist of 84,000 +atoms, and hence the legend of Asoka’s wish to build 84,000 topes, one +over each atom of Sâkyamuni’s skeleton. + +(4) Fâ-Hien, it appears to me, intended his readers to understand that +the naga-guardian had a palace of his own, inside or underneath the +pool or tank. + +(5) It stands out on the narrative as a whole that we have not here +“some pilgrims,” but one devotee. + +(6) What the “great prohibitions” which the devotee now gave up were we +cannot tell. Being what he was, a monk of more than ordinary ascetical +habits, he may have undertaken peculiar and difficult vows. + +(7) The Sramanera, or in Chinese Shamei. See chap. xvi, note 19. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. +WHERE BUDDHA FINALLY RENOUNCED THE WORLD, AND WHERE HE DIED. + + +East from here four yojanas, there is the place where the heir-apparent +sent back Chandaka, with his white horse;(1) and there also a tope was +erected. + +Four yojanas to the east from this, (the travellers) came to the +Charcoal tope,(2) where there is also a monastery. + +Going on twelve yojanas, still to the east, they came to the city of +Kusanagara,(3) on the north of which, between two trees,(4) on the bank +of the Nairanjana(5) river, is the place where the World-honoured one, +with his head to the north, attained to pari-nirvâna (and died). There +also are the places where Subhadra,(6) the last (of his converts), +attained to Wisdom (and became an Arhat); where in his coffin of gold +they made offerings to the World-honoured one for seven days,(7) where +the Vajrapani laid aside his golden club,(8) and where the eight +kings(9) divided the relics (of the burnt body):—at all these places +were built topes and monasteries, all of which are now existing. + +In the city the inhabitants are few and far between, comprising only +the families belonging to the (different) societies of monks. + +Going from this to the south-east for twelve yojanas, they came to the +place where the Lichchhavis(10) wished to follow Buddha to (the place +of) his pari-nirvâna, and where, when he would not listen to them and +they kept cleaving to him, unwilling to go away, he made to appear a +large and deep ditch which they could not cross over, and gave them his +alms-bowl, as a pledge of his regard, (thus) sending them back to their +families. There a stone pillar was erected with an account of this +event engraved upon it. + +NOTES + +(1) This was on the night when Sâkyamuni finally left his palace and +family to fulfil the course to which he felt that he was called. +Chandaka, in Pâli Channa, was the prince’s charioteer, and in sympathy +with him. So also was the white horse Kanthaka (Kanthakanam Asvaraja), +which neighed his delight till the devas heard him. See M. B., pp. +158-161, and Davids’ Manual, pp. 32, 33. According to “Buddhist Birth +Stories,” p. 87, the noble horse never returned to the city, but died +of grief at being left by his master, to be reborn immediately in the +Trayastrimsas heaven as the deva Kanthaka! + +(2) Beal and Giles call this the “Ashes” tope. I also would have +preferred to call it so; but the Chinese character is {.}, not {.}. +Rémusat has “la tour des charbons.” It was over the place of Buddha’s +cremation. + +(3) In Pâli Kusinara. It got its name from the Kusa grass (the _poa +cynosuroides_); and its ruins are still extant, near Kusiah, 180 N.W. +from Patna; “about,” says Davids, “120 miles N.N.E. of Benares, and 80 +miles due east of Kapilavastu.” + +(4) The Sala tree, the _Shorea robusta_, which yields the famous teak +wood. + +(5) Confounded, according to Eitel, even by Hsuan-chwang, with the +Hiranyavati, which flows past the city on the south. + +(6) A Brahman of Benares, said to have been 120 years old, who came to +learn from Buddha the very night he died. Ananda would have repulsed +him; but Buddha ordered him to be introduced; and then putting aside +the ingenious but unimportant question which he propounded, preached to +him the Law. The Brahman was converted and attained at once to +Arhatship. Eitel says that he attained to nirvâna a few moments before +Sâkyamuni; but see the full account of him and his conversion in +“Buddhist Suttas,” p. 103-110. + +(7) Thus treating the dead Buddha as if he had been a Chakravartti +king. Hardy’s M. B., p. 347, says:—“For the place of cremation, the +princes (of Kusinara) offered their own coronation-hall, which was +decorated with the utmost magnificence, and the body was deposited in a +golden sarcophagus.” See the account of a cremation which Fâ-Hien +witnessed in Ceylon, chap. xxxix. + +(8) The name Vajrapani is explained as “he who holds in his hand the +diamond club (or pestle=sceptre),” which is one of the many names of +Indra or Sakra. He therefore, that great protector of Buddhism, would +seem to be intended here; but the difficulty with me is that neither in +Hardy nor Rockhill, nor any other writer, have I met with any +manifestation of himself made by Indra on this occasion. The princes of +Kusanagara were called mallas, “strong or mighty heroes;” so also were +those of Pava and Vaisali; and a question arises whether the language +may not refer to some story which Fâ-Hien had heard,—something which +they did on this great occasion. Vajrapani is also explained as meaning +“the diamond mighty hero;” but the epithet of “diamond” is not so +applicable to them as to Indra. The clause may hereafter obtain more +elucidation. + +(9) Of Kusanagara, Pava, Vaisali, and other kingdoms. Kings, princes, +brahmans,—each wanted the whole relic; but they agreed to an eightfold +division at the suggestion of the brahman Drona. + +(10) These “strong heroes” were the chiefs of Vaisali, a kingdom and +city, with an oligarchical constitution. They embraced Buddhism early, +and were noted for their peculiar attachment to Buddha. The second +synod was held at Vaisali, as related in the next chapter. The ruins of +the city still exist at Bassahar, north of Patna, the same, I suppose, +as Besarh, twenty miles north of Hajipur. See Beal’s Revised Version, +p. lii. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. +VAISALI. THE TOPE CALLED “WEAPONS LAID DOWN.” THE COUNCIL OF VAISALI. + + +East from this city ten yojanas, (the travellers) came to the kingdom +of Vaisali. North of the city so named is a large forest, having in it +the double-galleried vihâra(1) where Buddha dwelt, and the tope over +half the body of Ananda.(2) Inside the city the woman Ambapali(3) built +a vihâra in honour of Buddha, which is now standing as it was at first. +Three le south of the city, on the west of the road, (is the) garden +(which) the same Ambapali presented to Buddha, in which he might +reside. When Buddha was about to attain to his pari-nirvâna, as he was +quitting the city by the west gate, he turned round, and, beholding the +city on his right, said to them, “Here I have taken my last walk.”(4) +Men subsequently built a tope at this spot. + +Three le north-west of the city there is a tope called, “Bows and +weapons laid down.” The reason why it got that name was this:—The +inferior wife of a king, whose country lay along the river Ganges, +brought forth from her womb a ball of flesh. The superior wife, jealous +of the other, said, “You have brought forth a thing of evil omen,” and +immediately it was put into a box of wood and thrown into the river. +Farther down the stream another king was walking and looking about, +when he saw the wooden box (floating) in the water. (He had it brought +to him), opened it, and found a thousand little boys, upright and +complete, and each one different from the others. He took them and had +them brought up. They grew tall and large, and very daring, and strong, +crushing all opposition in every expedition which they undertook. By +and by they attacked the kingdom of their real father, who became in +consequence greatly distressed and sad. His inferior wife asked what it +was that made him so, and he replied, “That king has a thousand sons, +daring and strong beyond compare, and he wishes with them to attack my +kingdom; this is what makes me sad.” The wife said, “You need not be +sad and sorrowful. Only make a high gallery on the wall of the city on +the east; and when the thieves come, I shall be able to make them +retire.” The king did as she said; and when the enemies came, she said +to them from the tower, “You are my sons; why are you acting so +unnaturally and rebelliously?” They replied, “If you do not believe +me,” she said, “look, all of you, towards me, and open your mouths.” +She then pressed her breasts with her two hands, and each sent forth +500 jets of milk, which fell into the mouths of the thousand sons. The +thieves (thus) knew that she was their mother, and laid down their bows +and weapons.(5) The two kings, the fathers, thereupon fell into +reflection, and both got to be Pratyeka Buddhas.(6) The tope of the two +Pratyeka Buddhas is still existing. + +In a subsequent age, when the World-honoured one had attained to +perfect Wisdom (and become Buddha), he said to is disciples, “This is +the place where I in a former age laid down my bow and weapons.”(7) It +was thus that subsequently men got to know (the fact), and raised the +tope on this spot, which in this way received its name. The thousand +little boys were the thousand Buddhas of this Bhadra-kalpa.(8) + +It was by the side of the “Weapons-laid-down” tope that Buddha, having +given up the idea of living longer, said to Ananda, “In three months +from this I will attain to pavi-nirvâna;” and king Mara(9) had so +fascinated and stupefied Ananda, that he was not able to ask Buddha to +remain longer in this world. + +Three or four le east from this place there is a tope (commemorating +the following occurrence):—A hundred years after the pari-nirvâna of +Buddha, some Bhikshus of Vaisali went wrong in the matter of the +disciplinary rules in ten particulars, and appealed for their +justification to what they said were the words of Buddha. Hereupon the +Arhats and Bhikshus observant of the rules, to the number in all of 700 +monks, examined afresh and collated the collection of disciplinary +books.(10) Subsequently men built at this place the tope (in question), +which is still existing. + +NOTES + +(1) It is difficult to tell what was the peculiar form of this vihâra +from which it gets its name; something about the construction of its +door, or cupboards, or galleries. + +(2) See the explanation of this in the next chapter. + +(3) Ambapali, Amrapali, or Amradarika, “the guardian of the Amra +(probably the mango) tree,” is famous in Buddhist annals. See the +account of her in M. B., pp. 456-8. She was a courtesan. She had been +in many narakas or hells, was 100,000 times a female beggar, and 10,000 +times a prostitute; but maintaining perfect continence during the +period of Kasyapa Buddha, Sâkyamuni’s predecessor, she had been born a +devi, and finally appeared in earth under an Amra tree in Vaisali. +There again she fell into her old ways, and had a son by king +Bimbisara; but she was won over by Buddha to virtue and chastity, +renounced the world, and attained to the state of an Arhat. See the +earliest account of Ambapali’s presentation of the garden in “Buddhist +Suttas,” pp. 30-33, and the note there from Bishop Bigandet on pp. 33, +34. + +(4) Beal gives, “In this place I have performed the last religious act +of my earthly career;” Giles, “This is the last place I shall visit;” +Rémusat, “C’est un lieu ou je reviendrai bien longtemps apres ceci.” +Perhaps the “walk” to which Buddha referred had been for meditation. + +(5) See the account of this legend in the note in M. B., pp. 235, 236, +different, but not less absurd. The first part of Fâ-Hien’s narrative +will have sent the thoughts of some of my readers to the exposure of +the infant Moses, as related in Exodus. + +(6) See chap. xiii, note 14. + +(7) Thus Sâkyamuni had been one of the thousand little boys who floated +in the box in the Ganges. How long back the former age was we cannot +tell. I suppose the tope of the two fathers who became Pratyeka Buddhas +had been built like the one commemorating the laying down of weapons +after Buddha had told his disciples of the strange events in the past. + +(8) Bhadra-kalpa, “the Kalpa of worthies or sages.” “This,” says Eitel, +p. 22, “is a designation for a Kalpa of stability, so called because +1000 Buddhas appear in the course of it. Our present period is a +Bhadra-kalpa, and four Buddhas have already appeared. It is to last 236 +million years, but over 151 millions have already elapsed.” + +(9) “The king of demons.” The name Mara is explained by “the murderer,” +“the destroyer of virtue,” and similar appellations. “He is,” says +Eitel, “the personification of lust, the god of love, sin, and death, +the arch-enemy of goodness, residing in the heaven Paranirmita +Vasavartin on the top of the Kamadhatu. He assumes different forms, +especially monstrous ones, to tempt or frighten the saints, or sends +his daughters, or inspires wicked men like Devadatta or the Nirgranthas +to do his work. He is often represented with 100 arms, and riding on an +elephant.” The oldest form of the legend in this paragraph is in +“Buddhist Suttas,” Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, pp. 41-55, where +Buddha says that, if Ananda had asked him thrice, he would have +postponed his death. + +(10) Or the Vinaya-pitaka. The meeting referred to was an important +one, and is generally spoken of as the second Great Council of the +Buddhist Church. See, on the formation of the Buddhist Canon, Hardy’s +E. M., chap. xviii, and the last chapter of Davids’ Manual, on the +History of the Order. The first Council was that held at Rajagriha, +shortly after Buddha’s death, under the presidency of Kasyapa;—say +about B.C. 410. The second was that spoken of here;—say about B.C. 300. +In Davids’ Manual (p. 216) we find the ten points of discipline, in +which the heretics (I can use that term here) claimed at least +indulgence. Two meetings were held to consider and discuss them. At the +former the orthodox party barely succeeded in carrying their +condemnation of the laxer monks; and a second and larger meeting, of +which Fâ-Hien speaks, was held in consequence, and a more emphatic +condemnation passed. At the same time all the books and subjects of +discipline seem to have undergone a careful revision. + The Corean text is clearer than the Chinese as to those who + composed the Council,—the Arhats and orthodox monks. The leader + among them was a Yasas, or Yasada, or Yedsaputtra, who had been a + disciple of Ananda, and must therefore have been a very old man. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. +REMARKABLE DEATH OF ANANDA. + + +Four yojanas on from this place to the east brought the travellers to +the confluence of the five rivers.(1) When Ananda was going from +Magadha(2) to Vaisali, wishing his pari-nirvâna to take place (there), +the devas informed king Ajatasatru(3) of it, and the king immediately +pursued him, in his own grand carriage, with a body of soldiers, and +had reached the river. (On the other hand), the Lichchhavis of Vaisali +had heard that Ananda was coming (to their city), and they on their +part came to meet him. (In this way), they all arrived together at the +river, and Ananda considered that, if he went forward, king Ajatasatru +would be very angry, while, if he went back, the Lichchhavis would +resent his conduct. He thereupon in the very middle of the river burnt +his body in a fiery ecstasy of Samadhi,(4) and his pari-nirvâna was +attained. He divided his body (also) into two, (leaving) the half of it +on each bank; so that each of the two kings got one half as a (sacred) +relic, and took it back (to his own capital), and there raised a tope +over it. + +NOTES + +(1) This spot does not appear to have been identified. It could not be +far from Patna. + +(2) Magadha was for some time the headquarters of Buddhism; the holy +land, covered with vihâras; a fact perpetuated, as has been observed in +a previous note, in the name of the present Behar, the southern portion +of which corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Magadha. + +(3) In Singhalese, Ajasat. See the account of his conversion in M. B., +pp. 321-326. He was the son of king Bimbisara, who was one of the first +royal converts to Buddhism. Ajasat murdered his father, or at least +wrought his death; and was at first opposed to Sâkyamuni, and a +favourer of Devadatta. When converted, he became famous for his +liberality in almsgiving. + +(4) Eitel has a long article (pp. 114, 115) on the meaning of Samadhi, +which is one of the seven sections of wisdom (bodhyanga). Hardy defines +it as meaning “perfect tranquillity;” Turnour, as “meditative +abstraction;” Burnouf, as “self-control;” and Edkins, as “ecstatic +reverie.” “Samadhi,” says Eitel, “signifies the highest pitch of +abstract, ecstatic meditation; a state of absolute indifference to all +influences from within or without; a state of torpor of both the +material and spiritual forces of vitality; a sort of terrestrial +nirvâna, consistently culminating in total destruction of life.” He +then quotes apparently the language of the text, “He consumed his body +by Agni (the fire of) Samadhi,” and says it is “a common expression for +the effects of such ecstatic, ultra-mystic self-annihilation.” All this +is simply “a darkening of counsel by words without knowledge.” Some +facts concerning the death of Ananda are hidden beneath the darkness of +the phraseology, which it is impossible for us to ascertain. By or in +Samadhi he burns his body in the very middle of the river, and then he +divides the relic of the burnt body into two parts (for so evidently +Fâ-Hien intended his narration to be taken), and leaves one half on +each bank. The account of Ananda’s death in Nien-ch’ang’s “History of +Buddha and the Patriarchs” is much more extravagant. Crowds of men and +devas are brought together to witness it. The body is divided into four +parts. One is conveyed to the Tushita heaven; a second, to the palace +of a certain Naga king; a third is given to Ajatasatru; and the fourth +to the Lichchhavis. What it all really means I cannot tell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. +PATALIPUTTRA OR PATNA, IN MAGADHA. KING ASOKA’S SPIRIT-BUILT PALACE AND +HALLS. THE BUDDHIST BRAHMAN, RADHA-SAMI. DISPENSARIES AND HOSPITALS. + + +Having crossed the river, and descended south for a yojana, (the +travellers) came to the town of Pataliputtra,(1) in the kingdom of +Magadha, the city where king Asoka(2) ruled. The royal palace and halls +in the midst of the city, which exist now as of old, were all made by +spirits which he employed, and which piled up the stones, reared the +walls and gates, and executed the elegant carving and inlaid +sculpture-work,—in a way which no human hands of this world could +accomplish. + +King Asoka had a younger brother who had attained to be an Arhat, and +resided on Gridhra-kuta(3) hill, finding his delight in solitude and +quiet. The king, who sincerely reverenced him, wished and begged him +(to come and live) in his family, where he could supply all his wants. +The other, however, through his delight in the stillness of the +mountain, was unwilling to accept the invitation, on which the king +said to him, “Only accept my invitation, and I will make a hill for you +inside the city.” Accordingly, he provided the materials of a feast, +called to him the spirits, and announced to them, “To-morrow you will +all receive my invitation; but as there are no mats for you to sit on, +let each one bring (his own seat).” Next day the spirits came, each one +bringing with him a great rock, (like) a wall, four or five paces +square, (for a seat). When their sitting was over, the king made them +form a hill with the large stones piled on one another, and also at the +foot of the hill, with five large square stones, to make an apartment, +which might be more than thirty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and +more than ten cubits high. + +In this city there had resided a great Brahman,(4) named Radha-sami,(5) +a professor of the mahayana, of clear discernment and much wisdom, who +understood everything, living by himself in spotless purity. The king +of the country honoured and reverenced him, and served him as his +teacher. If he went to inquire for and greet him, the king did not +presume to sit down alongside of him; and if, in his love and +reverence, he took hold of his hand, as soon as he let it go, the +Brahman made haste to pour water on it and wash it. He might be more +than fifty years old, and all the kingdom looked up to him. By means of +this one man, the Law of Buddha was widely made known, and the +followers of other doctrines did not find it in their power to +persecute the body of monks in any way. + +By the side of the tope of Asoka, there has been made a mahayana +monastery, very grand and beautiful; there is also a hinayana one; the +two together containing six or seven hundred monks. The rules of +demeanour and the scholastic arrangements(6) in them are worthy of +observation. + +Shamans of the highest virtue from all quarters, and students, +inquirers wishing to find out truth and the grounds of it, all resort +to these monasteries. There also resides in this monastery a Brahman +teacher, whose name also is Manjusri,(7) whom the Shamans of greatest +virtue in the kingdom, and the mahayana Bhikshus honour and look up to. + +The cities and towns of this country are the greatest of all in the +Middle Kingdom. The inhabitants are rich and prosperous, and vie with +one another in the practice of benevolence and righteousness. Every +year on the eighth day of the second month they celebrate a procession +of images. They make a four-wheeled car, and on it erect a structure of +four storeys by means of bamboos tied together. This is supported by a +king-post, with poles and lances slanting from it, and is rather more +than twenty cubits high, having the shape of a tope. White and +silk-like cloth of hair(8) is wrapped all round it, which is then +painted in various colours. They make figures of devas, with gold, +silver, and lapis lazuli grandly blended and having silken streamers +and canopies hung out over them. On the four sides are niches, with a +Buddha seated in each, and a Bodhisattva standing in attendance on him. +There may be twenty cars, all grand and imposing, but each one +different from the others. On the day mentioned, the monks and laity +within the borders all come together; they have singers and skilful +musicians; they pay their devotion with flowers and incense. The +Brahmans come and invite the Buddhas to enter the city. These do so in +order, and remain two nights in it. All through the night they keep +lamps burning, have skilful music, and present offerings. This is the +practice in all the other kingdoms as well. The Heads of the Vaisya +families in them establish in the cities houses for dispensing charity +and medicines. All the poor and destitute in the country, orphans, +widowers, and childless men, maimed people and cripples, and all who +are diseased, go to those houses, and are provided with every kind of +help, and doctors examine their diseases. They get the food and +medicines which their cases require, and are made to feel at ease; and +when they are better, they go away of themselves. + +When king Asoka destroyed the seven topes, (intending) to make +eighty-four thousand,(9) the first which he made was the great tope, +more than three le to the south of this city. In front of this there is +a footprint of Buddha, where a vihâra has been built. The door of it +faces the north, and on the south of it there is a stone pillar, +fourteen or fifteen cubits in circumference, and more than thirty +cubits high, on which there is an inscription, saying, “Asoka gave the +jambudvipa to the general body of all the monks, and then redeemed it +from them with money. This he did three times.”(10) North from the tope +300 or 400 paces, king Asoka built the city of Ne-le.(11) In it there +is a stone pillar, which also is more than thirty feet high, with a +lion on the top of it. On the pillar there is an inscription recording +the things which led to the building of Ne-le, with the number of the +year, the day, and the month. + +NOTES + +(1) The modern Patna, lat. 25° 28′ N., lon. 85° 15′ E. The Sanskrit +name means “The city of flowers.” It is the Indian Florence. + +(2) See chap. x, note 3. Asoka transferred his court from Rajagriha to +Pataliputtra, and there, in the eighteenth year of his reign, he +convoked the third Great Synod,—according, at least, to southern +Buddhism. It must have been held a few years before B.C. 250; Eitel +says in 246. + +(3) “The Vulture-hill;” so called because Mara, according to Buddhist +tradition, once assumed the form of a vulture on it to interrupt the +meditation of Ananda; or, more probably, because it was a resort of +vultures. It was near Rajagriha, the earlier capital of Asoka, so that +Fâ-Hien connects a legend of it with his account of Patna. It abounded +in caverns, and was famous as a resort of ascetics. + +(4) A Brahman by cast, but a Buddhist in faith. + +(5) So, by the help of Julien’s “Methode,” I transliterate the Chinese +characters {.} {.} {.} {.}. Beal gives Radhasvami, his Chinese text +having a {.} between {.} and {.}. I suppose the name was Radhasvami or +Radhasami. + +(6) {.} {.}, the names of two kinds of schools, often occurring in the +Li Ki and Mencius. Why should there not have been schools in those +monasteries in India as there were in China? Fâ-Hien himself grew up +with other boys in a monastery, and no doubt had to “go to school.” And +the next sentence shows us there might be schools for more advanced +students as well as for the Sramaneras. + +(7) See chap. xvi, note 22. It is perhaps with reference to the famous +Bodhisattva that the Brahman here is said to be “also” named Manjusri. + +(8) ? Cashmere cloth. + +(9) See chap. xxiii, note 3. + +(10) We wish that we had more particulars of this great transaction, +and that we knew what value in money Asoka set on the whole world. It +is to be observed that he gave it to the monks, and did not receive it +from them. Their right was from him, and he bought it back. He was the +only “Power” that was. + +(11) We know nothing more of Ne-le. It could only have been a small +place; an outpost for the defence of Pataliputtra. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. +RAJAGRIHA, NEW AND OLD. LEGENDS AND INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH IT. + + +(The travellers) went on from this to the south-east for nine yojanas, +and came to a small solitary rocky hill,(1) at the head or end of +which(2) was an apartment of stone, facing the south,—the place where +Buddha sat, when Sakra, Ruler of Devas, brought the deva-musician, +Pancha-(sikha),(3) to give pleasure to him by playing on his lute. +Sakra then asked Buddha about forty-two subjects, tracing (the +questions) out with his finger one by one on the rock.(4) The prints of +his tracing are still there; and here also there is a monastery. + +A yojana south-west from this place brought them to the village of +Nala,(5) where Sariputtra(6) was born, and to which also he returned, +and attained here his pari-nirvâna. Over the spot (where his body was +burned) there was built a tope, which is still in existence. + +Another yojana to the west brought them to New Rajagriha,(7)—the new +city which was built by king Ajatasatru. There were two monasteries in +it. Three hundred paces outside the west gate, king Ajatasatru, having +obtained one portion of the relics of Buddha, built (over them) a tope, +high, large, grand, and beautiful. Leaving the city by the south gate, +and proceeding south four le, one enters a valley, and comes to a +circular space formed by five hills, which stand all round it, and have +the appearance of the suburban wall of a city. Here was the old city of +king Bimbisara; from east to west about five or six le, and from north +to south seven or eight. It was here that Sariputtra and Maudgalyayana +first saw Upasena;(8) that the Nirgrantha(9) made a pit of fire and +poisoned the rice, and then invited Buddha (to eat with him); that king +Ajatasatru made a black elephant intoxicated with liquor, wishing him +to injure Buddha;(10) and that at the north-east corner of the city in +a (large) curving (space) Jivaka built a vihâra in the garden of +Ambapali,(11) and invited Buddha with his 1250 disciples to it, that he +might there make his offerings to support them. (These places) are +still there as of old, but inside the city all is emptiness and +desolation; no man dwells in it. + +NOTES + +(1) Called by Hsuan-chwang Indra-sila-guha, or “The cavern of Indra.” +It has been identified with a hill near the village of Giryek, on the +bank of the Panchana river, about thirty-six miles from Gaya. The hill +terminates in two peaks overhanging the river, and it is the more +northern and higher of these which Fâ-Hien had in mind. It bears an +oblong terrace covered with the ruins of several buildings, especially +of a vihâra. + +(2) This does not mean the top or summit of the hill, but its +“headland,” where it ended at the river. + +(3) See the account of this visit of Sakra in M. B., pp. 288-290. It is +from Hardy that we are able to complete here the name of the musician, +which appears in Fâ-Hien as only Pancha, or “Five.” His harp or lute, +we are told, was “twelve miles long.” + +(4) Hardy (M. B., pp. 288, 289) makes the subjects only thirteen, which +are still to be found in one of the Sûtras (“the Dik-Sanga, in the +Sakra-prasna Sutra”). Whether it was Sakra who wrote his questions, or +Buddha who wrote the answers, depends on the punctuation. It seems +better to make Sakra the writer. + +(5) Or Nalanda; identified with the present Baragong. A grand monastery +was subsequently built at it, famous by the residence for five years of +Hsuan-chwang. + +(6) See chap. xvi, note 11. There is some doubt as to the statement +that Nala was his birthplace. + +(7) The city of “Royal Palaces;” “the residence of the Magadha kings +from Bimbisara to Asoka, the first metropolis of Buddhism, at the foot +of the Gridhrakuta mountains. Here the first synod assembled within a +year after Sâkyamuni’s death. Its ruins are still extant at the village +of Rajghir, sixteen miles S.W. of Behar, and form an object of +pilgrimage to the Jains (E. H., p. 100).” It is called New Rajagriha to +distinguish it from Kusagarapura, a few miles from it, the old +residence of the kings. Eitel says it was built by Bimbisara, while +Fâ-Hien ascribes it to Ajatasatru. I suppose the son finished what the +father had begun. + +(8) One of the five first followers of Sâkyamuni. He is also called +Asvajit; in Pâli Assaji; but Asvajit seems to be a military title= +“Master or trainer of horses.” The two more famous disciples met him, +not to lead him, but to be directed by him, to Buddha. See Sacred Books +of the East, vol. xiii, Vinaya Texts, pp. 144-147. + +(9) One of the six Tirthyas (Tirthakas=“erroneous teachers;” M. B., pp. +290-292, but I have not found the particulars of the attempts on +Buddha’s life referred to by Fâ-Hien), or Brahmanical opponents of +Buddha. He was an ascetic, one of the Jnati clan, and is therefore +called Nirgranthajnati. He taught a system of fatalism, condemned the +use of clothes, and thought he could subdue all passions by fasting. He +had a body of followers, who called themselves by his name (Eitel, pp. +84, 85), and were the forerunners of the Jains. + +(10) The king was moved to this by Devadatta. Of course the elephant +disappointed them, and did homage to Sâkyamuni. See Sacred Books of the +East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, p. 247. + +(11) See chap. xxv, note 3. Jivaka was Ambapali’s son by king +Bimbisara, and devoted himself to the practice of medicine. See the +account of him in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xvii, Vinaya +Texts, pp. 171-194. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. +GRIDHRA-KUTA HILL, AND LEGENDS. FÂ-HIEN PASSES A NIGHT ON IT. HIS +REFLECTIONS. + + +Entering the valley, and keeping along the mountains on the south-east, +after ascending fifteen le, (the travellers) came to mount +Gridhra-kuta.(1) Three le before you reach the top, there is a cavern +in the rocks, facing the south, in which Buddha sat in meditation. +Thirty paces to the north-west there is another, where Ananda was +sitting in meditation, when the deva Mara Pisuna,(2) having assumed the +form of a large vulture, took his place in front of the cavern, and +frightened the disciple. Then Buddha, by his mysterious, supernatural +power, made a cleft in the rock, introduced his hand, and stroked +Ananda’s shoulder, so that his fear immediately passed away. The +footprints of the bird and the cleft for (Buddha’s) hand are still +there, and hence comes the name of “The Hill of the Vulture Cavern.” + +In front of the cavern there are the places where the four Buddhas sat. +There are caverns also of the Arhats, one where each sat and meditated, +amounting to several hundred in all. At the place where in front of his +rocky apartment Buddha was walking from east to west (in meditation), +and Devadatta, from among the beetling cliffs on the north of the +mountain, threw a rock across, and hurt Buddha’s toes,(3) the rock is +still there.(4) + +The hall where Buddha preached his Law has been destroyed, and only the +foundations of the brick walls remain. On this hill the peak is +beautifully green, and rises grandly up; it is the highest of all the +five hills. In the New City Fâ-Hien bought incense-(sticks), flowers, +oil and lamps, and hired two bhikshus, long resident (at the place), to +carry them (to the peak). When he himself got to it, he made his +offerings with the flowers and incense, and lighted the lamps when the +darkness began to come on. He felt melancholy, but restrained his tears +and said, “Here Buddha delivered the Surangama (Sutra).(5) I, Fâ-Hien, +was born when I could not meet with Buddha; and now I only see the +footprints which he has left, and the place where he lived, and nothing +more.” With this, in front of the rock cavern, he chanted the Surangama +Sutra, remained there over the night, and then returned towards the New +City.(6) + +NOTES + +(1) See chap. xxviii, note 1. + +(2) See chap. xxv, note 9. Pisuna is a name given to Mara, and +signifies “sinful lust.” + +(3) See M. B., p. 320. Hardy says that Devadatta’s attempt was “by the +help of a machine;” but the oldest account in the Sacred Books of the +East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, p. 245, agrees with what Fâ-Hien implies +that he threw the rock with his own arm. + +(4) And, as described by Hsuan-chwang, fourteen or fifteen cubits high, +and thirty paces round. + +(5) See Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio’s “Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of +the Buddhist Tripitaka,” Sutra Pitaka, Nos. 399, 446. It was the former +of these that came on this occasion to the thoughts and memory of +Fâ-Hien. + +(6) In a note (p. lx) to his revised version of our author, Mr. Beal +says, “There is a full account of this perilous visit of Fâ-Hien, and +how he was attacked by tigers, in the ‘History of the High Priests.’” +But “the high priests” merely means distinguished monks, “eminent +monks,” as Mr. Nanjio exactly renders the adjectival character. Nor was +Fâ-Hien “attacked by tigers” on the peak. No “tigers” appear in the +Memoir. “Two black lions” indeed crouched before him for a time this +night, “licking their lips and waving their tails;” but their +appearance was to “try,” and not to attack him; and when they saw him +resolute, they “drooped their heads, put down their tails, and +prostrated themselves before him.” This of course is not an historical +account, but a legendary tribute to his bold perseverance. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. +THE SRATAPARNA CAVE, OR CAVE OF THE FIRST COUNCIL. LEGENDS. SUICIDE OF +A BHIKSHU. + + +Out from the old city, after walking over 300 paces, on the west of the +road, (the travellers) found the Karanda Bamboo garden,(1) where the +(old) vihâra is still in existence, with a company of monks, who keep +(the ground about it) swept and watered. + +North of the vihâra two or three le there was the Smasanam, which name +means in Chinese “the field of graves into which the dead are +thrown.”(2) + +As they kept along the mountain on the south, and went west for 300 +paces, they found a dwelling among the rocks, named the Pippala +cave,(3) in which Buddha regularly sat in meditation after taking his +(midday) meal. + +Going on still to the west for five or six le, on the north of the +hill, in the shade, they found the cavern called Srataparna,(4) the +place where, after the nirvâna(5) of Buddha, 500 Arhats collected the +Sûtras. When they brought the Sûtras forth, three lofty seats(6) had +been prepared and grandly ornamented. Sariputtra occupied the one on +the left, and Maudgalyayana that on the right. Of the number of five +hundred one was wanting. Mahakasyapa was president (on the middle +seat). Ananda was then outside the door, and could not get in.(7) At +the place there was (subsequently) raised a tope, which is still +existing. + +Along (the sides of) the hill, there are also a very great many cells +among the rocks, where the various Arhans sat and meditated. As you +leave the old city on the north, and go down east for three le, there +is the rock dwelling of Devadatta, and at a distance of fifty paces +from it there is a large, square, black rock. Formerly there was a +bhikshu, who, as he walked backwards and forwards upon it, thought with +himself:—“This body(8) is impermanent, a thing of bitterness and +vanity,(9) and which cannot be looked on as pure.(10) I am weary of +this body, and troubled by it as an evil.” With this he grasped a +knife, and was about to kill himself. But he thought again:—“The +World-honoured one laid down a prohibition against one’s killing +himself.”(11) Further it occurred to him:—“Yes, he did; but I now only +wish to kill three poisonous thieves.”(12) Immediately with the knife +he cut his throat. With the first gash into the flesh he attained the +state of a Srotapanna;(13) when he had gone half through, he attained +to be an Anagamin;(14) and when he had cut right through, he was an +Arhat, and attained to pari-nirvâna;(15) (and died). + +NOTES + +(1) Karanda Venuvana; a park presented to Buddha by king Bimbisara, who +also built a vihâra in it. See the account of the transaction in M. B., +p. 194. The place was called Karanda, from a creature so named, which +awoke the king just as a snake was about to bite him, and thus saved +his life. In Hardy the creature appears as a squirrel, but Eitel says +that the Karanda is a bird of sweet voice, resembling a magpie, but +herding in flocks; the _cuculus melanoleucus_. See “Buddhist Birth +Stories,” p. 118. + +(2) The language here is rather contemptuous, as if our author had no +sympathy with any other mode of disposing of the dead, but by his own +Buddhistic method of cremation. + +(3) The Chinese characters used for the name of this cavern serve also +to name the pippala (peepul) tree, the _ficus religiosa_. They make us +think that there was such a tree overshadowing the cave; but Fâ-Hien +would hardly have neglected to mention such a circumstance. + +(4) A very great place in the annals of Buddhism. The Council in the +Srataparna cave did not come together fortuitously, but appears to have +been convoked by the older members to settle the rules and doctrines of +the order. The cave was prepared for the occasion by king Ajatasatru. +From the expression about the “bringing forth of the King,” it would +seem that the Sûtras or some of them had been already committed to +writing. May not the meaning of King {.} here be extended to the Vinaya +rules, as well as the Sûtras, and mean “the standards” of the system +generally? See Davids’ Manual, chapter ix, and Sacred Books of the +East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, pp. 370-385. + +(5) So in the text, evidently for pari-nirvâna. + +(6) Instead of “high” seats, the Chinese texts have “vacant.” The +character for “prepared” denotes “spread;”—they were carpeted; perhaps, +both cushioned and carpeted, being rugs spread on the ground, raised +higher than the other places for seats. + +(7) Did they not contrive to let him in, with some cachinnation, even +in so august an assembly, that so important a member should have been +shut out? + +(8) “The life of this body” would, I think, fairly express the idea of +the bhikshu. + +(9) See the account of Buddha’s preaching in chapter xviii. + +(10) The sentiment of this clause is not easily caught. + +(11) See E. M., p. 152:—“Buddha made a law forbidding the monks to +commit suicide. He prohibited any one from discoursing on the miseries +of life in such a manner as to cause desperation.” See also M. B., pp. +464, 465. + +(12) Beal says:—“Evil desire; hatred; ignorance.” + +(13) See chap. xx, note 10. + +(14) The Anagamin belong to the third degree of Buddhistic saintship, +the third class of Aryas, who are no more liable to be reborn as men, +but are to be born once more as devas, when they will forthwith become +Arhats, and attain to nirvâna. E. H., pp. 8, 9. + +(15) Our author expresses no opinion of his own on the act of this +bhikshu. Must it not have been a good act, when it was attended, in the +very act of performance, by such blessed consequences? But if Buddhism +had not something better to show than what appears here, it would not +attract the interest which it now does. The bhikshu was evidently +rather out of his mind; and the verdict of a coroner’s inquest of this +nineteenth century would have pronounced that he killed himself “in a +fit of insanity.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. +GAYA. SAKYAMUNI’S ATTAINING TO THE BUDDHASHIP; AND OTHER LEGENDS. + + +From this place, after travelling to the west for four yojanas, (the +pilgrims) came to the city of Gaya;(1) but inside the city all was +emptiness and desolation. Going on again to the south for twenty le, +they arrived at the place where the Bodhisattva for six years practised +with himself painful austerities. All around was forest. + +Three le west from here they came to the place where, when Buddha had +gone into the water to bathe, a deva bent down the branch of a tree, by +means of which he succeeded in getting out of the pool.(2) + +Two le north from this was the place where the Gramika girls presented +to Buddha the rice-gruel made with milk;(3) and two le north from this +(again) was the place where, seated on a rock under a great tree, and +facing the east, he ate (the gruel). The tree and the rock are there at +the present day. The rock may be six cubits in breadth and length, and +rather more than two cubits in height. In Central India the cold and +heat are so equally tempered that trees will live in it for several +thousand and even for ten thousand years. + +Half a yojana from this place to the north-east there was a cavern in +the rocks, into which the Bodhisattva entered, and sat cross-legged +with his face to the west. (As he did so), he said to himself, “If I am +to attain to perfect wisdom (and become Buddha), let there be a +supernatural attestation of it.” On the wall of the rock there appeared +immediately the shadow of a Buddha, rather more than three feet in +length, which is still bright at the present day. At this moment heaven +and earth were greatly moved, and devas in the air spoke plainly, “This +is not the place where any Buddha of the past, or he that is to come, +has attained, or will attain, to perfect Wisdom. Less than half a +yojana from this to the south-west will bring you to the patra(4) tree, +where all past Buddhas have attained, and all to come must attain, to +perfect Wisdom.” When they had spoken these words, they immediately led +the way forwards to the place, singing as they did so. As they thus +went away, the Bodhisattva arose and walked (after them). At a distance +of thirty paces from the tree, a deva gave him the grass of lucky +omen,(5) which he received and went on. After (he had proceeded) +fifteen paces, 500 green birds came flying towards him, went round him +thrice, and disappeared. The Bodhisattva went forward to the patra +tree, placed the kusa grass at the foot of it, and sat down with his +face to the east. Then king Mara sent three beautiful young ladies, who +came from the north, to tempt him, while he himself came from the south +to do the same. The Bodhisattva put his toes down on the ground, and +the demon soldiers retired and dispersed, and the three young ladies +were changed into old (grand-)mothers.(6) + +At the place mentioned above of the six years’ painful austerities, and +at all these other places, men subsequently reared topes and set up +images, which all exist at the present day. + +Where Buddha, after attaining to perfect wisdom, for seven days +contemplated the tree, and experienced the joy of vimukti;(7) where, +under the patra tree, he walked backwards and forwards from west to +east for seven days; where the devas made a hall appear, composed of +the seven precious substances, and presented offerings to him for seven +days; where the blind dragon Muchilinda(8) encircled him for seven +days; where he sat under the nyagrodha tree, on a square rock, with his +face to the east, and Brahma-deva(9) came and made his request to him; +where the four deva kings brought to him their alms-bowls;(10) where +the 500 merchants(11) presented to him the roasted flour and honey; and +where he converted the brothers Kasyapa and their thousand +disciples;(12)—at all these places topes were reared. + +At the place where Buddha attained to perfect Wisdom, there are three +monasteries, in all of which there are monks residing. The families of +their people around supply the societies of these monks with an +abundant sufficiency of what they require, so that there is no lack or +stint.(13) The disciplinary rules are strictly observed by them. The +laws regulating their demeanour in sitting, rising, and entering when +the others are assembled, are those which have been practised by all +the saints since Buddha was in the world down to the present day. The +places of the four great topes have been fixed, and handed down without +break, since Buddha attained to nirvâna. Those four great topes are +those at the places where Buddha was born; where he attained to Wisdom; +where he (began to) move the wheel of his Law; and where he attained to +pari-nirvâna. + +NOTES + +(1) Gaya, a city of Magadha, was north-west of the present Gayah (lat. +24° 47′ N., lon. 85° 1′ E). It was here that Sâkyamuni lived for seven +years, after quitting his family, until he attained to Buddhaship. The +place is still frequented by pilgrims. E. H., p. 41. + +(2) This is told so as to make us think that he was in danger of being +drowned; but this does not appear in the only other account of the +incident I have met with,—in “The Life of the Buddha,” p. 31. And he +was not yet Buddha, though he is here called so; unless indeed the +narrative is confused, and the incidents do not follow in the order of +time. + +(3) An incident similar to this is told, with many additions, in +Hardy’s M. B., pp. 166-168; “The Life of the Buddha,” p. 30; and the +“Buddhist Birth Stories,” pp. 91, 92; but the name of the ministering +girl or girls is different. I take Gramika from a note in Beal’s +revised version; it seems to me a happy solution of the difficulty +caused by the {.} {.} of Fâ-Hien. + +(4) Called “the tree of leaves,” and “the tree of reflection;” a palm +tree, the _borassus flabellifera_, described as a tree which never +loses its leaves. It is often confounded with the pippala. E. H., p. +92. + +(5) The kusa grass, mentioned in a previous note. + +(6) See the account of this contest with Mara in M. B., pp. 171-179, +and “Buddhist Birth Stories,” pp. 96-101. + +(7) See chap. xiii, note 7. + +(8) Called also Maha, or the Great Muchilinda. Eitel says: “A naga +king, the tutelary deity of a lake near which Sâkyamuni once sat for +seven days absorbed in meditation, whilst the king guarded him.” The +account (p. 35) in “The Life of the Buddha” is:—“Buddha went to where +lived the naga king Muchilinda, and he, wishing to preserve him from +the sun and rain, wrapped his body seven times round him, and spread +out his hood over his head; and there he remained seven days in +thought.” So also the Nidana Katha, in “Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. +109. + +(9) This was Brahma himself, though “king” is omitted. What he +requested of the Buddha was that he would begin the preaching of his +Law. Nidana Katha, p. 111. + +(10) See chap. xii, note 10. + +(11) The other accounts mention only two; but in M. B., p. 182, and the +Nidana Katha, p. 110, these two have 500 well-laden waggons with them. + +(12) These must not be confounded with Mahakasyapa of chap. xvi, note +17. They were three brothers, Uruvilva, Gaya, and Nadi-Kasyapa, up to +this time holders of “erroneous” views, having 500, 300, and 200 +disciples respectively. They became distinguished followers of +Sâkyamuni; and are—each of them—to become Buddha by-and-by. See the +Nidana Katha, pp. 114, 115. + +(13) This seems to be the meaning; but I do not wonder that some +understand the sentence of the benevolence of the monkish population to +the travellers. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. +LEGEND OF KING ASOKA IN A FORMER BIRTH, AND HIS NARAKA. + + +When king Asoka, in a former birth,(1) was a little boy and played on +the road, he met Kasyapa Buddha walking. (The stranger) begged food, +and the boy pleasantly took a handful of earth and gave it to him. The +Buddha took the earth, and returned it to the ground on which he was +walking; but because of this (the boy) received the recompense of +becoming a king of the iron wheel,(2) to rule over Jambudvipa. (Once) +when he was making a judicial tour of inspection through Jambudvipa, he +saw, between the iron circuit of the two hills, a naraka(3) for the +punishment of wicked men. Having thereupon asked his ministers what +sort of a thing it was, they replied, “It belongs to Yama,(4) king of +demons, for punishing wicked people.” The king thought within +himself:—“(Even) the king of demons is able to make a naraka in which +to deal with wicked men; why should not I, who am the lord of men, make +a naraka in which to deal with wicked men?” He forthwith asked his +ministers who could make for him a naraka and preside over the +punishment of wicked people in it. They replied that it was only a man +of extreme wickedness who could make it; and the king thereupon sent +officers to seek everywhere for (such) a bad man; and they saw by the +side of a pond a man tall and strong, with a black countenance, yellow +hair, and green eyes, hooking up the fish with his feet, while he +called to him birds and beasts, and, when they came, then shot and +killed them, so that not one escaped. Having got this man, they took +him to the king, who secretly charged him, “You must make a square +enclosure with high walls. Plant in it all kinds of flowers and fruits; +make good ponds in it for bathing; make it grand and imposing in every +way, so that men shall look to it with thirsting desire; make its gates +strong and sure; and when any one enters, instantly seize him and +punish him as a sinner, not allowing him to get out. Even if I should +enter, punish me as a sinner in the same way, and do not let me go. I +now appoint you master of that naraka.” + +Soon after this a bhikshu, pursuing his regular course of begging his +food, entered the gate (of the place). When the lictors of the naraka +saw him, they were about to subject him to their tortures; but he, +frightened, begged them to allow him a moment in which to eat his +midday meal. Immediately after, there came in another man, whom they +thrust into a mortar and pounded till a red froth overflowed. As the +bhikshu looked on, there came to him the thought of the impermanence, +the painful suffering and insanity of this body, and how it is but as a +bubble and as foam; and instantly he attained to Arhatship. Immediately +after, the lictors seized him, and threw him into a caldron of boiling +water. There was a look of joyful satisfaction, however, in the +bhikshu’s countenance. The fire was extinguished, and the water became +cold. In the middle (of the caldron) there rose up a lotus flower, with +the bhikshu seated on it. The lictors at once went and reported to the +king that there was a marvellous occurrence in the naraka, and wished +him to go and see it; but the king said, “I formerly made such an +agreement that now I dare not go (to the place).” The lictors said, +“This is not a small matter. Your majesty ought to go quickly. Let your +former agreement be altered.” The king thereupon followed them, and +entered (the naraka), when the bhikshu preached the Law to him, and he +believed, and was made free.(5) Forthwith he demolished the naraka, and +repented of all the evil which he had formerly done. From this time he +believed in and honoured the Three Precious Ones, and constantly went +to a patra tree, repenting under it, with self-reproach, of his errors, +and accepting the eight rules of abstinence.(6) + +The queen asked where the king was constantly going to, and the +ministers replied that he was constantly to be seen under (such and +such) a patra tree. She watched for a time when the king was not there, +and then sent men to cut the tree down. When the king came, and saw +what had been done, he swooned away with sorrow, and fell to the +ground. His ministers sprinkled water on his face, and after a +considerable time he revived. He then built all round (the stump) with +bricks, and poured a hundred pitchers of cows’ milk on the roots; and +as he lay with his four limbs spread out on the ground, he took this +oath, “If the tree do not live, I will never rise from this.” When he +had uttered this oath, the tree immediately began to grow from the +roots, and it has continued to grow till now, when it is nearly 100 +cubits in height. + +NOTES + +(1) Here is an instance of {.} used, as was pointed out in chap. ix, +note 3, for a former age; and not merely a former time. Perhaps “a +former birth” is the best translation. The Corean reading of Kasyapa +Buddha is certainly preferable to the Chinese “Sakya Buddha.” + +(2) See chap. xvii, note 8. + +(3) I prefer to retain the Sanskrit term here, instead of translating +the Chinese text by “Earth’s prison {.} {.},” or “a prison in the +earth;” the name for which has been adopted generally by Christian +missionaries in China for gehenna and hell. + +(4) Eitel (p. 173) says:—“Yama was originally the Aryan god of the +dead, living in a heaven above the world, the regent of the south; but +Brahmanism transferred his abode to hell. Both views have been retained +by Buddhism.” The Yama of the text is the “regent of the narakas, +residing south of Jambudvipa, outside the Chakravalas (the double +circuit of mountains above), in a palace built of brass and iron. He +has a sister who controls all the female culprits, as he exclusively +deals with the male sex. Three times, however, in every twenty-four +hours, a demon pours boiling copper into Yama’s mouth, and squeezes it +down his throat, causing him unspeakable pain.” Such, however, is the +wonderful “transrotation of births,” that when Yama’s sins have been +expiated, he is to be reborn as Buddha, under the name of “The +Universal King.” + +(5) Or, “was loosed;” from the bonds, I suppose, of his various +illusions. + +(6) I have not met with this particular numerical category. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. +MOUNT GURUPADA, WHERE KASYAPA BUDDHA’S ENTIRE SKELETON IS. + + +(The travellers), going on from this three le to the south, came to a +mountain named Gurupada,(1) inside which Mahakasyapa even now is. He +made a cleft, and went down into it, though the place where he entered +would not (now) admit a man. Having gone down very far, there was a +hole on one side, and there the complete body of Kasyapa (still) +abides. Outside the hole (at which he entered) is the earth with which +he had washed his hands.(2) If the people living thereabouts have a +sore on their heads, they plaster on it some of the earth from this, +and feel immediately easier.(3) On this mountain, now as of old, there +are Arhats abiding. Devotees of our Law from the various countries in +that quarter go year by year to the mountain, and present offerings to +Kasyapa; and to those whose hearts are strong in faith there come +Arhats at night, and talk with them, discussing and explaining their +doubts, and disappearing suddenly afterwards. + +On this hill hazels grow luxuriously; and there are many lions, tigers, +and wolves, so that people should not travel incautiously. + +NOTES + +(1) “Fowl’s-foot hill,” “with three peaks, resembling the foot of a +chicken. It lies seven miles south-east of Gaya, and was the residence +of Mahakasyapa, who is said to be still living inside this mountain.” +So Eitel says, p. 58; but this chapter does not say that Kasyapa is in +the mountain alive, but that his body entire is in a recess or hole in +it. Hardy (M. B., p. 97) says that after Kasyapa Buddha’s body was +burnt, the bones still remained in their usual position, presenting the +appearance of a perfect skeleton. It is of him that the chapter speaks, +and not of the famous disciple of Sâkyamuni, who also is called +Mahakasyapa. This will appear also on a comparison of Eitel’s articles +on “Mahakasyapa” and “Kasyapa Buddha.” + +(2) Was it a custom to wash the hands with “earth,” as is often done +with sand? + +(3) This I conceive to be the meaning here. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. +ON THE WAY BACK TO PATNA. VARANASI, OR BENARES. SAKYAMUNI’S FIRST +DOINGS AFTER BECOMING BUDDHA. + + +Fâ-Hien(1) returned (from here) towards Pataliputtra,(2) keeping along +the course of the Ganges and descending in the direction of the west. +After going ten yojanas he found a vihâra, named “The Wilderness,”—a +place where Buddha had dwelt, and where there are monks now. + +Pursuing the same course, and going still to the west, he arrived, +after twelve yojanas, at the city of Varanasi(3) in the kingdom of +Kasi. Rather more than ten le to the north-east of the city, he found +the vihâra in the park of “The rishi’s Deer-wild.”(4) In this park +there formerly resided a Pratyeka Buddha,(5) with whom the deer were +regularly in the habit of stopping for the night. When the +World-honoured one was about to attain to perfect Wisdom, the devas +sang in the sky, “The son of king Suddhodana, having quitted his family +and studied the Path (of Wisdom),(6) will now in seven days become +Buddha.” The Pratyeka Buddha heard their words, and immediately +attained to nirvâna; and hence this place was named “The Park of the +rishi’s Deer-wild.”(7) After the World-honoured one had attained to +perfect Wisdom, men build the vihâra in it. + +Buddha wished to convert Kaundinya(8) and his four companions; but +they, (being aware of his intention), said to one another, “This +Sramana Gotama(9) for six years continued in the practice of painful +austerities, eating daily (only) a single hemp-seed, and one grain of +rice, without attaining to the Path (of Wisdom); how much less will he +do so now that he has entered (again) among men, and is giving the +reins to (the indulgence of) his body, his speech, and his thoughts! +What has he to do with the Path (of Wisdom)? To-day, when he comes to +us, let us be on our guard not to speak with him.” At the places where +the five men all rose up, and respectfully saluted (Buddha), when he +came to them; where, sixty paces north from this, he sat with his face +to the east, and first turned the wheel of the Law, converting +Kaundinya and the four others; where, twenty paces further to the +north, he delivered his prophecy concerning Maitreya;(10) and where, at +a distance of fifty paces to the south, the dragon Elapattra(11) asked +him, “When shall I get free from this naga body?”—at all these places +topes were reared, and are still existing. In (the park) there are two +monasteries, in both of which there are monks residing. + +When you go north-west from the vihâra of the Deer-wild park for +thirteen yojanas, there is a kingdom named Kausambi.(12) Its vihâra is +named Ghochiravana(13)—a place where Buddha formerly resided. Now, as +of old, there is a company of monks there, most of whom are students of +the hinayana. + +East from (this), when you have travelled eight yojanas, is the place +where Buddha converted(14) the evil demon. There, and where he walked +(in meditation) and sat at the place which was his regular abode, there +have been topes erected. There is also a monastery, which may contain +more than a hundred monks. + +NOTES + +(1) Fâ-Hien is here mentioned singly, as in the account of his visit to +the cave on Gridhra-kuta. I think that Tao-ching may have remained at +Patna after their first visit to it. + +(2) See chap. xxvii, note 1. + +(3) “The city surrounded by rivers;” the modern Benares, lat. 25° 23′ +N., lon. 83° 5′ E. + +(4) “The rishi,” says Eitel, “is a man whose bodily frame has undergone +a certain transformation by dint of meditation and ascetism, so that he +is, for an indefinite period, exempt from decrepitude, age, and death. +As this period is believed to extend far beyond the usual duration of +human life, such persons are called, and popularly believed to be, +immortals.” Rishis are divided into various classes; and rishi-ism is +spoken of as a seventh part of transrotation, and rishis are referred +to as the seventh class of sentient beings. Taoism, as well as +Buddhism, has its Seen jin. + +(5) See chap. xiii, note 15. + +(6) See chap. xxii, note 2. + +(7) For another legend about this park, and the identification of “a +fine wood” still existing, see note in Beal’s first version, p. 135. + +(8) A prince of Magadha and a maternal uncle of Sâkyamuni, who gave him +the name of Ajnata, meaning automat; and hence he often appears as +Ajnata Kaundinya. He and his four friends had followed Sâkyamuni into +the Uruvilva desert, sympathising with him in the austerities he +endured, and hoping that they would issue in his Buddhaship. They were +not aware that that issue had come; which may show us that all the +accounts in the thirty-first chapter are merely descriptions, by means +of external imagery, of what had taken place internally. The kingdom of +nirvâna had come without observation. These friends knew it not; and +they were offended by what they considered Sâkyamuni’s failure, and the +course he was now pursuing. See the account of their conversion in M. +B., p. 186. + +(9) This is the only instance in Fâ-Hien’s text where the Bodhisattva +or Buddha is called by the surname “Gotama.” For the most part our +traveller uses Buddha as a proper name, though it properly means “The +Enlightened.” He uses also the combinations “Sakya Buddha,”=“The Buddha +of the Sakya tribe,” and “Sâkyamuni,”=“The Sakya sage.” This last is +the most common designation of the Buddha in China, and to my mind best +combines the characteristics of a descriptive and a proper name. Among +other Buddhistic peoples “Gotama” and “Gotama Buddha” are the more +frequent designations. It is not easy to account for the rise of the +surname Gotama in the Sakya family, as Oldenberg acknowledges. He says +that “the Sakyas, in accordance with the custom of Indian noble +families, had borrowed it from one of the ancient Vedic bard families.” +Dr. Davids (“Buddhism,” p. 27) says: “The family name was certainly +Gautama,” adding in a note, “It is a curious fact that Gautama is still +the family name of the Rajput chiefs of Nagara, the village which has +been identified with Kapilavastu.” Dr. Eitel says that “Gautama was the +sacerdotal name of the Sakya family, which counted the ancient rishi +Gautama among its ancestors.” When we proceed, however, to endeavour to +trace the connexion of that Brahmanical rishi with the Sakya house, by +means of 1323, 1468, 1469, and other historical works in Nanjio’s +Catalogue, we soon find that Indian histories have no surer foundation +than the shifting sand;—see E. H., on the name Sakya, pp. 108, 109. We +must be content for the present simply to accept Gotama as one of the +surnames of the Buddha with whom we have to do. + +(10) See chap. vi, note 5. It is there said that the prediction of +Maitreya’s succession to the Buddhaship was made to him in the Tushita +heaven. Was there a repetition of it here in the Deer-park, or was a +prediction now given concerning something else? + +(11) Nothing seems to be known of this naga but what we read here. + +(12) Identified by some with Kusia, near Kurrah (lat. 25° 41′ N., lon. +81° 27′ E.); by others with Kosam on the Jumna, thirty miles above +Allahabad. See E. H., p. 55. + +(13) Ghochira was the name of a Vaisya elder, or head, who presented a +garden and vihâra to Buddha. Hardy (M. B., p. 356) quotes a statement +from a Singhalese authority that Sâkyamuni resided here during the +ninth year of his Buddhaship. + +(14) Dr. Davids thinks this may refer to the striking and beautiful +story of the conversion of the Yakkha Alavaka, as related in the +Uragavagga, Alavakasutta, pp. 29-31 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. x, +part ii). + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. +DAKSHINA, AND THE PIGEON MONASTERY. + + +South from this 200 yojanas, there is a country named Dakshina,(1) +where there is a monastery (dedicated to) the bygone Kasyapa Buddha, +and which has been hewn out from a large hill of rock. It consists in +all of five storeys;—the lowest, having the form of an elephant, with +500 apartments in the rock; the second, having the form of a lion, with +400 apartments; the third, having the form of a horse, with 300 +apartments; the fourth, having the form of an ox, with 200 apartments; +and the fifth, having the form of a pigeon, with 100 apartments. At the +very top there is a spring, the water of which, always in front of the +apartments in the rock, goes round among the rooms, now circling, now +curving, till in this way it arrives at the lowest storey, having +followed the shape of the structure, and flows out there at the door. +Everywhere in the apartments of the monks, the rock has been pierced so +as to form windows for the admission of light, so that they are all +bright, without any being left in darkness. At the four corners of the +(tiers of) apartments, the rock has been hewn so as to form steps for +ascending to the top (of each). The men of the present day, being of +small size, and going up step by step, manage to get to the top; but in +a former age, they did so at one step.(2) Because of this, the +monastery is called Paravata, that being the Indian name for a pigeon. +There are always Arhats residing in it. + +The country about is (a tract of) uncultivated hillocks,(3) without +inhabitants. At a very long distance from the hill there are villages, +where the people all have bad and erroneous views, and do not know the +Sramanas of the Law of Buddha, Brahmanas, or (devotees of) any of the +other and different schools. The people of that country are constantly +seeing men on the wing, who come and enter this monastery. On one +occasion, when devotees of various countries came to perform their +worship at it, the people of those villages said to them, “Why do you +not fly? The devotees whom we have seen hereabouts all fly;” and the +strangers answered, on the spur of the moment, “Our wings are not yet +fully formed.” + +The kingdom of Dakshina is out of the way, and perilous to traverse. +There are difficulties in connexion with the roads; but those who know +how to manage such difficulties and wish to proceed should bring with +them money and various articles, and give them to the king. He will +then send men to escort them. These will (at different stages) pass +them over to others, who will show them the shortest routes. Fâ-Hien, +however, was after all unable to go there; but having received the +(above) accounts from men of the country, he has narrated them. + +NOTES + +(1) Said to be the ancient name of the Deccan. As to the various +marvels in the chapter, it must be borne in mind that our author, as he +tells us at the end, only gives them from hearsay. See “Buddhist +Records of the Western World,” vol. ii, pp. 214, 215, where the +description, however, is very different. + +(2) Compare the account of Buddha’s great stride of fifteen yojanas in +Ceylon, as related in chapter xxxviii. + +(3) See the same phrase in the Books of the Later Han dynasty, the +twenty-fourth Book of Biographies, p. 9b. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. +IN PATNA. FÂ-HIEN’S LABOURS IN TRANSCRIPTION OF MANUSCRIPTS, AND INDIAN +STUDIES FOR THREE YEARS. + + +From Varanasi (the travellers) went back east to Pataliputtra. +Fâ-Hien’s original object had been to search for (copies of) the +Vinaya. In the various kingdoms of North India, however, he had found +one master transmitting orally (the rules) to another, but no written +copies which he could transcribe. He had therefore travelled far and +come on to Central India. Here, in the mahayana monastery,(1) he found +a copy of the Vinaya, containing the Mahasanghika(2) rules,—those which +were observed in the first Great Council, while Buddha was still in the +world. The original copy was handed down in the Jetavana vihâra. As to +the other eighteen schools,(3) each one has the views and decisions of +its own masters. Those agree (with this) in the general meaning, but +they have small and trivial differences, as when one opens and another +shuts.(4) This copy (of the rules), however, is the most complete, with +the fullest explanations.(5) + +He further got a transcript of the rules in six or seven thousand +gathas,(6) being the sarvastivadah(7) rules,—those which are observed +by the communities of monks in the land of Ts’in; which also have all +been handed down orally from master to master without being committed +to writing. In the community here, moreover, we got the +Samyuktabhi-dharma-hridaya-(sastra),(8) containing about six or seven +thousand gathas; he also got a Sutra of 2500 gathas; one chapter of the +Parinir-vana-vaipulya Sutra,(9) of about 5000 gathas; and the +Mahasan-ghikah Abhidharma. + +In consequence (of this success in his quest) Fâ-Hien stayed here for +three years, learning Sanskrit books and the Sanskrit speech, and +writing out the Vinaya rules. When Tao-ching arrived in the Central +Kingdom, and saw the rules observed by the Sramanas, and the dignified +demeanour in their societies which he remarked under all occurring +circumstances, he sadly called to mind in what a mutilated and +imperfect condition the rules were among the monkish communities in the +land of Ts’in, and made the following aspiration:—“From this time forth +till I come to the state of Buddha, let me not be born in a frontier +land.”(10) He remained accordingly (in India), and did not return (to +the land of Han). Fâ-Hien, however, whose original purpose had been to +secure the introduction of the complete Vinaya rules into the land of +Han, returned there alone. + +NOTES + +(1) Mentioned before in chapter xxvii. + +(2) Mahasanghikah simply means “the Great Assembly,” that is, of monks. +When was this first assembly in the time of Sâkyamuni held? It does not +appear that the rules observed at it were written down at the time. The +document found by Fâ-Hien would be a record of those rules; or rather a +copy of that record. We must suppose that the original record had +disappeared from the Jetavana vihâra, or Fâ-Hien would probably have +spoken of it when he was there, and copied it, if he had been allowed +to do so. + +(3) The eighteen pu {.}. Four times in this chapter the character +called pu occurs, and in the first and two last instances it can only +have the meaning, often belonging to it, of “copy.” The second +instance, however, is different. How should there be eighteen copies, +all different from the original, and from one another, in minor +matters? We are compelled to translate—“the eighteen schools,” an +expression well known in all Buddhist writings. See Rhys Davids’ +Manual, p. 218, and the authorities there quoted. + +(4) This is equivalent to the “binding” and “loosing,” “opening” and +“shutting,” which found their way into the New Testament, and the +Christian Church, from the schools of the Jewish Rabbins. + +(5) It was afterwards translated by Fâ-Hien into Chinese. See Nanjio’s +Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka, columns 400 and 401, and Nos. 1119 +and 1150, columns 247 and 253. + +(6) A gatha is a stanza, generally consisting, it has seemed to me, of +a few, commonly of two, lines somewhat metrically arranged; but I do +not know that its length is strictly defined. + +(7) “A branch,” says Eitel, “of the great vaibhashika school, asserting +the reality of all visible phenomena, and claiming the authority of +Rahula.” + +(8) See Nanjio’s Catalogue, No. 1287. He does not mention it in his +account of Fâ-Hien, who, he says, translated the Samyukta-pitaka Sutra. + +(9) Probably Nanjio’s Catalogue, No. 120; at any rate, connected with +it. + +(10) This then would be the consummation of the Sramana’s being,—to get +to be Buddha, the Buddha of his time in his Kalpa; and Tao-ching +thought that he could attain to this consummation by a succession of +births; and was likely to attain to it sooner by living only in India. +If all this was not in his mind, he yet felt that each of his +successive lives would be happier, if lived in India. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. +TO CHAMPA AND TAMALIPTI. STAY AND LABOURS THERE FOR THREE YEARS. TAKES +SHIP TO SINGHALA, OR CEYLON. + + +Following the course of the Ganges, and descending eastwards for +eighteen yojanas, he found on the southern bank the great kingdom of +Champa,(1) with topes reared at the places where Buddha walked in +meditation by his vihâra, and where he and the three Buddhas, his +predecessors, sat. There were monks residing at them all. Continuing +his journey east for nearly fifty yojanas, he came to the country of +Tamalipti,(2) (the capital of which is) a seaport. In the country there +are twenty-two monasteries, at all of which there are monks residing. +The Law of Buddha is also flourishing in it. Here Fâ-Hien stayed two +years, writing out his Sûtras,(3) and drawing pictures of images. + +After this he embarked in a large merchant-vessel, and went floating +over the sea to the south-west. It was the beginning of winter, and the +wind was favourable; and, after fourteen days, sailing day and night, +they came to the country of Singhala.(4) The people said that it was +distant (from Tamalipti) about 700 yojanas. + +The kingdom is on a large island, extending from east to west fifty +yojanas, and from north to south thirty. Left and right from it there +are as many as 100 small islands, distant from one another ten, twenty, +or even 200 le; but all subject to the large island. Most of them +produce pearls and precious stones of various kinds; there is one which +produces the pure and brilliant pearl,(5)—an island which would form a +square of about ten le. The king employs men to watch and protect it, +and requires three out of every ten such pearls, which the collectors +find. + +NOTES + +(1) Probably the modern Champanagur, three miles west of Baglipoor, +lat. 25° 14′ N., lon. 56° 55′ E. + +(2) Then the principal emporium for the trade with Ceylon and China; +the modern Tam-look, lat. 22° 17′ N., lon. 88° 2′ E.; near the mouth of +the Hoogly. + +(3) Perhaps Ching {.} is used here for any portions of the Tripitaka +which he had obtained. + +(4) “The Kingdom of the Lion,” Ceylon. Singhala was the name of a +merchant adventurer from India, to whom the founding of the kingdom was +ascribed. His father was named Singha, “the Lion,” which became the +name of the country;—Singhala, or Singha-Kingdom, “the Country of the +Lion.” + +(5) Called the mani pearl or bead. Mani is explained as meaning “free +from stain,” “bright and growing purer.” It is a symbol of Buddha and +of his Law. The most valuable rosaries are made of manis. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. +AT CEYLON. RISE OF THE KINGDOM. FEATS OF BUDDHA. TOPES AND MONASTERIES. +STATUE OF BUDDHA IN JADE. BO TREE. FESTIVAL OF BUDDHA’S TOOTH. + + +The country originally had no human inhabitants,(1) but was occupied +only by spirits and nagas, with which merchants of various countries +carried on a trade. When the trafficking was taking place, the spirits +did not show themselves. They simply set forth their precious +commodities, with labels of the price attached to them; while the +merchants made their purchases according to the price; and took the +things away. + +Through the coming and going of the merchants (in this way), when they +went away, the people of (their) various countries heard how pleasant +the land was, and flocked to it in numbers till it became a great +nation. The (climate) is temperate and attractive, without any +difference of summer and winter. The vegetation is always luxuriant. +Cultivation proceeds whenever men think fit: there are no fixed seasons +for it. + +When Buddha came to this country,(2) wishing to transform the wicked +nagas, by his supernatural power he planted one foot at the north of +the royal city, and the other on the top of a mountain,(3) the two +being fifteen yojanas apart. Over the footprint at the north of the +city the king built a large tope, 400 cubits high, grandly adorned with +gold and silver, and finished with a combination of all the precious +substances. By the side of the top he further built a monastery, called +the Abhayagiri,(4) where there are (now) five thousand monks. There is +in it a hall of Buddha, adorned with carved and inlaid works of gold +and silver, and rich in the seven precious substances, in which there +is an image (of Buddha) in green jade, more than twenty cubits in +height, glittering all over with those substances, and having an +appearance of solemn dignity which words cannot express. In the palm of +the right hand there is a priceless pearl. Several years had now +elapsed since Fâ-Hien left the land of Han; the men with whom he had +been in intercourse had all been of regions strange to him; his eyes +had not rested on an old and familiar hill or river, plant or tree; his +fellow-travellers, moreover, had been separated from him, some by +death, and others flowing off in different directions; no face or +shadow was now with him but his own, and a constant sadness was in his +heart. Suddenly (one day), when by the side of this image of jade, he +saw a merchant presenting as his offering a fan of white silk;(5) and +the tears of sorrow involuntarily filled his eyes and fell down. + +A former king of the country had sent to Central India and got a slip +of the patra tree,(6) which he planted by the side of the hall of +Buddha, where a tree grew up to the height of about 200 cubits. As it +bent on one side towards the south-east, the king, fearing it would +fall, propped it with a post eight or nine spans round. The tree began +to grow at the very heart of the prop, where it met (the trunk); (a +shoot) pierced through the post, and went down to the ground, where it +entered and formed roots, that rose (to the surface) and were about +four spans round. Although the post was split in the middle, the outer +portions kept hold (of the shoot), and people did not remove them. +Beneath the tree there has been built a vihâra, in which there is an +image (of Buddha) seated, which the monks and commonalty reverence and +look up to without ever becoming wearied. In the city there has been +reared also the vihâra of Buddha’s tooth, on which, as well as on the +other, the seven precious substances have been employed. + +The king practises the Brahmanical purifications, and the sincerity of +the faith and reverence of the population inside the city are also +great. Since the establishment of government in the kingdom there has +been no famine or scarcity, no revolution or disorder. In the +treasuries of the monkish communities there are many precious stones, +and the priceless manis. One of the kings (once) entered one of those +treasuries, and when he looked all round and saw the priceless pearls, +his covetous greed was excited, and he wished to take them to himself +by force. In three days, however, he came to himself, and immediately +went and bowed his head to the ground in the midst of the monks, to +show his repentance of the evil thought. As a sequel to this, he +informed the monks (of what had been in his mind), and desired them to +make a regulation that from that day forth the king should not be +allowed to enter the treasury and see (what it contained), and that no +bhikshu should enter it till after he had been in orders for a period +of full forty years.(7) + +In the city there are many Vaisya elders and Sabaean(8) merchants, +whose houses are stately and beautiful. The lanes and passages are kept +in good order. At the heads of the four principal streets there have +been built preaching halls, where, on the eighth, fourteenth, and +fifteenth days of the month, they spread carpets, and set forth a +pulpit, while the monks and commonalty from all quarters come together +to hear the Law. The people say that in the kingdom there may be +altogether sixty thousand monks, who get their food from their common +stores. The king, besides, prepares elsewhere in the city a common +supply of food for five or six thousand more. When any want, they take +their great bowls, and go (to the place of distribution), and take as +much as the vessels will hold, all returning with them full. + +The tooth of Buddha is always brought forth in the middle of the third +month. Ten days beforehand the king grandly caparisons a large +elephant, on which he mounts a man who can speak distinctly, and is +dressed in royal robes, to beat a large drum, and make the following +proclamation:—“The Bodhisattva, during three Asankhyeya-kalpas,(9) +manifested his activity, and did not spare his own life. He gave up +kingdom, city, wife, and son; he plucked out his eyes and gave them to +another;(10) he cut off a piece of his own flesh to ransom the life of +a dove;(10) he cut off his head and gave it as an alms;(11) he gave his +body to feed a starving tigress;(11) he grudged not his marrow and his +brains. In many such ways as these did he undergo pain for the sake of +all living. And so it was, that, having become Buddha, he continued in +the world for forty-five years, preaching his Law, teaching and +transforming, so that those who had no rest found rest, and the +unconverted were converted. When his connexion with the living was +completed,(12) he attained to pari-nirvâna (and died). Since that +event, for 1497 years, the light of the world has gone out,(13) and all +living beings have had long-continued sadness. Behold! ten days after +this, Buddha’s tooth will be brought forth, and taken to the +Abhayagiri-vihâra. Let all and each, whether monks or laics, who wish +to amass merit for themselves, make the roads smooth and in good +condition, grandly adorn the lanes and by-ways, and provide abundant +store of flowers and incense to be used as offerings to it.” + +When this proclamation is over, the king exhibits, so as to line both +sides of the road, the five hundred different bodily forms in which the +Bodhisattva has in the course of his history appeared:—here as +Sudana,(14) there as Sama;(15) now as the king of elephants;(16) and +then as a stag or a horse.(16) All these figures are brightly coloured +and grandly executed, looking as if they were alive. After this the +tooth of Buddha is brought forth, and is carried along in the middle of +the road. Everywhere on the way offerings are presented to it, and thus +it arrives at the hall of Buddha in the Abhayagiri-vihâra. There monks +and laics are collected in crowds. They burn incense, light lamps, and +perform all the prescribed services, day and night without ceasing, +till ninety days have been completed, when (the tooth) is returned to +the vihâra within the city. On fast-days the door of that vihâra is +opened, and the forms of ceremonial reverence are observed according to +the rules. + +Forty le to the east of the Abhayagiri-vihâra there is a hill, with a +vihâra on it, called the Chaitya,(17) where there may be 2000 monks. +Among them there is a Sramana of great virtue, named Dharma-gupta,(18) +honoured and looked up to by all the kingdom. He has lived for more +than forty years in an apartment of stone, constantly showing such +gentleness of heart, that he has brought snakes and rats to stop +together in the same room, without doing one another any harm. + +NOTES + +(1) It is desirable to translate {.} {.}, for which “inhabitants” or +“people” is elsewhere sufficient, here by “human inhabitants.” +According to other accounts Singhala was originally occupied by +Rakshasas or Rakshas, “demons who devour men,” and “beings to be +feared,” monstrous cannibals or anthropophagi, the terror of the +shipwrecked mariner. Our author’s “spirits” {.} {.} were of a gentler +type. His dragons or nagas have come before us again and again. + +(2) That Sâkyamuni ever visited Ceylon is to me more than doubtful. +Hardy, in M. B., pp. 207-213, has brought together the legends of three +visits,—in the first, fifth, and eighth years of his Buddhaship. It is +plain, however, from Fâ-Hien’s narrative, that in the beginning of our +fifth century, Buddhism prevailed throughout the island. Davids in the +last chapter of his “Buddhism” ascribes its introduction to one of +Asoka’s missions, after the Council of Patna, under his son Mahinda, +when Tissa, “the delight of the gods,” was king (B.C. 250-230). + +(3) This would be what is known as “Adam’s peak,” having, according to +Hardy (pp. 211, 212, notes), the three names of Selesumano, +Samastakuta, and Samanila. “There is an indentation on the top of it,” +a superficial hollow, 5 feet 3 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 Sâkyamuni, +the Tripitaka was first reduced to writing in Ceylon;—“Buddhism,” p. +234. + +(5) We naturally suppose that the merchant-offerer was a Chinese, as +indeed the Chinese texts say, and the fan such as Fâ-Hien had seen and +used in his native land. + +(6) This should be the pippala, or bodhidruma, generally spoken of, in +connexion with Buddha, as the Bo tree, under which he attained to the +Buddhaship. It is strange our author should have confounded them as he +seems to do. In what we are told of the tree here, we have, no doubt, +his account of the planting, growth, and preservation of the famous Bo +tree, which still exists in Ceylon. It has been stated in a previous +note that Asoka’s son, Mahinda, went as the apostle of Buddhism to +Ceylon. By-and-by he sent for his sister Sanghamitta, who had entered +the order at the same time as himself, and whose help was needed, some +of the king’s female relations having signified their wish to become +nuns. On leaving India, she took with her a branch of the sacred Bo +tree at Buddha Gaya, under which Sâkyamuni had become Buddha. Of how +the tree has grown and still lives we have an account in Davids’ +“Buddhism.” He quotes the words of Sir Emerson Tennent, that it is “the +oldest historical tree in the world;” but this must be denied if it be +true, as Eitel says, that the tree at Buddha Gaya, from which the slip +that grew to be this tree was taken more than 2000 years ago, is itself +still living in its place. We must conclude that Fâ-Hien, when in +Ceylon, heard neither of Mahinda nor Sanghamitta. + +(7) Compare what is said in chap. xvi, about the inquiries made at +monasteries as to the standing of visitors in the monkhood, and +duration of their ministry. + +(8) The phonetic values of the two Chinese characters here are in +Sanskrit sa; and va, bo or bha. “Sabaean” is Mr. Beal’s reading of +them, probably correct. I suppose the merchants were Arabs, forerunners +of the so-called Moormen, who still form so important a part of the +mercantile community in Ceylon. + +(9) A Kalpa, we have seen, denotes a great period of time; a period +during which a physical universe is formed and destroyed. Asankhyeya +denotes the highest sum for which a conventional term exists;—according +to Chinese calculations equal to one followed by seventeen ciphers; +according to Thibetan and Singhalese, equal to one followed by +ninety-seven ciphers. Every Maha-kalpa consists of four +Asankhyeya-kalpas. Eitel, p. 15. + +(10) See chapter ix. + +(11) See chapter xi. + +(12) He had been born in the Sakya house, to do for the world what the +character of all his past births required, and he had done it. + +(13) They could no more see him, the World-honoured one. Compare the +Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist Suttas, pp. 89, 121, and +note on p. 89. + +(14) Sudana or Sudatta was the name of the Bodhisattva in the birth +which preceded his appearance as Sâkyamuni or Gotama, when he became +the Supreme Buddha. This period is known as the Vessantara Jataka, of +which Hardy, M. B., pp. 116-124, gives a long account; see also +“Buddhist Birth Stories,” the Nidana Katha, p. 158. In it, as Sudana, +he fulfilled “the Perfections,” his distinguishing attribute being +entire self-renunciation and alms-giving, so that in the Nidana Katha +is made to say (“Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 159):— + “This earth, unconscious though she be, and ignorant of joy or + grief, Even she by my free-giving’s mighty power was shaken seven + times.” + Then, when he passed away, he appeared in the Tushita heaven, to + enter in due time the womb of Maha-maya, and be born as Sâkyamuni. + +(15) I take the name Sama from Beal’s revised version. He says in a +note that the Sama Jataka, as well as the Vessantara, is represented in +the Sanchi sculptures. But what the Sama Jataka was I do not yet know. +But adopting this name, the two Chinese characters in the text should +be translated “the change into Sama.” Rémusat gives for them, “la +transformation en eclair;” Beal, in his first version, “his appearance +as a bright flash of light;” Giles, “as a flash of lightning.” Julien’s +Methode does not give the phonetic value in Sanskrit of {.}. + +(16) In an analysis of the number of times and the different forms in +which Sâkyamuni had appeared in his Jataka births, given by Hardy (M. +B., p. 100), it is said that he had appeared six times as an elephant; +ten times as a deer; and four times as a horse. + +(17) Chaitya is a general term designating all places and objects of +religious worship which have a reference to ancient Buddhas, and +including therefore Stupas and temples as well as sacred relics, +pictures, statues, &c. It is defined as “a fane,” “a place for worship +and presenting offerings.” Eitel, p. 141. The hill referred to is the +sacred hill of Mihintale, about eight miles due east of the Bo +tree;—Davids’ Buddhism, pp. 230, 231. + +(18) Eitel says (p. 31): “A famous ascetic, the founder of a school, +which flourished in Ceylon, A.D. 400.” But Fâ-Hien gives no intimation +of Dharma-gupta’s founding a school. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. +CREMATION OF AN ARHAT. SERMON OF A DEVOTEE. + + +South of the city seven le there is a vihâra, called the Maha-vihâra, +where 3000 monks reside. There had been among them a Sramana, of such +lofty virtue, and so holy and pure in his observance of the +disciplinary rules, that the people all surmised that he was an Arhat. +When he drew near his end, the king came to examine into the point; and +having assembled the monks according to rule, asked whether the bhikshu +had attained to the full degree of Wisdom.(1) They answered in the +affirmative, saying that he was an Arhat. The king accordingly, when he +died, buried him after the fashion of an Arhat, as the regular rules +prescribed. Four of five le east from the vihâra there was reared a +great pile of firewood, which might be more than thirty cubits square, +and the same in height. Near the top were laid sandal, aloe, and other +kinds of fragrant wood. + +On the four sides (of the pile) they made steps by which to ascend it. +With clean white hair-cloth, almost like silk, they wrapped (the body) +round and round.(2) They made a large carriage-frame, in form like our +funeral car, but without the dragons and fishes.(3) + +At the time of the cremation, the king and the people, in multitudes +from all quarters, collected together, and presented offerings of +flowers and incense. While they were following the car to the +burial-ground,(4) the king himself presented flowers and incense. When +this was finished, the car was lifted on the pile, all over which oil +of sweet basil was poured, and then a light was applied. While the fire +was blazing, every one, with a reverent heart, pulled off his upper +garment, and threw it, with his feather-fan and umbrella, from a +distance into the midst of the flames, to assist the burning. When the +cremation was over, they collected and preserved the bones, and +proceeded to erect a tope. Fâ-Hien had not arrived in time (to see the +distinguished Shaman) alive, and only saw his burial. + +At that time the king,(5) who was a sincere believer in the Law of +Buddha and wished to build a new vihâra for the monks, first convoked a +great assembly. After giving the monks a meal of rice, and presenting +his offerings (on the occasion), he selected a pair of first-rate oxen, +the horns of which were grandly decorated with gold, silver, and the +precious substances. A golden plough had been provided, and the king +himself turned up a furrow on the four sides of the ground within which +the building was supposed to be. He then endowed the community of the +monks with the population, fields, and houses, writing the grant on +plates of metal, (to the effect) that from that time onwards, from +generation to generation, no one should venture to annul or alter it. + +In this country Fâ-Hien heard an Indian devotee, who was reciting a +Sutra from the pulpit, say:—“Buddha’s alms-bowl was at first in +Vaisali, and now it is in Gandhara.(6) After so many hundred years” (he +gave, when Fâ-Hien heard him, the exact number of years, but he has +forgotten it), “it will go to Western Tukhara;(7) after so many hundred +years, to Khoten; after so many hundred years, to Kharachar;(8) after +so many hundred years, to the land of Han; after so many hundred years, +it will come to Sinhala; and after so many hundred years, it will +return to Central India. After that, it will ascend to the Tushita +heaven; and when the Bodhisattva Maitreya sees it, he will say with a +sigh, ‘The alms-bowl of Sâkyamuni Buddha is come;’ and with all the +devas he will present to it flowers and incense for seven days. When +these have expired, it will return to Jambudvipa, where it will be +received by the king of the sea nagas, and taken into his naga palace. +When Maitreya shall be about to attain to perfect Wisdom (and become +Buddha), it will again separate into four bowls,(9) which will return +to the top of mount Anna,(9) whence they came. After Maitreya has +become Buddha, the four deva kings will again think of the Buddha (with +their bowls as they did in the case of the previous Buddha). The +thousand Buddhas of this Bhadra-kalpa, indeed, will all use the same +alms-bowl; and when the bowl has disappeared, the Law of Buddha will go +on gradually to be extinguished. After that extinction has taken place, +the life of man will be shortened, till it is only a period of five +years. During this period of a five years’ life, rice, butter, and oil +will all vanish away, and men will become exceedingly wicked. The grass +and trees which they lay hold of will change into swords and clubs, +with which they will hurt, cut, and kill one another. Those among them +on whom there is blessing will withdraw from society among the hills; +and when the wicked have exterminated one another, they will again come +forth, and say among themselves, ‘The men of former times enjoyed a +very great longevity; but through becoming exceedingly wicked, and +doing all lawless things, the length of our life has been shortened and +reduced even to five years. Let us now unite together in the practice +of what is good, cherishing a gentle and sympathising heart, and +carefully cultivating good faith and righteousness. When each one in +this way practises that faith and righteousness, life will go on to +double its length till it reaches 80,000 years. When Maitreya appears +in the world, and begins to turn the wheel of his Law, he will in the +first place save those among the disciples of the Law left by the Sakya +who have quitted their families, and those who have accepted the three +Refuges, undertaken the five Prohibitions and the eight Abstinences, +and given offerings to the three Precious Ones; secondly and thirdly, +he will save those between whom and conversion there is a connexion +transmitted from the past.’”(10) + +(Such was the discourse), and Fâ-Hien wished to write it down as a +portion of doctrine; but the man said, “This is taken from no Sutra, it +is only the utterance of my own mind.” + +NOTES + +(1) Possibly, “and asked the bhikshu,” &c. I prefer the other way of +construing, however. + +(2) It seems strange that this should have been understood as a +wrapping of the immense pyre with the cloth. There is nothing in the +text to necessitate such a version, but the contrary. Compare “Buddhist +Suttas,” pp. 92, 93. + +(3) See the description of a funeral car and its decorations in the +Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxviii, the Li Ki, Book XIX. Fâ-Hien’s +{.} {.}, “in this (country),” which I have expressed by “our,” shows +that whatever notes of this cremation he had taken at the time, the +account in the text was composed after his return to China, and when he +had the usages there in his mind and perhaps before his eyes. This +disposes of all difficulty occasioned by the “dragons” and “fishes.” +The {.} at the end is merely the concluding particle. + +(4) The pyre served the purpose of a burial-ground or grave, and hence +our author writes of it as such. + +(5) This king must have been Maha-nana (A.D. 410-432). In the time of +his predecessor, Upatissa (A.D. 368-410), the pitakas were first +translated into Singhalese. Under Maha-nana, Buddhaghosha wrote his +commentaries. Both were great builders of vihâras. See the Mahavansa, +pp. 247, foll. + +(6) See chapter xii. Fâ-Hien had seen it at Purushapura, which Eitel +says was “the ancient capital of Gandhara.” + +(7) Western Tukhara ({.} {.}) is the same probably as the Tukhara ({.}) +of chapter xii, a king of which is there described as trying to carry +off the bowl from Purushapura. + +(8) North of the Bosteng lake at the foot of the Thien-shan range (E. +H., p. 56). + +(9) See chap. xii, note 9. Instead of “Anna” the Chinese recensions +have Vina; but Vina or Vinataka, and Ana for Sudarsana are names of one +or other of the concentric circles of rocks surrounding mount Meru, the +fabled home of the deva guardians of the bowl. + +(10) That is, those whose Karma in the past should be rewarded by such +conversion in the present. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. +AFTER TWO YEARS TAKES SHIP FOR CHINA. DISASTROUS PASSAGE TO JAVA; AND +THENCE TO CHINA; ARRIVES AT SHAN-TUNG; AND GOES TO NANKING. CONCLUSION +OR L’ENVOI BY ANOTHER WRITER. + + +Fâ-Hien abode in this country two years; and, in addition (to his +acquisitions in Patna), succeeded in getting a copy of the +Vinaya-pitaka of the Mahisasakah (school);(1) the Dirghagama and +Samyuktagama(2) (Sûtras); and also the Samyukta-sanchaya-pitaka;(3)—all +being works unknown in the land of Han. Having obtained these Sanskrit +works, he took passage in a large merchantman, on board of which there +were more than 200 men, and to which was attached by a rope a smaller +vessel, as a provision against damage or injury to the large one from +the perils of the navigation. With a favourable wind, they proceeded +eastwards for three days, and then they encountered a great wind. The +vessel sprang a leak and the water came in. The merchants wished to go +to the small vessel; but the men on board it, fearing that too many +would come, cut the connecting rope. The merchants were greatly +alarmed, feeling their risk of instant death. Afraid that the vessel +would fill, they took their bulky goods and threw them into the water. +Fâ-Hien also took his pitcher(4) and washing-basin, with some other +articles, and cast them into the sea; but fearing that the merchants +would cast overboard his books and images, he could only think with all +his heart of Kwan-she-yin,(5) and commit his life to (the protection +of) the church of the land of Han,(6) (saying in effect), “I have +travelled far in search of our Law. Let me, by your dread and +supernatural (power), return from my wanderings, and reach my +resting-place!” + +In this way the tempest(7) continued day and night, till on the +thirteenth day the ship was carried to the side of an island, where, on +the ebbing of the tide, the place of the leak was discovered, and it +was stopped, on which the voyage was resumed. On the sea (hereabouts) +there are many pirates, to meet with whom is speedy death. The great +ocean spreads out, a boundless expanse. There is no knowing east or +west; only by observing the sun, moon, and stars was it possible to go +forward. If the weather were dark and rainy, (the ship) went as she was +carried by the wind, without any definite course. In the darkness of +the night, only the great waves were to be seen, breaking on one +another, and emitting a brightness like that of fire, with huge turtles +and other monsters of the deep (all about). The merchants were full of +terror, not knowing where they were going. The sea was deep and +bottomless, and there was no place where they could drop anchor and +stop. But when the sky became clear, they could tell east and west, and +(the ship) again went forward in the right direction. If she had come +on any hidden rock, there would have been no way of escape. + +After proceeding in this way for rather more than ninety days, they +arrived at a country called Java-dvipa, where various forms of error +and Brahmanism are flourishing, while Buddhism in it is not worth +speaking of. After staying there for five months, (Fâ-Hien) again +embarked in another large merchantman, which also had on board more +than 200 men. They carried provisions for fifty days, and commenced the +voyage on the sixteenth day of the fourth month. + +Fâ-Hien kept his retreat on board the ship. They took a course to the +north-east, intending to fetch Kwang-chow. After more than a month, +when the night-drum had sounded the second watch, they encountered a +black wind and tempestuous rain, which threw the merchants and +passengers into consternation. Fâ-Hien again with all his heart +directed his thoughts to Kwan-she-yin and the monkish communities of +the land of Han; and, through their dread and mysterious protection, +was preserved to day-break. After day-break, the Brahmans deliberated +together and said, “It is having this Sramana on board which has +occasioned our misfortune and brought us this great and bitter +suffering. Let us land the bhikshu and place him on some island-shore. +We must not for the sake of one man allow ourselves to be exposed to +such imminent peril.” A patron of Fâ-Hien, however, said to them, “If +you land the bhikshu, you must at the same time land me; and if you do +not, then you must kill me. If you land this Sramana, when I get to the +land of Han, I will go to the king, and inform against you. The king +also reveres and believes the Law of Buddha, and honours the bhikshus.” +The merchants hereupon were perplexed, and did not dare immediately to +land (Fâ-Hien). + +At this time the sky continued very dark and gloomy, and the +sailing-masters looked at one another and made mistakes. More than +seventy days passed (from their leaving Java), and the provisions and +water were nearly exhausted. They used the salt-water of the sea for +cooking, and carefully divided the (fresh) water, each man getting two +pints. Soon the whole was nearly gone, and the merchants took counsel +and said, “At the ordinary rate of sailing we ought to have reached +Kwang-chow, and now the time is passed by many days;—must we not have +held a wrong course?” Immediately they directed the ship to the +north-west, looking out for land; and after sailing day and night for +twelve days, they reached the shore on the south of mount Lao,(8) on +the borders of the prefecture of Ch’ang-kwang,(8) and immediately got +good water and vegetables. They had passed through many perils and +hardships, and had been in a state of anxious apprehension for many +days together; and now suddenly arriving at this shore, and seeing +those (well-known) vegetables, the lei and kwoh,(9) they knew indeed +that it was the land of Han. Not seeing, however, any inhabitants nor +any traces of them, they did not know whereabouts they were. Some said +that they had not yet got to Kwang-chow, and others that they had +passed it. Unable to come to a definite conclusion, (some of them) got +into a small boat and entered a creek, to look for some one of whom +they might ask what the place was. They found two hunters, whom they +brought back with them, and then called on Fâ-Hien to act as +interpreter and question them. Fâ-Hien first spoke assuringly to them, +and then slowly and distinctly asked them, “Who are you?” They replied, +“We are disciples of Buddha?” He then asked, “What are you looking for +among these hills?” They began to lie,(10) and said, “To-morrow is the +fifteenth day of the seventh month. We wanted to get some peaches to +present(11) to Buddha.” He asked further, “What country is this?” They +replied, “This is the border of the prefecture of Ch’ang-kwang, a part +of Ts’ing-chow under the (ruling) House of Tsin.” When they heard this, +the merchants were glad, immediately asked for (a portion of) their +money and goods, and sent men to Ch’ang-kwang city. + +The prefect Le E was a reverent believer in the Law of Buddha. When he +heard that a Sramana had arrived in a ship across the sea, bringing +with him books and images, he immediately came to the seashore with an +escort to meet (the traveller), and receive the books and images, and +took them back with him to the seat of his government. On this the +merchants went back in the direction of Yang-chow;(12) (but) when +(Fâ-Hien) arrived at Ts’ing-chow, (the prefect there)(13) begged him +(to remain with him) for a winter and a summer. After the summer +retreat was ended, Fâ-Hien, having been separated for a long time from +his (fellow-)masters, wished to hurry to Ch’ang-gan; but as the +business which he had in hand was important, he went south to the +Capital;(14) and at an interview with the masters (there) exhibited the +Sûtras and the collection of the Vinaya (which he had procured). + +After Fâ-Hien set out from Ch’ang-gan, it took him six years to reach +Central India;(15) stoppages there extended over (other) six years; and +on his return it took him three years to reach Ts’ing-chow. The +countries through which he passed were a few under thirty. From the +sandy desert westwards on to India, the beauty of the dignified +demeanour of the monkhood and of the transforming influence of the Law +was beyond the power of language fully to describe; and reflecting how +our masters had not heard any complete account of them, he therefore +(went on) without regarding his own poor life, or (the dangers to be +encountered) on the sea upon his return, thus incurring hardships and +difficulties in a double form. He was fortunate enough, through the +dread power of the three Honoured Ones,(15) to receive help and +protection in his perils; and therefore he wrote out an account of his +experiences, that worthy readers might share with him in what he had +heard and said.(15) + +It was in the year Keah-yin,(16) the twelfth year of the period E-he of +the (Eastern) Tsin dynasty, the year-star being in Virgo-Libra, in the +summer, at the close of the period of retreat, that I met the devotee +Fâ-Hien. On his arrival I lodged him with myself in the winter +study,(17) and there, in our meetings for conversation, I asked him +again and again about his travels. The man was modest and complaisant, +and answered readily according to the truth. I thereupon advised him to +enter into details where he had at first only given a summary, and he +proceeded to relate all things in order from the beginning to the end. +He said himself, “When I look back on what I have gone through, my +heart is involuntarily moved, and the perspiration flows forth. That I +encountered danger and trod the most perilous places, without thinking +of or sparing myself, was because I had a definite aim, and thought of +nothing but to do my best in my simplicity and straightforwardness. +Thus it was that I exposed my life where death seemed inevitable, if I +might accomplish but a ten-thousandth part of what I hoped.” These +words affected me in turn, and I thought:—“This man is one of those who +have seldom been seen from ancient times to the present. Since the +Great Doctrine flowed on to the East there has been no one to be +compared with Hien in his forgetfulness of self and search for the Law. +Henceforth I know that the influence of sincerity finds no obstacle, +however great, which it does not overcome, and that force of will does +not fail to accomplish whatever service it undertakes. Does not the +accomplishing of such service arise from forgetting (and disregarding) +what is (generally) considered as important, and attaching importance +to what is (generally) forgotten?” + +NOTES + +(1) No. 1122 in Nanjio’s Catalogue, translated into Chinese by +Buddhajiva and a Chinese Sramana about A.D. 425. Mahisasakah means “the +school of the transformed earth,” or “the sphere within which the Law +of Buddha is influential.” The school is one of the subdivisions of the +Sarvastivadah. + +(2) Nanjio’s 545 and 504. The Agamas are Sûtras of the hinayana, +divided, according to Eitel, pp. 4, 5, into four classes, the first or +Dirghagamas (long Agamas) being treatises on right conduct, while the +third class contains the Samyuktagamas (mixed Agamas). + +(3) Meaning “Miscellaneous Collections;” a sort of fourth Pitaka. See +Nanjio’s fourth division of the Canon, containing Indian and Chinese +miscellaneous works. But Dr. Davids says that no work of this name is +known either in Sanskrit or Pâli literature. + +(4) We have in the text a phonetisation of the Sanskrit Kundika, which +is explained in Eitel by the two characters that follow, as=“washing +basin,” but two things evidently are intended. + +(5) See chap. xvi, note 23. + +(6) At his novitiate Fâ-Hien had sought the refuge of the “three +Precious Ones” (the three Refuges {.} {.} of last chapter), of which +the congregation or body of the monks was one; and here his thoughts +turn naturally to the branch of it in China. His words in his heart +were not exactly words of prayer, but very nearly so. + +(7) In the text {.} {.}, ta-fung, “the great wind,”=the typhoon. + +(8) They had got to the south of the Shan-tung promontory, and the foot +of mount Lao, which still rises under the same name on the extreme +south of the peninsula, east from Keao Chow, and having the district of +Tsieh-mih on the east of it. All the country there is included in the +present Phing-too Chow of the department Lae-chow. The name Phing-too +dates from the Han dynasty, but under the dynasty of the After Ch’e {.} +{.}, (A.D. 479-501), it was changed into Ch’ang-kwang. Fâ-Hien may have +lived, and composed the narrative of his travels, after the change of +name was adopted. See the Topographical Tables of the different +Dynasties ({.} {.} {.} {.} {.}), published in 1815. + +(9) What these vegetables exactly were it is difficult to say; and +there are different readings of the characters for them. Williams’ +Dictionary, under kwoh, brings the two names together in a phrase, but +the rendering of it is simply “a soup of simples.” For two or three +columns here, however, the text appears to me confused and imperfect. + +(10) I suppose these men were really hunters; and, when brought before +Fâ-Hien, because he was a Sramana, they thought they would please him +by saying they were disciples of Buddha. But what had disciples of +Buddha to do with hunting and taking life? They were caught in their +own trap, and said they were looking for peaches. + +(11) The Chinese character here has occurred twice before, but in a +different meaning and connexion. Rémusat, Beal, and Giles take it as +equivalent to “to sacrifice.” But his followers do not “sacrifice” to +Buddha. That is a priestly term, and should not be employed of anything +done at Buddhistic services. + +(12) Probably the present department of Yang-chow in Keang-soo; but as +I have said in a previous note, the narrative does not go on so clearly +as it generally does. + +(13) Was, or could, this prefect be Le E? + +(14) Probably not Ch’ang-gan, but Nan-king, which was the capital of +the Eastern Tsin dynasty under another name. + +(15) The whole of this paragraph is probably Fâ-Hien’s own conclusion +of his narrative. The second half of the second sentence, both in +sentiment and style in the Chinese text, seems to necessitate our +ascribing it to him, writing on the impulse of his own thoughts, in the +same indirect form which he adopted for his whole narrative. There are, +however, two peculiar phraseologies in it which might suggest the work +of another hand. For the name India, where the first (15) is placed, a +character is employed which is similarly applied nowhere else; and +again, “the three Honoured Ones,” at which the second (15) is placed, +must be the same as “the three Precious Ones,” which we have met with +so often; unless we suppose that {.} {.} is printed in all the +revisions for {.} {.}, “the World-honoured one,” which has often +occurred. On the whole, while I accept this paragraph as Fâ-Hien’s own, +I do it with some hesitation. That the following and concluding +paragraph is from another hand, there can be no doubt. And it is as +different as possible in style from the simple and straightforward +narrative of Fâ-Hien. + +(16) There is an error of date here, for which it is difficult to +account. The year Keah-yin was A.D. 414; but that was the tenth year of +the period E-he, and not the twelfth, the cyclical designation of which +was Ping-shin. According to the preceding paragraph, Fâ-Hien’s travels +had occupied him fifteen years, so that counting from A.D. 399, the +year Ke-hae, as that in which he set out, the year of his getting to +Ts’ing-chow would have been Kwei-chow, the ninth year of the period +E-he; and we might join on “This year Keah-yin” to that paragraph, as +the date at which the narrative was written out for the bamboo-tablets +and the silk, and then begins the Envoy, “In the twelfth year of E-he.” +This would remove the error as it stands at present, but unfortunately +there is a particle at the end of the second date ({.}), which seems to +tie the twelfth year of E-he to Keah-yin, as another designation of it. +The “year-star” is the planet Jupiter, the revolution of which, in +twelve years, constitutes “a great year.” Whether it would be possible +to fix exactly by mathematical calculation in what year Jupiter was in +the Chinese zodiacal sign embracing part of both Virgo and Scorpio, and +thereby help to solve the difficulty of the passage, I do not know, and +in the meantime must leave that difficulty as I have found it. + +(17) We do not know who the writer of the Envoy was. “The winter study +or library” would be the name of the apartment in his monastery or +house, where he sat and talked with Fâ-Hien. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS *** + +***** This file should be named 2124-0.txt or 2124-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/2124/ + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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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