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

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

   NOTES

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

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

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

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

   (5) See chap. xvi, note 23.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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