A RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS

THE TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN

or RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC KINGDOMS



CHAPTER I

FROM CH'ANG-GAN TO THE SANDY DESERT

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

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

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

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