高僧傳 3.5

3.5

In the third year of the Long'an era of the Jin, along with his classmates Huijing, Daozheng, Huiying, Huiwei, and others, [Faxian] set out from Chang'an. Crossing the shifting sands westward, there were no flying birds above and no running beasts below. Gazing in all four directions, all was vast and boundless, with no way to tell where they were going; they looked only to the sun to determine east and west, and gazed upon human bones to mark the path. There were frequent scorching winds and evil demons, meeting which meant certain death; Faxian entrusted himself to karma and surrendered his life, passing straight through the perils. After a while, they reached the Congling Mountains. The mountains have accumulated snow in both winter and summer, and there are evil dragons spitting poison, wind, rain, sand, and gravel. The mountain roads were treacherous and perilous, the cliffs rising sheer for a thousand fathoms. In the past, people had chiselled the stone to make a passage and built laddered paths alongside it, crossing more than seven hundred such places in all. They also tread suspended ropes to cross rivers in several tens of places, none of which had been reached by Zhang Qian or Ganfu of the Han dynasty. Next, they crossed the Little Snow Mountains, where a freezing wind suddenly arose. Huijing trembled with cold and could not go forward; he said to Faxian: "I am going to die. You should go on ahead; do not let us both perish!" His words ceased and he passed away. Faxian stroked him and wept, saying: "Our original goal will not be fulfilled; what can be done against fate?" He then strove by his own strength to walk alone, ultimately passing through the mountain perils, traveling through more than thirty kingdoms in all.