法苑珠林 29.7

29.7

He received an imperial edict to translate scriptures, and was additionally commanded to compile the Record of the Western Regions in twelve fascicles. Down to the third year of Longshuo, in the translation of scriptures and treatises, none has matched Master Xuanzang in travelling across kingdoms, broad learning, and translating the greatest number of scriptures. Based on Master Xuanzang's travel record, Wang Xuance's account, as well as the monastics and laity of the Western Regions, the products proper to the soils were not without divine anomalies. An imperial order commanded literati and scholars to compile and draft it comprehensively, putting it into sixty fascicles, entitled Gazetteer of the Western Countries, with forty fascicles of illustrations, making a total of one hundred fascicles. From the kingdom of Khotan to the kingdom of Persia, the Great Tang established a total of governor-generals' offices, prefectures, counties, and militia garrisons, amounting to three hundred and seventy-eight localities in all: nine localities are governor-generals' offices, eighty localities are prefectures, one hundred and thirty-three localities are counties, and one hundred and forty-seven localities are militia garrisons. As for the products and distinct customs and peoples appropriate to the four continents, they have all been selected and allotted to various chapters and are not what is clarified here. What is recorded at present directly takes up the sacred traces and maintenance of the Buddha's Dharma, forming a separate fascicle. What is not fully covered remains complete in the grand primary text, so that later people may draw clear reference and know what is comprehensive and what is abridged.