On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c4.s2.12

v1.c4.s2.12

We now come to Yuan-chuang’s great-grandfather whose name was Ch‘in (欽). He was an official of the After Wei dynasty and served as Prefect of Shang-t‘ang (上黨) in Shansi. The grand-father of our pilgrim, by name K‘ang (康), being a man of distinguished learning in the Ch‘i dynasty obtained the envied appointment of Professor in the National College at the capital. To this post were attached the revenues of the city of Chou-nan corresponding to the modern Lo-yang-hsien in Honan. The father of our pilgrim, by name Hui (慧), was a man of high character. He was a handsome tall man of stately manners, learned and intelligent, and a Confucianist of the strict old-fashioned kind. True to his principles he took office at the proper time, and still true to them he gave up office and withdrew into seclusion when anarchy supplanted order. He then retired to the village Ch'ên-pao-ku (陳堡谷) at a short distance south-east from the town of Kou-shih (緱氏). This town was in the Lo-chow, now Ho-nan, Prefecture of Honan, and not far from the site of the modern Yen-shih (偃師) Hsien. Yuan-chuang is sometimes called a Kou-shih man and it was probably in his father's home near this town that he was born in the year 600.