On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c4.s3.8

v1.c4.s3.8

This Preface, according to all the translators, tells us that the pilgrim acting under Imperial orders translated 657 Sanskrit books, that is, all the Sanskrit books which he had brought home with him from the Western Lands. No one seems to have pointed out that this was an utterly impossible feat, and that Yuan-chuang did not attempt to do anything of the kind. The number of Sanskrit texts which he translated was seventy four, and these seventy four treatises (pu) made in all 1335 chüan. To accomplish this within seventeen years was a very great work for a delicate man with various calls on his time.¹