On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c5: Chapter II. The Introduction
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c5
- Language
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Chapter II. The Introduction
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AT the beginning of *Chüan* I. of the Records we have a long passage which, following Julien, we may call the Introduction. In a note Julien tells us that "suivant les éditeurs du Pien-i-tien, cette Introduction a été composé par Tschang-choue (i. e. Chang Yue), auteur de la préface du Si-yu-ki". Another native writer ascribes the composition of this Introduction to Pien-chi. But a careful reading of the text shews us that it could not have been written by either of these and that it must be regarded as the work of the pilgrim himself. This Introduction may possibly be the missing Preface written by Yuan-chuang according to a native authority.
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The Introduction begins—"By going back over the measures of the [Three] Huang and examining from this distance of time the records of the [Five] Ti we learn the beginnings of the reigns of Pao-hsi (Fu-hsi) and Hsien-Yuan (Huang Ti) by whom the people were brought under civil government and the country was marked off into natural divisions. And [we learn how] Yao of T'ang receiving astronomical knowledge (lit. "Celestial revolutions") his light spread everywhere, and how Shun of Yü being entrusted with the earthly arrangements his excellent influences extended to all the empire.. From these down only the archives of recorded events have been transmitted. To hear of the virtuous in a far off past, to merely learn from word-recording historians—what are these compared with the seasonable meeting with a time of ideal government and the good fortuna living under a sovereign who reigns without ruling?"
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The original of the last two sentences of this passage is rendered by Julien thus. "Depuis cette époque (i. e., the time of Yao and Shun) jusqu'à nos jours c'est en vain qu'on consulte les annales où sont consignés les événements, que l'on écoute les opinions émanées des anciens sages, que l'on interroge les historiens qui recueillaient les paroles mémorables. Il en est bien autrement lorsqu'on vit sous une dynastie vertueuse et qu'on est soumis à un prince qui pratique le *non-agir*." The text is here given, 自 茲 已 降 空 傳 畫 事 之 冊 徒 聽 前 修 徒 聞 記 言 之 史 豈 若 時 逢 有 道 運 屬 無 為 者 歟 and it will be seen that Julien's translation is hasty and inaccurate and that it does an injustice to the author. No Chinese scholar, Buddhist or Confucianist, would ever write in this disparaging way of the books of national history including the "Springs and Autumns" of Confucius, the commentaries on that treatise, and later works. What our author here states to his reader is to this effect. In the records of the very early times we find the institution of government officials to guide and teach the people (司 牧 黎 元), the first mapping out of the empire into natural divisions with corresponding star-clusters (疆 畫 分 里 子), the adaptation of astronomical learning to practical uses, and the first systematic reclamation of land and distribution of the country into political divisions. These great and beneficial achievments of the early sovereigns are mentioned only with the view of comparing the Emperor on the throne with these glorified remote predecessors. From the time of Yao and Shun down, according to our author, the annals of the empire contained only dry records of ordinary events.
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All this is only the prelude to the generous panegyric which our author proceeds to lavish on the T'ang dynasty or rather on the sovereign reigning at the time, viz. T'ai Tsung. A rough and tentative translation of this eulogy is now given and the reader can compare it with Julien's version.
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"As to our great T'ang dynasty, it assumed empire in accordance with Heaven, and taking advantage of the times it concentrated power to itself. [His Majesty] has made the six units of countries into one empire and this his glory fills; he is a fourth to the Three Huang and his light illumines the world. His subtle influence permeates widely and his auspicious example has a far-reaching stimulus. Combining Heaven's covering with Earth's containing powers he unites in himself the rousing force of wind and the refreshing action of rain. As to Eastern barbarians bringing tribute and "Western barbarians submitting themselves"¹ in founding an imperial inheritance for his posterity,² in bringing order out of chaos and restoring settled government,³ he certainly surpasses former kings and sums up in himself all that previous dynasties had attained. That there is a uniformity of culture⁴ over all the empire is the marvellous
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¹ The term here rendered "assumed empire" is *yü-chi* (御 極) which J. translates by "gouverne". But the context seems to show
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¹ This is a quotation from the Yü-Kung of the Shu-Ching where it is used of the western tribes submitting to the regulations of the emperor Yü. The Hsi Jung or "western barbarians" of this passage are described as Tibetan tribes living in the neighbourhood of the Koko Nor.
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² The text is Chuang-ye-ch'ui-t'ung (創業垂統). This is a stock phrase of Chinese literature and occurs, for example, in the 17th ch. of the Shih-Chi as a popular quotation. It or a part of it is often used of T'ang Kao Tsu and his successor although properly it applies only to the former. One writer amplifies the meaning of the expression thus—"Kao Tsu laid the foundation (創業) and established the patrimony (垂統) and T'ai Tsung enlarged and gave peace to the empire". (Ta T'ang-nei-tien-lu ch. 5. Bun. No. 1485).
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³ The original is poh-luan-fan-chêng (撥亂反正). Here the word poh, we are told, is to be taken in the sense of regulate or reduce to order, and chêng denotes settled government. The phrase is applied to the Ch'ün-Ch'iu of Confucius by Kung-yang at the end of his commentary on that classic. It occurs also in the Han-Shu (ch. 22) where the commentator explains it as meaning "to exterminate disorder and restore a right state of affairs". One of T'ai Tsung's Ministers is represented as applying the phrase to that emperor in a conversation with him, saying to His Majesty that "in bringing order out of anarchy and restoring good government (poh-luan-fan-chêng) and in raising men from mud and ashes" he had far transcended the achievments of the founders of the Chow and Han dynasties.
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⁴ The Chinese is t'ung-wên-kung-kuei (同文共軌) which means to "have the same writing and go in the same rut". There is
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that the term is to be taken here, as commonly, in the sense of "begin to reign", "accede to empire". Thus the phrase shêng-t'ien-tzŭ-yü-chi-yi-lai means "since His Majesty ascended the throne".
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result of his perfect government. If I did not mention them in these Records I should not have wherewith to praise his great institutions and if I did not publish them abroad I could not shed light on his abundant merits.
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In my mention of the natural characteristics of the people in any place which I visited though I did not investigate local peculiarities of custom yet I am to be believed. Beyond the Five [Ti] and the Three [Huang] (or, according to another interpretation, "In more than three-fifths of the places I traversed") all living creatures feel the genial influence [of H. Ms. reign] and every human being extols his merit. From Ch'ang-an to India the strange tribes of the sombre wastes, isolated lands and odd states, all accept the Chinese calendar and enjoy the benefits of H. Ms. fame and teaching. The praise of his great achievments in war is in everybody's mouth and the commendation of his abundant civil virtues has grown to be the highest theme.¹ Examine the public records and they have no mention of anything like this, and I am of opinion that there is no similar instance in private genealogies. Were there not the facts here set forth I could not record the beneficial influences of His Majesty. The narrative which I have now composed is based on what I saw and heard."
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¹ The pilgrim's report of his Imperial Master's fame in India will be illustrated when we come to chüan 5 and 10 of the Records.
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大唐御極則天 兀 時握紀一六合而光宅四三皇而照臨 兀 化滂流祥颺遐扇 兀 坤之覆載齊周雨之鼓潤與夫東夷八貢西戎 兀 敘 兀 創業垂統撥亂反正固以跨越前王 兀 括先代同文共軌至治神功非 兀 記無以贊大猷非昭宣何以光盛業 兀 裝 兀 隨遊至 兀 臬其 兀 土雖未考方辨俗信已越五 兀 三合之偉咸 兀 凱澤能言之類莫不稱功 兀 自天府暨諸天竺幽 兀 異俗絕域殊邦咸承正 兀 俱 兀 聲教 &c.
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This is an address well spiced with flattery in good oriental fashion. We may perhaps regard it as a sort of Dedication to the pilgrim's great friend and patron, the
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apparently a reference to Ch. 6 of the "Chung-yung" where we read, in Legge's translation.—"Now, over the empire, carriages have all wheels of the same size: all writing is with the same characters; and for conduct there are the same rules." (Life and Teachings of Confucius p. 312.) So also of the uniformity which Ch'in Shih Huang Ti produced it was said Ch'ê-t'ung-kuci-shu-t'ung-wên-tzŭ (車同軌書同文字), "carriages went in the same ruts and books were in one writing" (Shih-chi ch. 6).
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second Emperor of the T'ang dynasty. For though, as has been seen, the writer uses the term Ta T'ang, yet the context shews he had in his mind only, or chiefly, T'ai Tsung. The founder of the T'ang dynasty, it should be remembered, was neither a hero nor a man of extraordinary genius, and he came near being a prig and a hypocrite. His loyalty and honour were questioned in his lifetime, and history has given him several black marks. While sick of ambition, he was infirm of purpose, and wishing to do right he was easily swayed to do what was wrong. He had undoubted abilities, a happy knack of turning events to his advantage, and a plausible manner with friends and foes. But all his success in later life, and the fame of his reign were largely due to the son who succeeded him on the throne. This son, T'ai Tsung, meets us several times in the pilgrim's wanderings, and it will help us to understand and appreciate the passage now before us and the references to him in other parts of the work, if we recall some particulars of his life and character.
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The Li family, from which the founder of the T'ang dynasty sprang, claimed to have a long and illustrious line of ancestors, many of whom had deserved well of the State. The founder himself, whose name was Yuan (李淵), was born at Ch'ang-an, and was related to the family of the reigning dynasty, the Sui. He was a hereditary nobleman with the title T'ang Kung, and he served with distinction under Sui Yang Ti (601 to 616). But that despot could not brook Yuan, who was gaining favour with army and people, and he tried to get rid of him.
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At this time the two eldest sons of Li Yuan were also in the public service, and it is with the younger of these that we are now concerned. This boy, who seems to have been extraordinary from a very early stage of his life, was born in the year 597. When he was four years of age a mysterious stranger, dressed like a professional scholar, came one day to Li Yuan's house. Professing to be able to read fortunes, this stranger recognised Yuan as destined to greatness. Then taking the little child, he read fate's characters in his face, and predicted that the child would rise to power and that he would "save the age and give peace to the people"—*Chi-shih-an-min* (濟世安民). The father, perhaps finding the prophecy jump with his thoughts, and wishing to prick lagging destiny, gave to his son a name, Shih-min, which recalled the prediction.
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But fate made no delay, and Li Shih-min while only a boy, on the summons of Sui Yang Ti, entered the public service as a military officer. He soon found, however, that to propagate a tottering dynasty was not his destined work. The whole country, moreover, was now in a dreadful state of violence and disorder. Hydra-headed rebellion wasted the land, and the monster who sat on the throne was hated and rejected even by his own kindred. The districts of the Empire which marched with the lands of the barbarians were the prey of these ruthless savages who again and again, swooping with harpy-flight on town and country, made life in such places impossible. But when the people fled thence into the central parts of the Empire, they found neither peace nor safety, for the line of confusion and the plummet of stones were stretched out in the land. Over all the country, life and property were at the mercy of powerful rebels and bands of marauders and murderers. The good found safety in flight or concealment, and only the lawless and violent prevailed. So Li Shih-min, like others, saw that the Decree had passed and that the collapse of the Sui dynasty was imminent. He now resolved to help those who wished to hasten that event, and joined the conspiracy which succeeded in effecting the dethronement of Yang Ti. Then Shih-min's father, Li Yuan, became Emperor in 618 to the satisfaction of most, and the Empire began to have peace again. It was Shih-min who placed his father on the throne and won the Empire for him. During all Kao Tsu's reign, also, Shih-min took a very active and prominent part in public affairs. He fought many hard battles, and won great and splendid victories, thereby extending and consolidating the newlywon Empire. For he was wise and daring in counsel and brave and skilful in battle. He was much beloved by his father who rewarded his services with many honours. Among these was the title Ch'in (秦) Wang, Prince of Ch'in, a title by which he is still remembered. In 626 Kao Tsu resigned, appointing Shih-min his successor. The latter, the T'ang T'ai Tsung of history, mounted the throne with apparent reluctance, but with eager delight and earnest purpose, and he reigned "with unrivalled splendour" until his death in 649.
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This reign is perhaps the most celebrated in all the history of China, and T'ai Tsung is still regarded as one of her greatest and wisest rulers. From the moment he mounted the throne, he set himself to govern the people for their welfare, and began by enabling them to live in confidence and security. No ruler before ever wove so quickly and deftly into a fair web of peace and order such tangled threads of wild lawlessness. Only four years had he been in power, when over all the country the people had returned to settled lives, and the fame of his greatness and goodness had brought back hope and happiness. He crushed internal rebellion and reduced all parts of the Empire to his sway. He broke the power of the hereditary foes of China on her frontiers and made them willing and appreciative vassals. He introduced a new and improved distribution of the Empire into Provinces, each of these again divided and sub-divided to suit natural or artificial requirements. In the civil list he inaugurated great reforms, and he succeeded in calling into active service for the State some of the best men China has produced. His ministers, native historians tell us, administered the government with combined ability and honesty, such as had never been known before. In the military organisation also he made improvements, and above all he reformed the penal code and the administration of justice, tempering its severity. Learning of all kinds was fostered and promoted by him with an intelligent earnestness and a personal sympathy. He knew himself how to write and he made some permanent contributions to the native literature. In astronomy he made reforms and he tried to restore that science and astrology to their high estate, that is, as branches of practical learning. Solicitous above all things for the welfare of his people, he set them an example of plain living and frugality. His influence was immense, and his fame and character were known not only over all the Empire but also in countries far beyond its limits. He had an impulsive affectionate disposition, and his loving services to his father and mother are household stories. He was also social and genial in his intercourse with his statesmen, whose criticism he invited and whose censures he accepted.
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The splendour of T'ai Tsung's great achievements, the conspicuous merits of his administration, and the charm of his sociable affable manner made the people of his time forget his faults. Even long after his death, when the story of his life came to be told, the spell was in the dull dry records, and passed over him who wrought those into history. So it came that the historian, dazed by the spell and not seeing clearly, left untold some of the Emperor's misdeeds and told others without adding their due meed of blame. For this great ruler smutched his fair record by such crimes as murder and adultery. The shooting of his brothers was excusable and even justifiable, but his other murders admit of little palliation and cannot plead necessity. Though he yielded to his good impulses, again, in releasing thousands of women who had been forced into and kept in the harem of Sui Yang Ti, yet he also yielded to his bad impulses when he took his brother's widow and afterwards that maid of fourteen, Wu Chao, into his own harem. His love of wine and women in early life, his passion for war and his love of glory and empire, which possessed him to the end, were failings of which the eyes of contemporaries dazzled by the "fierce light" could not take notice.
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But when the crimes and failings of T'ai Tsung are all told, they still leave him a great man and a ruler of rare excellence. His genius gave life to all his laws and institutions, and his personal influence was felt in every department of government. Nor was it until long after his death that it was found how much the good reforms he made owed to his personal presence and action. Happy in the character he bore among contemporaries, he became still greater with their successors, and there is almost a perfect unanimity of consent to count him great and good. Indeed the native panegyrists generally write of him as above all who preceded him, except those semi-mythical sovereigns who moulded man from the brute. The Chinese youth and patriots love and praise T'ai Tsung for the great feats he achieved in battle and his hard won victories which restored the country to its old splendour and supremacy. The native student praises him for the success he had in preserving the valuable literature then extant but in danger of being lost, and for the great encouragement he gave to learning. The Buddhist praises him for the patronage he extended to his religion, and the friendly interest he took in its affairs. The Taoist praises him for his exaltation of that dim personage, a reputed ancestor of the Emperor, the fore-father of Taoism. Even the western Christian joins the chorus of praise, and to him the "virtuous T'ai Tsung" is a prince nearly perfect ("Princeps omnibus fere numeris absolutus"). It was during the reign of this sovereign, in the year 636, that Christianity was first introduced into China. The Nestorian missionaries, who brought it, were allowed to settle in peace and safety at the capital. This was the boon which called forth the gratitude of the Christian historian and enhanced in his view the merits of the heathen sovereign.
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The author next proceeds to give a short summary of the Buddhistic teachings about this world and the system of which it forms a constituent. He begins—
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"Now the Sahā world, the Three Thousand Great Chiliocosm, is the sphere of the spiritual influence of one Buddha. It is in the four continents (lit. "Under heavens") now illuminated by one sun and moon and within the Three Thousand Great Chiliocosm that the Buddhas, the World-honoured ones, produce their spiritual effects, are visibly born and visibly enter Nirrvāna, teach the way to saint and sinner."
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For the words in italics the original is *hsien-shêng-hsien-mie* (現生現滅) which Julien renders "tantôt ils apparaissent, tantôt ils s'éteignent". This does not seem to express the author's meaning and is not quite correct. All the Buddhas, the writer tells us, exercise their spiritual sovereignty ("send down their transforming influence") in one or other of the four great divisions of the habitable world; in one of these each Buddha becomes incarnate as a man, teaches saints and common people, and passes into Nirvana.
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Our author proceeds—
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"In the ocean, resting on a gold disk, is the mountain Sumeru composed of four precious substances: along its middle the sun and moon revolve and on it the Devas sojourn."
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The phrase for "revolve along its middle" is *hui-po* (回) (or 迴) 溥 (or 泊)). Here the word *po* in the first form does not seem to have any appropriate meaning, and the second form which means "to stop" or "anchor" is also unsatisfactory. From a paraphrase of the passage, however, we learn the meaning of the phrase, the words of the paraphrase being "the sun and moon revolve along its waist" (日月迴溥於其腰). The word *po* in this sense of "waisting" a hill is still used in the colloquial of some parts of China, but there does not seem to be any certain character to represent it in writing. In some books we find the word written 搏 *po*, as by Fa-hsien, for example. Instead of *hui-po* in the above passage the D text has *Chao-hui* (照迴), "to illuminate in revolving", a reading which agrees with statements about Sumeru in other Buddhist writings.¹
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¹ In the Fo-shuo-li-shih-a-p'i-tan-lun *ch.* 1 (No. 1297) the sun and moon are described as making their revolutions at a height of 40 000 Yojanas above the earth and half-way up Mount Sumeru, and a similar statement is made in the Yu-ka-shih-ti-lun *ch.* 2 (No. 1170).
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Around the Sumeru Mountain, our author continues, are seven mountains and seven seas and the water of the seas between the mountains has the "eight virtues": outside the seven Gold Mountains is the Salt Sea. In the sea (or ocean) there are, speaking summarily, four habitable Islands, viz.-Pi-t'i-ha Island in the east, Chan-pu Island in the south, Ku-t'o-ni in the west, and Kou-lo Island in the north. The influence of a Gold-wheel king extends over these four Islands, a Silver-wheel king rules over all except the north one, a Copper-wheel king rules over the South and East Islands, and an Iron-wheel king bears sway only over Chan-pu Island. When a "Wheel-king" is about to arise a gold, silver, copper, or iron wheel, according to the Karma of the man, appears for him in the air and gives him his title while indicating the extent of his dominion.
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In the centre of Chan-pu Island (Jambudvīpa), south of the Perfume Mountain and north of the Great Snow Mountain is the A-na-p'o-ta-to (Anavatapta) Lake above 800 *li* in circuit. Its banks are adorned with gold, silver, lapis-lazuli, and crystal: all its sand are golden and it is pure and clear. The p'usa Ta-ti (Great-land) having by the force of his prayer become a dragon-king lives in the depths of the Lake and sends forth its pure cold water for Jambudvīpa. Thus from the silver east side through the Ox Mouth flows the Ganges which after going once round the Lake flows into the south-east sea: from its gold south side through the Elephant Mouth flows the Sin-tu (Indus) which after flowing round the Lake enters the south-west sea: from the lapis-lazuli west side through the Horse Mouth the Fo-chu (Oxus) flows passing round the Lake and then on into the north-west sea: from the crystal north side through the Lion Mouth flows the Si-to (Sītā) river which goes round the Lake and then on the north-east sea. Another theory is that the Sītā flows underground until it emerges at the Chi-shih ("Heaped up stones") Mountain and that it is the source of the [Yellow] River of China.
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The seven mountains here represented as surrounding Sumeru are supposed to form seven concentric circles with seas separating them. These seven rows of mountains are golden, and we read in other accounts of the Buddhist cosmogony of seven circles of iron mountains surrounding the habitable world.
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The names of the four great Islands of this passage are not all known as divisions of the world to orthodox Indian writers, but they are found in Buddhist treatises. Our pilgrim calls the first *chou* or Dvīpa (Island) Pi-t'i-ha restored as Videha. This name is properly used to designate a particular district in India corresponding to the modern Tirhut in Behar. But here it is the Pūrva-Videha, (in Pali Pubbavideho), the Eastern Continent or great Island of Buddhist cosmogony. Our pilgrim in his translation of a śāstra renders the word Videha by Shêng-shên (勝身) or “Superior body”, and the Tibetan rendering is Lus-hp’ags with a similar meaning. But the old transcriptions for the name of the East Island as given in a note to our text are Fu-p’o-t’i (弗婆提) and Fu-yü-ti (弗于逮) which seem to point to an original like Pubbadik or “East Region”. It is the Fu-p’o-t’i of this note which is given as the name in the “Fo-shuo-ch’u-chia-kung-tê-ching” translated in the 4th century A. D. (No. 776).
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The second dvipa is Chan-pu, Jambu, as in most other works. But the character read Chan should perhaps be read Yen, and this would agree with the other transcriptions given in the note, viz.-Yen-fou-t’i (閻浮提) and Yen(閻)-fou, the former appearing in the sūtra just quoted.
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Our pilgrim in the śāstra referred to translates his Ku-t’o-ni, the name of the West Island, by Niu-huo or “Cattle goods”, that is, cattle used as a medium of exchange. The name has been restored as Godhāna or Godhanya, the Gaudana of the Lalitavistara, but Godhāni or Godāni would be nearer the transcription. Other names given by the annotator are Ku-yi(ya)-ni and Kou-ka-ni, the former of these appears in the old sūtra already quoted, and it agrees with the Pali form Apara-goyānam.
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The North Island is the Kurudvipa, the Uttara-Kuru of other writers: it is also the Yü-tan-yueh (viet) of the sūtra already quoted and of many other Buddhist texts. This Yü-tan-viet may perhaps represent a word like Uttamavat.¹
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¹ See Yuan-chuang’s A-pi-ta-mo-tsang-hsien-lun ch. 16 (Bun. No. 1266) and his A-pi-ta-mo-ku-she-lun ch. 11 (No. 1267): Chang-a-han-ching ch. 18 (No. 545). For the four Wheel-kings see Yuan-chuang’s A-pi-ta-mo-shun-chêng-li-lun ch. 32 (No. 1265).
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The A-nu-p’o-ta-to (Anavatapta) Lake is here, we have seen, described as being in the middle of Jambudvipa to the south of the Perfume (that is Fragrance-intoxicating or Gandhamādana) Mountain, and north of the Great Snow (Himavat) Mountain. This is the situation ascribed to the Lake in certain śāstras, but in the Chang-a-han-ching and some other authorities it is on the summit of the Great Snow Mountain. In a note to our text we are told that the Chinese translation of the name is Wu-jê-nao (無熱惱) or "Without heat-trouble". This is the rendering used by Yuan-chuang in his translations and it is the term commonly employed by Chinese writers and translators, but the word Anavatapta means simply "unheated". It is said to have been the name of the Dragon-king of the Lake and to have been given to him because he was exempt from the fiery heat, the violent storms, and the fear of the garuḍas which plagued other dragons.¹ Our pilgrim's statement that the Ganges, Indus, Oxus, and Sitā (or Sitā) all have their origin in this Lake is found in several Buddhist scriptures: one of these as translated by Yuan-chuang used the very words of our passage,² but in two of them there are differences as to the directions in which the rivers proceed.³ Nāgasena speaks of the water of this Lake, which he calls Anotatta daha, as flowing into the Ganges.⁴ In the early Chinese versions of Buddhist works the name is given, as in the note to our text, A-nu-ta (阿耨達) which evidently represents the Pali form Anotatta. Then the pilgrim mentions a supposition that the Sitā had a subterranean course for a distance and that where it emerged, at the Chi-shih (積石) "Accumulated-rocks" Mountain, it was the source of the Yellow River. The Chi-shih-shan of this theory is the Chi-shih of the Yü-kung chapter of the Shu-Ching. This Chi-shih was the place at which, according to some, the Yellow River had its source and it was a district in what is now the western part of Kansuh Province. But the term Chi-shih is also used in the sense of "mountain" as a synonym of shan.
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¹ Chang-a-han-ching l. c.
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² Abhi-ta-vib. ch. 5 (No. 1263). See also Nos. 1266, 1267 l. c.
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³ Chang-a-han-ching l. c.: Hsin-ti-kuan-ching ch. 4 (No. 955): Abhi. vib-lun ch. 2 (No. 1264).
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⁴ Milindapañho ed. Trenckner p. 286.
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It has been stated by some western writers that our pilgrim confuses the Anavatapta Lake with the Sarikul of the Pamirs, but this is not correct. Some other Chinese writers seem to make this mistake but Yuan-chuang does not. Then the Anavatapta Lake has been identified with the Manasarowar Lake of Tibet, but this cannot be accepted. We must regard the "Unheated" Lake as a thing of fairyland, as in the Earthly Paradise or Garden of Eden. It is expressly stated that the Lake could be reached only by those who had supernatural powers, the faculty of transporting themselves at will by magic.¹ The Buddha and his arhats visited it on several occasions passing through the air from India to it in the twinkling of an eye or the raising of an arm, and down to the time of Asoka great Buddhist saints came to lodge on its banks.² Here was that wonderful incense the burning of which yielded a wide-spreading perfume which released all the world from the consequences of sin.³ Here too was a goodly palace, and all about were strange trees and flowers through which breathed fragrant airs and birds with plaintive songs made harmony.⁴
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¹ Nos. 1266, 1267 l. c.
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² Divyāv. p. 399.
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³ Hua-yen-ching ch. 67 (No. 88).
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⁴ Chang-a-han-ching l. c.
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I have not discovered the source from which the pilgrim obtained his information that the dragon-king of the Anavatapta Lake was the *Ta-ti* or "Great-land" *p'usa*. As the words of the text show, this *p'usa* was not the Buddha in one of his preparatory births, but a *p'usa* still living as the Nāga-rāja of the Lake. In the D text instead of *Ta-ti* we have *Pa-Ti* or "Eight-lands". This reading seems to point to some Mahāyānist *p'usa* who had attained to eight-lands, that is eight of the ten stages to perfection.
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The pilgrim next goes on to tell of the Four Lords (or Sovereigns) who divide Jambudvīpa when no one has the fate to be universal sovereign over that Island, and of the lands and peoples over which these Lords rule. In the south is the Elephant-Lord whose territory has a hot moist climate with people energetic, devoted to study and addicted to magical arts, wearing garments which cross the body and leave the right shoulder bare: their hair is made into a topknot in the middle and hangs down on the sides: they associate in towns and live in houses of several storeys. In the west is the Lord of Precious Substances who rules over the sea abounding in pearls, whose subjects are rude and covetous, wear short coats fastened to the left, cut their hair short and have long mustachios; they live in towns also and are traders. The Horse-Lord rules in the north: his country is very cold, yielding horses, and with inhabitants of a wild fierce nature who commit murder without remorse, they live in felt tents and are migratory herdsmen. In the East (that is, in China) is the Man-Lord, who has a well-peopled territory with a genial climate where all good manners and social virtues prevail, and the people are attached to the soil. Of these four territories it is only the East country that holds the south direction in respect, the other three regions making the east their quarter of reverence. The East country (China) excels the other regions in its political organization. The system of religion which teaches purification of the heart and release from the bonds [of folly] and which instructs how to escape from birth and death flourishes in the country of the Elephant-Lord (India).
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All these matters are set forth in authoritative writings (lit.-canonical treatises and official declarations) and are learned from local hearsay. From a wide study of the modern and the old and a minute examination of what is seen and heard we learn that Buddha arose in the west region and his religion spread to the east country (China), and that in the translation [from Sanskrit into Chinese] words have been wrongly used and idioms misapplied. By a misuse of words the meaning is lost and by wrong phrases the doctrine is perverted. Hence it is said— "What is necessary is to have correct terms" and to set value on the absence of faulty expressions.
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Now mankind differ in the quality of their natural dispositions and in their speech, the difference being partly due to local climatic circumstances and partly caused by continued use. As to varieties of physical scenery and natural products in the country of the Man-Lord (China), and as to the differences in the customs and dispositions of its people, these are all described in our national records. The peoples of the Horse-Lord and the districts of the Lord of Precious Substances are detailed in our historical teachings, and a general account of them can be given. But as to the country of the Elephant-Lord (India) our ancient literature is without a description of it. We have the statement (made by Chang-Ch'ien) that "the land has much heat and moisture”, and this other “the people are fond of benevolence and compassion”; such mention may occur in topographies but we cannot have thorough information. Whether caused by the alternate flourishing and depression of good government, or as the natural result of secular changes, the fact is that with reference to those who, knowing the due season for giving in allegiance and enjoying the benefits of [Chinese] civilisation, came to the Emperor's Court, who passing danger after danger sought admittance at the Yü-mên [Pass], and bearing tribute of native rarities bowed before the Palace Gate, we cannot relate their experiences. For this reason as I travelled far in quest of truth (that is, the Buddhist religion) in the intervals of my studies I kept notes of natural characteristics.
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Julien in his translation of this passage gives the Sanskrit equivalents for Horse-Lord, Elephant-Lord, and Man-Lord; and tells us that a word meaning “Parasol-Lord” is found in a certain authority instead of the Precious-substances-Lord of our text. Throughout the passage, however, the pilgrim seems to be writing as a Chinese Buddhist scholar not drawing from Indian sources but from his own knowledge and experience. His information was acquired partly from Chinese books, and he perhaps learned something from the Brethren in Kashmir and other places outside of India. To him as a Chinese the people of China were *men* (*jen*), all outlying countries being peopled by *Man* and *Yi* and *Hu* and *Jung*, although as a good Buddhist he admitted the extension of the term *jen* to the inhabitants of other lands.
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Our author, in writing the paragraph of this passage about Buddhism, evidently had in his memory certain observations which are to be found in the 88th Chapter of the “Hou Han Shu”. These observations with the notes appended give us some help in finding out the meaning of several of the expressions in the text. For his statement here about the faults of previous translators the author has been blamed by native critics. These maintain that the transcriptions of Indian words given by Yuan-chuang’s predecessors are not necessarily wrong merely because they differ from those given by him. The foreign sounds, they say, which the previous translators heard may not have been those which our pilgrim heard, and, moreover, Chinese characters under the influence of time and place, may have changed both meaning and pronunciation. As to mistakes of interpretation, there are doubtless many to be found in the early translations, but in this matter Yuan-chuang also is far from perfect.
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In the next paragraph Julien apparently understood his author to state that there existed documents in their own countries on the peoples of the Horse Lord (i. e., the northern tribes) and those of the Lord of Precious substances (i. e., the nations to the south-west of China). But the writer has in his mind here only Chinese literature. So also his *fang-chih* (方志) are not "des descriptions locales" of India. They are the books of travel or topographies of Chinese literature. The term is applied to such treatises as the "Hsi-yü-chi" which in fact is called a *fang-chih*. Our author states that Chinese topographies have little about India, and that consequently he had no native authorities to quote or refer to. Other writers of the same period make similar complaints; and there was some reason for the complaint. Even the information communicated by the pilgrims who had preceded Yuan-chuang had not been incorporated in the national histories.
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The word here rendered by "good government" is *tao* (道) which Julien translated "la droite voie". We might also render it by "the Buddhist religion", an interpretation which seems to be favoured by other passages on this subject. But the terms applied to the word here, viz. *hsing tsang* (行藏), seem to require that we should render it by some such Confucian expression as "true principles" or "good government". In the last sentences of this passage Julien seems to have misunderstood his author whom he makes write about "peoples" and "all the nations". There is nothing in the text which corresponds to or requires these expressions, and the writer evidently still refers to Indian countries, the envoys from which to China had been few and little known. In the Later Han period there was one, in the reign of Ho Ti (A. D. 89 to 105);
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during the Liu Sung period there were two, one in 428 and one in 466; and there were none, apparently, after this last date down to the Sui period. Now of the travels of these envoys the Chinese records had not preserved any particulars; and the references to India and the neighbouring countries in the histories of the Han and other dynasties down to the T'ang period are very meagre. It was because the records were thus imperfect, and information was unobtainable, that the pilgrim took notes of the topography and ethnology of the districts which he visited in the course of his pilgrimage.
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The author next proceeds to make a few summary observations the text of which is here reproduced for the purpose of comparison. 黑嶺已來莫非胡俗雖戎人同貫而族類群分畫界封疆. In Julien's rendering the beginning of the passage runs thus—"A partir des montagnes noires, on ne rencontre que des mœurs sauvages. Quoique les peuples barbares aient été réunis ensemble, cependant leurs différentes races ont été tracées avec soin." But this does not seem to give the author's meaning which is rather something like this--
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"From the Black Range on this side (i. e. to China) all the people are Hu: and though Jungs are counted with these, yet the hordes and clans are distinct, and the boundaries of territories are defined."
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Now if we turn to the last section of Chuan I we learn what is meant by the "Black Range". We find that the frontier country on the route to India was Kapisa, which was surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains. One great range bounded it on the east, west, and south sides, separating it from "North India". This was called the Hei Ling, or Black Range, a name which translates the native term Siah-kōh, though it is also used to render another native term, Kara Tagh, with the same meaning. From China to the mountains of Kapisa along the pilgrim's route the inhabitants, he tells us, were all Hu. These Hu are described by some writers as the descendants of early Jung settlers. But Yuan-chuang, who uses Hu as a collective designation for all the settled nations and tribes through which he passed on his way to and from India, seems to consider the Jung as a race distinct from the Hu proper. Other writers also make this distinction, regarding the Jung as of the Tibetan stock and the Hu as of Turkic kindred. But the distinction is not generally observed, and we can only say that the Hu include the Jung, who were not supposed, however, to be found beyond the Ts'ung Ling westward. In early Chinese history, e. g. in the Yü kung of the "Shu Ching" we find Jung occupying the country about the Koko Nor. They were then pastoral tribes, rearing cattle and wearing clothing prepared from the skins of their animals. Afterwards they spread to Hami and to Turfan and the Ts'ung Ling, becoming mainly agricultural peoples.
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Instead of Jung (戎) in the text here the C text has Shu (戍) which the editors explain as soldier, the Shu jên being the Chinese troops stationed in the Hu Countries. But this reading, which does not seem to be a good one, was perhaps originally due to a copyist's error.
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The pilgrim's description proceeds—"For the most part [these tribes] are settled peoples with walled cities, practising agriculture and rearing cattle. They prize the possession of property and slight humanity and public duty (lit. benevolence and righteousness). Their marriages are without ceremonies and there are no distinctions as to social position: the wife's word prevails and the husband has a subordinate position. They burn their corpses and have no fixed period of mourning. *They flay (?) the face and cut off the ears: they clip their hair short and rend their garments. They slaughter the domestic animals and offer sacrifice to the manes of their dead. They wear white clothing on occasions of good luck and black clothing on unlucky occasions.* This is a general summary of the manners and customs common to the tribes, but each state has its own political organization which will be described separately, and the manners and customs of India will be told in the subsequent Records."
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This brief and terse account of the social characteristics common to the tribes and districts between China and India presents some rather puzzling difficulties. It is too summary, and is apparently to a large extent secondhand information obtained from rather superficial observers, not derived from the author's personal experience, and it does not quite agree with the accounts given by previous writers and travellers. Thus the pilgrim states that the tribes in question had no fixed period of mourning, that is, for deceased parents, but we learn that the people of Yenki observed a mourning of seven days for their parents. Nor was it the universal custom to burn the dead; for the T'ufan people, for example, buried their dead.¹
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¹ Wei-Shu *ch*. 102: T'ang-shu *ch*. 216: Ma T. 1. *ch*. 334.
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All the part of the passage which I have put in italics is taken by Julien to refer to the mourning customs of the tribes, and this seems to be the natural and proper interpretation. But it is beset with difficulties. The original for "they flay the face and cut off the ears" is rendered by Julien—"Ils se font des incisions sur la figure et se mutilent les oreilles." The word for "flay" or "make cuts in" is in the D text *li* (釐) which does not seem to give any sense, and in the other texts it is *li* (𠝏) which is an unknown character but is explained as meaning to "flay". Julien evidently regarded the latter character as identical with *li* (𠝏) which is the word used in the T'ang-Shu.² This last character means originally to inscribe or delineate and also to blacken and to flay. As an act of filial mourning for a dead parent the T'ufan people, we are told, blackened (tai 黛) their faces, and among some tribes it apparently was the custom to tear or gash the face at the funeral of a parent or chief. But to flay or brand the face and to cut off an ear were acts of punishment which were perhaps common to all the tribes in question.
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² *Ch*. 217.
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Then "to cut the hair short" was an act of filial mourning in T'ufan, but in the first foreign countries which the pilgrim reached it was the universal custom for the men, and it was done, we learn elsewhere, to set off the head.³ In Khoten, however, the hair was cut off and the face disfigured as acts of mourning at a funeral.¹ We find it recorded moreover that when the death of T'ang T'ai Tsung was announced, the barbarians sojourning at the capital expressed their sorrow by wailing, cutting off their hair, gashing? (li 裂) their faces, and cutting their ears, until the blood washed the ground.²
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³ Wei-Shu 1. C.
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¹ Ka-lan-chi ch. 5.
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² T'ung-chien-kang-mu ch. 40.
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Then as to the phrase "rend their garments", the words lie-ch'ang (裂裳) would seem to be susceptible of no other interpretation, and the pilgrim tells us afterwards that the people of India "rent their garments and tore out their hair" as expressions of mourning. The rending of the garments, however, was not a custom common to the tribes between India and China, and it could not have been practised by them generally on account of the material which was in general use for their clothing. Some native scholars explain the words lie-ch'ang here as meaning "they wear clothes without folds and seams", that is, their garments are strips or single pieces. Something like this was the style of the outer articles of a Chinaman's dress in the T'ang period and it was probably adopted by some of the foreign tribes to which Chinese influence reached. We still see survivals of it on the streets in Korea.
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As to the slaughter of domestic animals, this was practised at funerals by the T'ufan people but not by all the other tribes. The Turks, who also gashed their faces in mourning, slew sheep and horses in front of the tent in which the body of a deceased parent was placed pending the completion of arrangements for burial. It is to be noted, however, that the T'ufan people and the Turks are not said to have slain their domestic animals in sacrifice to the manes of their deceased parents.³ These animals were killed, we are expressly told in the case of the T'ufan people, that they might be at the service of the departed one, as the human beings who were slain, or killed themselves, on the death of a relative or chief went to serve the deceased in the other world. Julien makes our pilgrim here state that the tribes slew their domestic animals to make offerings to their dead. This is perhaps more than is in the text which is simply that they "slaughter their domestic animals, and offer sacrifice to the *manes*".
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³ See Ma T. l. ch. 334, 343.
Linked texts (6)
- Milindapañha — Pāli
- 阿毘曇毘婆沙論 — Classical Chinese
- 大方廣佛華嚴經 — Classical Chinese
- Divyāvadāna — Sanskrit
- Sūtra — Sanskrit
- Dīrghāgama (Dharmaguptaka) — Sanskrit