On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c5.31

v1.c5.31

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