On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c5.4

v1.c5.4

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.