On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c6.s1: A-K'i-Ni (Yenk'i)
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c6.s1
- Language
- English
A-K'i-Ni (Yenk'i)
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The narrative in the Records now begins with this account,
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Going from what was formerly the land of Kao-ch'ang we begin with the country nearest to it and called A-k'i-ni: this is above 600 *li* from east to west and 400 *li* from north to south, its capital being six or seven *li* in circuit.
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In the Life we have a detailed account of the unpleasant and adventurous journey from the Chinese capital to the chief city of Kao-ch'ang. This city, we know, was in the district which is now called Turfan and it is said to be represented by the modern Huo-chow (火州) otherwise Karakhojo. At the time of our pilgrim's visit Kao-ch'ang was a thriving kingdom, and its king, though a vassal of China, was a powerful despot feared by the surrounding states. This king, whose name was Kü-wên-tai (麴文泰) or as it is also given, Kü-ka (嘉), had received Yuan-chuang on his arrival with great ceremony and kindness, had tried entreaty and flattery and even force to retain him, and had at last sent the pilgrim on his way with great honour, giving him presents and provisions and also letters of introduction to other sovereigns. Then why does Yuan-chuang here write of Kao-ch'ang as a state which had ceased to exist? The explanation is to be found in the great change which that kingdom had experienced between the years 630 and 646. We learn from history that in the year A. D. 639 the Chinese emperor T'ai Tsung sent an army to invade Kao-ch'ang and punish its ruler, who had dared to defy the imperial power. This ruler was the Kü-wên-t'ai who had been Yuan-chuang's host. He thought himself safe from Chinese invasion and boasted and swaggered at the threat of a Chinese army coming into his country until the invading force was actually within his borders. When he learned, however, that the hostile army was fast approaching his capital, he became so utterly possessed by abject fear that he became helpless. And his death soon followed. Hereupon his wise son and successor at once submitted to the Chinese general who, however, "extinguished Kaoch'ang"; whereupon T'ai Tsung made its territory a Prefecture of the Empire. This procedure called forth a generous protest from one of the Emperor's wise and faithful ministers, but the remonstrance was in vain and in 640 Kaoch'ang became the Chinese Hsi-chow (西州). Thus Yuan-chuang, writing under imperial orders and for the Emperor's reading, must needs take notice of the great political change which had taken place in the Kaoch'ang country since the date of his visit. The change proved bad for China and the new state of affairs did not last very long. For the present, however, our author has to describe the "Western Lands", that is, the countries which were outside of the western border of the Chinese empire. Up to 640 Kaoch'ang was one of these countries, but from that year the empire reached on the east to the ocean, and on the west to the kingdom which was the first to the west of Kaoch'ang, viz. the A-k'i-ni of this narrative.
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There cannot be any doubt that the country which Yuanchuang here calls A-k'i-ni (阿耆尼) was, as has been stated by others, that which is known in Chinese history as Yenki (焉耆). This state rose to power in the Han period, and from that time down to the T'ang dynasty it bore in Chinese treatises this name Yenki which is still its classical and literary designation in Chinese literature.
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Then why did Yuan-chuang use the name A-k'i-ni, a name for which he seems to be the sole authority?
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The explanation is simple. There was, we learn from an "interpolated comment" to the text, an old name for this country which is given as Wu-k'i (烏 or 焉耆). This seems to have been the name used by the translators of the sacred books and by Buddhist writers generally. Thus in the translation of the "Ta-pao-chi-ching" by Fa-hu of the Western Ch'in dynasty we find mention of Wuk'i along with Khoten and other countries. So also Tao-hsüan in his "Su-kao-sêng-chuan" mentions Wuk'i as the country between Kutzŭ (Kuchih) and Kaoch'ang. In the Fang-chih also we find the name given as Wuk'i, and Fa-hsien's Wu-i (烏夷) is apparently the country under consideration. The first character, wu, in each of these varieties of the name was probably pronounced a or o, and the second character represented a sound like k'i or gi, the whole giving us a name like akhi or agi. Thus we have at Yuan-chuang's time three different designations for this country:—the Yenki of Chinese historians, the Wuk'i of the Buddhist writers, and Y.'s own name for it, A-k'i-ni. The explanation of this variety is instructive, as the theory which underlies it applies to several other districts. In Yenki we have the local or Hu name. This apparently was (or was understood to be) Yanghi, a Turkish word for fire, the full name being perhaps something like Yanghi-shaher or "Fire-city". Now in all the Hu countries the Buddhist monks, we are told, used among themselves the language of India. In this language the correct Sanskrit name for fire is agni, the a-k'i-ni of our author. We find the three characters of the text used by Yuan-chuang in a translation of a sacred book to transcribe agni as the Sanskrit name for fire, and by Gunabhadra in one of his translations to transcribe this word in the proper name Agnidatta.¹ But the monks of the Hu countries did not all come from "Central India" and they did not talk Sanskrit. They spoke and wrote dialectic varieties with vernacular forms of Indian words, and they often used words which were foreign but were made to assume a Sanskrit garb. So the Brethren of the country with which we are now concerned had apparently used the Pali form Agi instead of Agni, and this had been used by others, but Yuan-chuang being a purist preferred to write the Sanskrit form.
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¹ A-pi-t'a-mo-ta-p'i-p'o-sha-lun, ch. 15 (Bun. No. 1263): Tsa-a-han-ching, ch. 25 (No. 544).
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In the periods of the Yuan and Ming dynasties the city and district called Yen-k'i, still retaining this name, were grouped with four others in the political aggregate called Bish-balik or Pentapolis. Hence we sometimes find it stated that Yen-k'i is Bishbalik, but this latter name is more frequently applied to Urumtsi.¹ At the present time the city called Kara- (or Khara-)shahr is generally taken to be the representative of the ancient capital of Yen-k'i. But the site of the latter was apparently somewhat to the west of the modern Kharashahr at a place which has several ancient ruins. This modern city is said to have received its name from the grimy appearance of its walls and houses, Karashahr in Turkic meaning "Black city", an etymology which is confirmed by Dr. Sven Hedin's account.²
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¹ Li-tai-yen-ko-piao (歷代沿革表) ch. 3: Med. Res. Vol. II, p. 229. But the name Bishbalik seems to have been applied to six cities regarded as forming a political unit.
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² Dr. Sven Hedin writes—"Kara-shahr (the Black Town) fully deserves its name: for it is without comparison the dirtiest zown in all Central Asia. It stands on the left bank of the river (the Hädick-or Khaidik-gol), on a level, barren plain, totally destitute of any feature of interest. Nevertheless it is a large town, very much larger than Korla, consisting of a countless number of miserable hovels, courtyards, bazaars, and Mongol tents, surrounded by a wall, and is the chief commercial emporium in that part of Chinese Turkestan." 'Through Asia', p. 859.
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Like many other states in this part of Asia Yen-k'i has had many ups and downs, passing several times from power and preeminence to subjection and vassalage. One of these vicissitudes was experienced by it in A. D. 643—644, when the Chinese emperor T'ai Tsung sent an army which invaded the country, conquered it, and made its king a prisoner for a time. A similar disaster befell it in A. D. 648, when its king was beheaded by the Turkish invader.¹ The country under the official designation Kharashahr (喀喇沙爾) is now a military station, and an important Sub-Prefecture of the Chinese empire.
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¹ T'ung-chien-kang-mu *ch.* 40 (18th year of T'ang T'ai Tsung by the Chinese, and 22d year by the Turks): Ma T. l. *ch.* 336.
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It is remarkable that neither in the Records, nor in the Life of our pilgrim, nor in the itinerary of Wu-k'ung, is the distance of Yen-k'i from Kao-ch'ang given, but we learn from other sources that it was 900 *li*.² In another account of the country the capital is described as being 30 *li* in circuit which is a much larger area than that given in our text, but another account makes it to be only two *li* square. The name of the capital also is given as Nan-ho-ch'êng (南河城) and also as Yun-k'ü (員渠) which is perhaps only another form of Yen-k'i.³ The city was situated 70 *li* south of the White Mountain and a few *li* from a lake.⁴ This lake, which is described as having salt and fish and as abounding in reeds, has many names. It is sometimes simply the "sea" or Dengir, and it is the Bostang, or Barashahr, or Bagrash Lake. The description in our text, proceeding, states that
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² Ma T. l. *c.*: T'ung-chih-liao, the 邑 喀 *ch.* 1.
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³ Ch'ien Han shu *ch.* 96: Wei shu *ch.* 102.
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⁴ Wei Shu l. c.: Ma T. l. c.: Ch'ien Han shu l. c.
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[the country] on four sides adjoins hills, with roads hazardous and easily defended. The various streams join in zones, and their water is led in for the cultivated land. The soil grows millet, spring wheat, scented jujubes, grapes, pears, and prunes. The climate is genial and the people have honest ways. Their writing is taken from that of India with slight modifications. Their garments are of fine and coarse woollen stuffs. The men cut their hair short and do not wear any head-dress. They use gold silver and small copper coins. Their king is a native of the country, who is brave, but without practical ability and conceited. The country
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is without a political constitution, and its laws are not reduced to order.
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The first sentence of this passage is not very clear as to whether the description is meant for the whole country or only for the district of the capital. Our pilgrim seems to have drawn his information partly from the source which supplied the author of the "Hou Han-Shu".¹ In that work, and in Ma Tuan-lin's treatise which follows it, it is the Yenki country which is described as being surrounded by hills or mountains. But there were apparently no mountains on the east side of Yenki, and the Life tells only of two cities which the pilgrim passed on his way from the capital of Kao-ch'ang, without any mention of a mountain. That the roads were dangerous and easily guarded is also stated in the Hou Han-Shu almost in the words used in our text, and this also seems to indicate that it is the country which is described. But the expression "on four sides adjoins (or abuts on) hills" (四面據山) is apparently more appropriate to a city than to a country. Then we have the statement that "the various streams join in zones" that is, unite to form belts or lines of water. For this the original is "ch'üan (in the B text chung-liu-chiao-tai (泉 in B 衆流交帶), and Julien translates "une multitude des courants qui viennent se joindre ensemble, l'entourent comme une ceinture." The term chiao-tai seems to have in some places the meaning here given to it by Julien, but it commonly means to join in forming a continuous line. Thus it is used of a series of tanks formed or connected by a river and of tears uniting to form streams on the cheeks. This sense of "joining and carrying on" the stream seems to suit our passage, and the circumstances of the district. In Yenki the becks of the mountains joined in forming the various rivers by which the country was watered. Thus the Khaidu, the principal river, was formed by the junction of a large number of tributary streams from the Northern or White mountain.
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¹ Ch. 88.
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In the passage of the Han-Shu already referred to we find the statement that the "water of the sea (that is the Bostang Lake to the south-east of the capital) was deflected into the four mountains and flowed all about the capital (其城) for above thirty li", a statement which is repeated by Ma Tuan-lin. And although the kingdom contained several (according to one account, ten) other towns, it was doubtless of the capital and the surrounding districts that the words of our text were written. The water from the various rivers was led in channels from the lines of current to irrigate the land devoted to the cultivation of crops and fruit-trees. This artificial irrigation mentioned by our pilgrim is not noticed in the Han-Shu, but it was known to the author of the "Shui-ching-chu" (水經注), and it is referred to in recent works such as the Travels of Timkowski.¹
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¹ Hsin-chiang ch. 3: Timkowski's Travels Vol. I, pp. 398, 410. The artificial irrigation is mentioned in the T'ang Shu ch. 221.
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In the list of products here given the term translated "millet" is mi-shu (糜黍) which Julien renders "millet rouge", the same rendering being given for the one character mi in the next page. Instead of this character the D text has in both places the word mei (or meh 穈) the name of a kind of millet "with reddish culms". The texts may be corrupt and Yuan-chuang may have written mei (糜) which, we learn from the "Yü-pien" was a synonym for Chi (禾黍) a kind of panicled millet much cultivated in the north and northwest of China. By "spring wheat" (宿麥) is meant the wheat which is sown in autumn and ripens in the following spring. This spends the winter in the ground; and in this way it passes from one year into the next, and hence its distinctive name.
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The sentence 'Their writing is taken from that of India with slight modifications: their garments are of fine and coarse woollen stuffs' is in the original wên-tzŭ-chü-tsê-yin-tu-wei-yu-tsêng-chüan-fu-shih-tieh-ho (文字取則印度微有增損服飾氈罽) in the A, B, and C texts. The D text has differences and it reads—"The writing is modeled after that of India. There is little of silk stuffs, the dress is of felt and serge." Here we have tsêng-chüan (繒 絹) "silk stuffs" instead of the other tsêng-chüan meaning "addings to and takings from" or "modifications", and we have chan (氈) "felt" or "coarse woollen stuff" instead of the tieh of the other texts. All the texts, we see, agree in the statement that the writing of this country was taken from that of India, and the Wei-Shu makes the same statement. If we are to take the author as adding that slight changes had been made in the Indian writing in Yenki the information may be regarded as correct.
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So also if the D text is genuine and we are to substitute for "there are slight modifications" the words "there are few silks" we have a statement which is confirmed by other accounts. The people of Yenki had the silkworms, but they did not know how to make silk, and the only silk-stuffs they used were imported. So they did not wear silk, and their dress was of woollen material. Julien translates the four words fu-shih-tieh-ho by "Les vêtements sont faits de coton ou de laine". But the reading should probably be chan as in the D text. This reading of chan instead of tieh is supported by the epithet "Wearers of felt and serge" which the Chinese applied to the Hu and Jung in contrast to themselves as "silk-wearers". Then we have also the testimony of I-ching that the inhabitants of the countries with which we are concerned used mainly felt and fur as clothing, and that they had little cotton cloth (少有劫貝). But even if we take tieh to be the reading in the passage before us, it is at least doubtful whether it should be translated here by cotton. The word did come to be used as a name for cotton; and Yuan-chuang seems to employ it, in other passages, to denote something like fine cotton or muslin. In the T'ang-Shu we find pai-tieh described as the name of a plant of Kao-ch'ang from the flowers of which a cloth was made, and in this treatise tieh is cotton. But on the other hand the word is explained in old glossaries and dictionaries as denoting a "cloth made of hair (or wool)", and the formation of the character seems to point to such material. Then we find such expressions as *pai-chan-tieh*, "white felt-cloth", and *tieh* alone, mentioned along with the *kieh-pei* or Kibat (Karpura) "cotton-cloth" as different materials. Moreover the modern equivalent for *tieh* in Chinese books about the Mongols, Tibetans, and peoples of Turkestan is *p'u-lu*, which is the name of a woollen fabric manufactured in the "west countries".¹ There is great confusion in the use of *chan* and *tieh* (not only in these Records, and the Life, but also in many other works,) and we have often to make the context decide whether the author meant cotton or woollen.
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¹ Nan-hai-ch'i-kuei ch. 2: Yü-pien s. v. *Tieh*: Sung Shih ch. 489.
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The king of Yenki whose character is briefly described in the passage before us was *Lung-T'uk'ichi* (龍突騎支) of which Lung was the surname and T'uk'ichi (Dughitsi?) the name. This prince secretly renounced his duty and allegiance to China, and entered into an engagement with the West Turks to harass China. So the emperor T'ai Tsung in 643 sent an army to invade Yenki and punish its perfidious ruler. The latter was dethroned and taken prisoner in 644, but in the course of a few years the Chinese found it necessary to restore him to the throne.²
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² T'ung-chien-kang-mu l. c.
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For the words—"The country is without a political constitution, its laws are not reduced to order" the text is *Kuo-wu-kang-chi-fa-pu-chêng-su* (國無綱紀法不整肅). Julien translates this—"Ce royaume ne possède point de code, l'ordre et la paix se maintiennent sans le secours des lois." The latter clause of this sentence does not seem to be possible as a rendering of the Chinese. Moreover in the term *Kang-chi* are included not merely a code, but also the ethical and political maxims which form the basis of the political system, and give the state enactments their sanction. Then *Kang-chi* comes to denote the general principles or essentials of goverment, and the particular rules or institutions of a State or Empire. Thence the term was extended to the constitution and laws of any system political or religious, and Yuan-chuang, for example, uses it with reference to Buddhism. As to Yenki, the author states, it had no fundamental statutes or national political regulations, and it was also without any system of definite laws in force among the people. This is a reproach which we find brought against the Country also in the Wei-Shu which writes of it as "without a political system and laws (無 綱 紀 法 今)".¹
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¹ The *kang* of *kang-chi* is originally the large thick rope of a fisherman's casting-net and the *chi* are the small cords of the same. Then *kang-chi* (or *chi-kang*) came to be applied to the established controlling principles of government, the codified means of preserving order in a state. From this use the term came to be extended to social institutions and to systems of religion and philosophy.
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The pilgrim's description proceeds—
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"There are above ten Buddhist monasteries with above 2000 ecclesiastics of all degrees, all adherents of the Sarvāstivādin school of the "Small Vehicle" system. Since as to the sūtra teachings and vinaya regulations they follow India, it is in its literature that students of these subjects study them thoroughly. They are very strict in the observance of the rules of their order but in food they mix (take in a miscellaneous way) the three pure [kinds of flesh] embarrassed by the 'gradual teaching.'"
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One of the large monasteries in this country was that known as the Aranya-vihāra: here Dharmagupta lodged in the year A. D. 585 when on his way to China. The Sarvāstivādin school to which the Brethren in Yenki belonged was a branch from the ancient Sthavira school It had its name from its *assertion* that all were real, viz. past, present, future, and intermediate states. Its adherents claimed to represent the original teaching of the Master, as it was delivered, and as settled in Council by the "Elders" (Sthaviras) who had heard it from his lips. So they considered themselves strictly orthodox, and they were zealous enthusiastic adherents of what they regarded as the simple primitive religion. The Brethren in Yenki followed the teachings of the Buddha as recorded in the Indian scriptures of which they were diligent students.
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The next part of this paragraph has received bad treatment at the hands of the translators. Julien's version of it is—"Les religieux s'acquittent de leurs devoirs et observent les règles de la discipline avec un pureté sévère et un zèle persévérant. Ils se nourrissent de trois sortes d'aliments purs, et s'attachent à la doctrine graduelle." The words of the original are Chie-hsing-lü-i-chie-ch'ing-chin-li-jan-shih-tsa-san-ching-chih-yü-chien-chiao-i (戒行律儀潔清勤勵然雜三淨滯于漸教矣). It is not easy to conjecture why chie-hsing should be here rendered "s'acquittent de leurs devoirs". The term is part of the clause which tells us that the Brethren were careful observers of the Vinaya commands to do and abstain from doing. Then the translation leaves out the important words jan meaning "but" and tsa meaning "to mix", and it renders chih-yü, "to stick in" or "be detained in" by "s'attachent surtout à". Then Julien did not know what was meant by the "trois sortes d'aliments purs", so he gives us in a note an account of certain five "aliments purs" derived from another treatise. What the pilgrim tells us here is plain and simple. The Buddhist Brethren in the monasteries of Yen-k'i were pure and strict in keeping all the laws and regulations of their order according to their own Vinaya. But in food they took, along with what was orthodox, the three kinds of pure flesh, being still held in the "gradual teaching". The student will be helped in understanding this passage if he turns to the account of the next country, Kuchih, and to the pilgrim's experience in that country as set forth in the Life, and to the account of the Swan Monastery in Chuan IX of the Records (Julien III. p. 60) and Chuan III of the Life (ib. I. p. 162).
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The explanation of the san-ching or "three pure kinds of flesh" is briefly as follows. In the time of Buddha there was in Vaiśāli a wealthy general named Siha who was a convert to Buddhism. He became a liberal supporter of the Brethren and kept them constantly supplied with good flesh food. When it was noised abroad that the bhikshus were in the habit of eating such food specially provided for them the Tirthikas made the practice a matter of angry reproach. Then the abstemious ascetic Brethren, learning this, reported the circumstance to the Master, who thereupon called the Brethren together. When they were assembled, he announced to them the law that they were not to eat the flesh of any animal which they had seen put to death for them, or about which they had been told that it had been killed for them, or about which they had reason to suspect that it had been slain for them. But he permitted to the Brethren as "pure" (that is, lawful) food the flesh of animals the slaughter of which had not been seen by the bhikshus, not heard of by them, and not suspected by them to have been on their account.¹ In the Pali and Ssŭ-fên Vinaya it was after a breakfast given by Sīha to the Buddha and some of the Brethren, for which the carcase of a large ox was procured, that the Nirgranthas reviled the bhikshus and Buddha instituted this new rule declaring fish and flesh "pure" in the three conditions.² The animal food now permitted to the bhikshus came to be known as the "three pures" or "three pure kinds of flesh", and it was tersely described as "unseen, unheard, unsuspected", or as the Chinese translations sometimes have it "not seen not heard not suspected to be on my account (不見不聞不疑爲我)". Then two more kinds of animal food were declared lawful for the Brethren, viz. the flesh of animals which had died a natural death, and that of animals which had been killed by a bird of prey or other savage creature. So there came to be five classes or descriptions of flesh which the professed Buddhist was at liberty to use as food.³ Then the "unseen, unheard, unsuspected" came to be treated as one class, and this together with the "natural death (自死)" and “bird killed (鳥殘)” made a *san-ching*. It is evidently in this latter sense that the term is used in these Records.
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¹ Shih-sung-lu *ch.* 26 (No. 1115): Sêng-ki-lü *ch.* 32 (No. 1119).
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² Vin. Mah. V. 31: Ssŭ-fên-lü *ch.* 42 (No. 1117).
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³ Shou-lêng-yen-ching-hui-chie *ch.* 12 (Nos. 446 and 1624): Lung-shu-ching-t'u-wên (龍舒淨土文) *ch.* 9. The number of kinds of "pure flesh" was afterwards increased to nine, these five being included.
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Then we have the “gradual teaching” which to Yuan-chuang’s mind was intimately connected with the heresy of sanctioning flesh-food. Here we have a reference to an old division of the Buddha’s personal teachings into “gradual (or progressive)”, *chien* (漸) and “instantaneous”, *tun* (頓).¹ Of these the former, according to the Mahāyānists, contained all those scriptures which gave the Buddha’s early teaching, and also the rules and regulations which formed the Vinaya. The Buddha suited his sermons and precepts to the moral and spiritual attainments and requirements of his audience. Those who were low in the scale he led on gradually by the setting forth of simple truths, by parable and lesson, and by mild restrictions as to life and conduct. At a later period of his ministry he taught higher truths, and inculcated a stricter purity and more thorough self-denial. Thus in the matter of flesh-food he sanctioned the use of it as an ordinary article of food by his own example and implied permission. Afterwards when he found that some of his disciples gave offence by begging for beef and mutton, and asking to have animals killed for them, and eating as daily food flesh which should only be taken in exceptional circumstances he introduced restrictions and prohibitions. But the “Instantaneous Teaching”, which took no note of circumstances and environments, revealed sublime spiritual truths to be comprehended and accepted at once by higher minds, taught for these a morality absolute and universal, and instituted rules for his professed disciples to be of eternal, unchanging obligation.
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¹ Hua-yen-yi-shêng-chiao-yi-fên-chi-chang (No. 1591): Ssŭ-chiao-yi (No. 1569). In the Chung-a-han-ching (No. 542) *ch.* 9 Buddha’s dharma and vinaya are described as *gradual*.
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The “Gradual Teaching” is practically coextensive with the Hīnayāna system, and the Buddha describes his teaching and Vinaya as *gradual*, growing and developing like the mango fruit according to some scriptures. The "Instantaneous Teaching" is the Mahāyāna system as found in those scriptures of the Buddhists which are outside of the Hinayānist Tripitaka. This distinction, derived from a passage in the Laṅkāvatāra sūtra, is ascribed to Dharmapāla (Hu-fa 護法). The Nirvāṇa sūtras are quoted as specimens of the Gradual Teaching and the Avatamsaka sūtras are given as examples of the Tun-chiao or "Instantaneous Teaching".
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Our pilgrim being an adherent of the Mahāyānist system refused to admit the validity of the "three-fold pure" flesh-food indulgence which the excellent Hinayānist Brethren of Yen-k'i followed. The Buddhist Scriptures to which Yuan-chuang adhered prohibit absolutely the use of flesh of any kind as food by the "sons of Buddha".¹ This prohibition is based on the grounds of universal compassion, and the doctrine of karma. Mahāyānism teaches that the eating of an animal's flesh retards the spiritual growth of the Brother who eats it, and entails evil consequences in future existences. Some Mahāyānists were strict in abstaining, not only from all kinds of flesh food, but also from milk and its products. In this they agreed, as we shall see, with the sectarians who were followers of Devadatta. There have also, however, been Mahāyānists who allowed the use of animal food of certain kinds, and we find wild geese, calves, and deer called san-ching-shih or "Three pure (lawful) articles of food". It was a common occurrence for a Hinayānist to be converted and "advance" to Mahāyānism, but the Yen-k'i Brethren were still detained or embarrassed in the "Gradual Teaching" of the Hinayāna. The word for detained is chih (滯) which means to be fretted, or delayed, as a stream by an obstacle in its course. Then it denotes the mental suspense caused by doubts and difficulties, and the check given by these to spiritual progress; it is often associated with the word for doubt.
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¹ Fan-wang-ching ch. 2 (No. 1087): Ta-pan-nie-p'an-ching ch. 4 (No. 114): Ju-lêng-ka-ching ch. 8 (No. 176): Shou-lêng-yen-ching-hui-chie, l. c.
Cites (3)
- Abhidharmavibhāṣāśāstra — Classical Chinese
- Saṃyuktāgama (Sanskrit fragments) — Sanskrit
- Mahāratnakūṭa — Sanskrit