On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s3.8

v1.c8.s3.8

The first sentence of this passage evidently means that the Buddhist monks of India could make either the former or the later three months of summer their period of Retreat. My interpretation of the passage differs a little from that of Julien who substitutes *yü* (雨) *rain*, for the *liang* (兩) *two*, of the text, supporting his change of reading by a quotation of the present passage in a Buddhist Cyclopedia. But one of two copies of this Cyclopedia in my possession gives *liang* and the other has *huo* (或). Moreover all texts of the "Hsi-yü-chi" seem to agree in having *liang* here: and we read in other books of two and even three periods of Retreat. For the monks of India, however, these were all included within the Rain-season, the four months which began with the 16th of their fourth month and ended on the 15th of the 8th month. The full period of Retreat was three months; and Buddha ordained that this period might be counted either from the middle of the fourth or the middle of the fifth month. The conjecture may be hazarded that Yuan-chuang originally wrote *liang-yü*(兩雨)-*an-chü* that is "two Rain-Retreats" and that a copyist thinking there was a mistake left out the second character. This restoration does not make good style but something of the kind is apparently needed as Yuan-chuang's expression for the Retreat was *yü-an-chü*.