On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s7: Buddhism
On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s7
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Buddhism
v1.c8.s7.1
Our author passes on to make a few general observations about the internal condition of Buddhism as he heard about it and found it in India. His statements on the subject are meagre and condensed to a fault, and the precise meaning in some cases has perhaps not yet been ascertained. The whole passage should be regarded as forming a separate section, and should not be divided as it has been by the translators. For the present the information which it gives may be roughly interpreted to the following effect.—
v1.c8.s7.2
As the religious system of Julai is apprehended by people according to their kind, and as it is long since the time of the Holy One, Buddhism now is pure or diluted according to the spiritual insight and mental capacity of its adherents. The tenets of the Schools keep these isolated, and controversy runs high; heresies on special doctrines lead many ways to the same end. Each of the Eighteen Schools claims to have intellectual superiority; and the tenets (or practises) of the Great and the Small Systems (lit. Vehicles) differ widely. They have sitting in silent reverie, the walking to and fro, and the standing still; Samādhi and Prajñā are far apart, and many are the noisy discussions. Wherever there is a community of Brethren it makes [its own] rules of gradation. The Brother who expounds orally one treatise (or class of scripture) in the Buddhist Canon, whether Vinaya, Abhidharma, or Sūtra, is exempted from serving under the Prior; he who expounds two is invested with the outfit of a Superior; he who expounds three has Brethren deputed to assist him; he who expounds four has lay servants assigned to him; he who expounds five rides an elephant; he who expounds six rides an elephant and has a surrounding retinue. Where the spiritual attainments are high, the distinctions conferred are extraordinary.
v1.c8.s7.3
The Brethren are often assembled for discussion to test intellectual capacity and bring moral character into prominent distinction, to reject the worthless and advance the intelligent. Those who bring forward (or according to some texts, estimate aright) fine points in philosophy, and give subtle principles their proper place, who are ornate in diction and acute in refined distinctions, ride richly caparisoned elephants preceded and followed by a host of attendants. But as for those to whom religious teaching has been offered in vain, who have been defeated in discussion, who are deficient in doctrine and redundant in speech, perverting the sense while keeping the language, the faces of such are promptly daubed with red and white clay, their bodies are covered with dirt, and they are driven out to the wilds or thrown into the ditches. As the moral are marked off from the immoral so the eminent (the wise) and the stupid have outward signs of distinction. A man knowing to delight in wisdom, at home diligently intent on learning, may be monk or layman as he pleases.
v1.c8.s7.4
For offences against the Vinaya the Community of Brethren has a gradation of penalties. If the offence is slight a reprimand is ordered. For an offence next above this in gravity there is added a cessation of oral intercourse with the Brethren. When the offence is serious the punishment is that the community will not live with the offender, and this involves expulsion and excommunication. Expelled from a Community, the monk has no home; he then becomes a miserable vagrant, or he returns to his first estate.
v1.c8.s7.5
This passage contains several phrases and expressions which may seem to require some comment or explanation. Thus in the first sentence we are told that Buddha's "religious system is apprehended by people according to their kind (如來理孝隨類得解)", that is, every one understands Buddha's teaching according to his individual nature and capacity. The statement is derived from the canonical Scriptures in which we are told that the Buddha preached in one language, but that all kinds of creatures understood him in their own ways. He spoke, we are told, the "Aryan language" but Chinese, and Yavans, and the peoples of Bactria and Bokhara, heard him as speaking in their own tongues. Moreover each man in a congregation which the Buddha addressed heard his own besetting sin reproved, and the same words called the unchaste to chastity and the avaricious to liberality.¹ This may have been right, and attended with only good consequences while the Buddha was bodily present among men, teaching and preaching and giving rules and precepts. But at Yuan-chuang's time a long period had elapsed since the decease of the Buddha. His teachings had been collected, committed to writing, transmitted and preserved with very unequal faithfulness. Great differences of opinion also had arisen as to whether certain doctrines were or were not the Buddha's teaching. Hence in Yuan-chuang's time the orthodox religion as professed in India was genuine or adulterated according to the moral and intellectual characters of its professed adherents. Some held to what they were taught to believe was the original Canon settled by the first Council. Others doubted and argued, wrested Scripture from its proper meaning to suit their personal views, and lightly admitted spurious texts to have authority.
v1.c8.s7.6
¹ Abhi-ta-vibh-lun, *ch.* 79; Hua-yen-yi-shêng-chiao &c., *ch.* 1 (No. 1591).
v1.c8.s7.7
We next have mention of the Eighteen *Pu* or Schools which had arisen in Buddhism and of their rivalry. These Schools were famous in the history of Buddhism, and various accounts are given of their origin and growth. We know that the first split in the Church after the Buddha's death led to the formation of the two great Schools of the Sthaviras and Mahāsanghikas. The former in the course of time yielded eleven, and the latter seven Schools; and so there were actually Twenty Schools, but the total number is generally given in the books as Eighteen. Each of these Schools became famous for the propagation and defence of some peculiar doctrine. In Professor Rhys Davids's articles on the Buddhist sects¹ there is an excellent summary of what we know of these Eighteen Schools, with references to other authorities.
v1.c8.s7.8
¹ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Soc. 1891 and 1892.
v1.c8.s7.9
Then we have mention of another famous division in the Buddhist Church, viz. the Great and Small Vehicles. Yuan-chuang tells us that "the tenets (or practises) of the Great and the Small Vehicles differ widely". Ta-hsiao-êrh-shêng-chü-chih-ch'ü-pie (大小二乘居止區別). Julien translates—"Les partisans du *grand* et du *petit* Vehicle forment deux classes à part", but this does not seem to give the author's meaning. The term *chü-chih* lit. resting or sojourning denotes here tenets, or outward observances or practises, and *ch'ü-pie* means very unlike or generically different. Yuan-chuang does not state that the adherents of the two systems formed two classes apart: he knew that in some places they even lived together in one monastery. But he tells us that the tenets of the two Systems, their ways of belief and conduct were far apart. It is a pity that the word Vehicle has come to be generally used as the rendering for the Sanskrit Yāna in the words Mahāyāna and Hinayāna. We should often substitute for it some term like Creed or System, and Hinayāna should be the Primitive and Mahāyāna the Developed System. As is well known, it was the adherents of the latter who gave the name "Small Vehicle" to the creed from which their own grew. Their doctrines and religious observances came to differ very widely from those of the early system. The Mahāyānists had a more expansive Creed, a different standard of religious perfection, and a more elaborate cult than the Hinayānists. As to particular tenets, they differed very much from the early Buddhists in such matters as opinions about arhats and Bodhisattvas, their views of the relation of the Buddha to mankind, of the efficacy of prayer and worship, and of the elasticity of the Canon. Our author illustrates his statement as to differences in the Great and Little Systems by one or two examples, at least such is the general opinion as to the passage which follows. In the rendering here given its reads—'They have sitting in silent reverie, the walking to and fro, and the standing still: Samādhi and Prajñā are far apart, and many are the noisy discussions'. Julien's translation, which seems to be the result of a serious misconstruction of the passage is—"Les uns méditent en silence, et, soit en marchant, soit en repos, tiennent leur esprit immobile et font abstraction du monde; les autres diffèrent tout à fait de ceux-ci par leurs disputes orageuses".¹ The text, given below, plainly does not admit of this rendering which does great violence to meaning and construction. In this passage ting, or "absorbed meditation" (Samādhi), seems to be declared to be far apart from prajñā, hui or "transcendental wisdom". But samādhi, although known to early Buddhism, is characteristic of Mahāyānism, and is often found, as here, with hui, which is strictly Mahāyānist. We read of a great controversy which was carried on between two Hinayāna Schools as to the relative merits of samādhi and prajñā. But we should perhaps understand our author here as stating that the Hinayānist practices of quiet thought, walking up and down, and standing still were far removed from the Samādhi and Prajñā of the Mahayānists.
v1.c8.s7.10
¹ The text is—有宴默思惟經行住定慧悠隔誼諍良殊.
v1.c8.s7.11
For the sentence—‘Wherever there is a community of Brethren it makes rules of gradation’ the original is 隨其衆居各制科防, and Julien translates—“Suivant le lieu qu’ils habitent, on leur a fait un code de règlements et de défenses d’une nature spéciale.” This is not in accordance with Buddhism, and it is not a fair rendering of the author’s words. These mean that each community of Brethren had its own hierarchy promoted according to a recognized system. The system of promotion, Yuan-chuang explains, was briefly this—the Brethren in any establishment were advanced according to their ability to expound and teach the canonical treatises of the Vinaya, Abhidharma, or Sūtras. In the D text the original is “without distinguishing Vinaya, Abhidharma, Sūtra, in Buddha’s canon—(無云律論經是佛經), but the B text has the words chi-fan (紀凡) after Fo-ching, and C adds the word kua (圭) after fan. Julien having the reading of the B text translates—“Les règles de la discipline (Vinaya), les Traités philosophiques (Sāstras), les textes sacrés (Sūtras), les Prédictions (Vyākaraṇas), &c. sont tous également des livres du Buddha”. He tells us in a note how he gets “les Prédictions”, viz. by altering the 紀 of the text to 記. This emendation is quite untenable and unnecessary, as is also the insertion of “&c.” by the translator. There is no classification of the Buddhist Scriptures which contains the four heads of division given in Julien’s translation. All the canon is contained in the Three Baskets (or Stores), Vinaya, Sūtra, and Abhidharma, and the Chi (記) or “les Prédictions” constitute one of the subdivisions of the sūtra.¹ In the passage under consideration the words Chi-fan are not wanted; they were probably inserted to satisfy the demands of style.
v1.c8.s7.12
¹ But in the passage quoted by Julien and in other places ching or sūtra is given as one of the classes of Scripture along with the Shou-chi or Predictions; the ching is the first of the twelve classes of scriptures the Chi (or Shou-chi) being also one of the twelve.
v1.c8.s7.13
The first step in promotion, Yuan-chuang relates, was that a Brother who could teach one treatise (or class of writings) in the Canon "was exempted from serving under the Prior". For the words within inverted commas the original is—Nai-mien-sêng-chih-shih (乃免僧知事), and Julien translates—"est dispensé des devoirs de religieux et dirige les affaires du couvent". This faulty interpretation, it will be seen, puts the disciple of one talent above the disciples of two or more talents. The Sêng-chih-shih or Karmadāna in a Buddhist monastery had control of its secular affairs, and the common monks were under his orders for all kinds of menial work. When a Brother proved himself well versed in one subject or department of the canon, and skilled in eloquent exposition of the same, he was, as a first step in advancement, exempted from performing the ordinary work of the establishment. This exemption was granted also in monasteries to which the learned Brother went as a guest. There is an Abhidharma treatise in which we find an illustration of our text. A stranger monk arrives in a monastery and is treated as a guest at first. Afterwards the Prior tells him that according to his seniority he is to take part in the daily routine of the establishment. But the guest said—No, I am not to work; I am a Ph. D., a Lun-shih, and his claim to be exempted was allowed.¹
v1.c8.s7.14
¹ Sar. Vin. Mu-tê-ka, ch. 6 (No. 1134); Abhi-ta-vib-lun, ch. 118.
v1.c8.s7.15
For the words here rendered by 'But as for those to whom religious teaching has been offered in vain' the original is 至乃門虛僻. Julien wrongly connecting these words with what precedes translates "A son arrivée, il passe sous des portes triomphales". It will be readily admitted that yi-mên cannot be translated "triumphal gates" and that hsü-p'i cannot possibly be rendered by "il passe sous". The term yi-mên, lit. "door of meaning" is used in the senses of article of creed, essential doctrine, course of instruction. In ordinary Chinese literature the term is not unknown and it is an honourable epithet or distinction. A *yi-mên* is an *unselfish or public-spiritual clan*, as a family which keeps together for a long time, five or six generations, living and messing on the same premises. But here *yi-mên* has a Buddhistic use and means "cause of religious instruction". Then *hsiü-p'i* is "vainly open", and the clause means "as for those to whom religious teaching has been offered to no purpose". It introduces the words which follow, telling the dreadful fate of the man who does not learn, and yet pretends to be wise.