On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v2.c19.29

v2.c19.29

Fa-hsien does not make any mention of these five topes, and Yuan-chuang's story about them does not agree with the legend about the 84 000 Relic Topes. Julien's translation and treatment of this curious story leaves much to be desired. Thus Yuan-chuang states that extraordinary phenomena occurred at the topes "to testify to the five-fold spiritual body of the Tathāgata (Ju-lai)". The text for the words in inverted commas is i-piao-ju-lai-wu-fên-fa-shên (以 表 如 來 五 分 法 身). This is rendered by Julien— "Par là, il voulut honorez la personne de Jou-lai, composée de cinq parties." Here, to pass over other matters, the all-important word fa is left out. Then Julien has a note in which he professes to give from a Chinese dictionary the five constituents of the Fa-shên or spiritual body. But the passage which he cites gives the "five skandhas", and Julien wrongly took them as the constituents of the spiritual body. They are the elements or "aggregations" of the human body of Ju-lai, and of every human being, and they are contrasted with the five parts of the spiritual constitution of Ju-lai and all arhats. These five parts are moral discipline, absorbed meditation, spiritual wisdom, spiritual emancipation, and the perception of this emancipation, and this is the description quoted in the book which Julien cites.¹ It was the perfect combination of these in himself at which the Buddha aimed during the countless ages in which he had been born and reborn into mortal life; and it is the perfection of these in his professed disciples which constitutes his eternal presence in his church. The prodigies at the five topes were the outward evidences of the unseen spirit of the Buddha abiding in the world. It was on the erroneous supposition that these topes were merely the Treasure-stores of king Nanda that an impious prince tried to excavate them, and fared as our pilgrim describes. To the story of this prince Yuan-chuang adds— *tzŭ-tzŭ-i-chiang-wu-kan-chi-yü* (自茲已降無敢覬覦), “from this down to the present no one has dared to covet”, that is, since this king’s vain attempt no one has ventured to give effect to his desire to have the treasures. Julien gives this translation of the words— “le roi, lui-même, s’avoua vaincu et abjura ses projets de rapine”, a rendering impossible from every point of view. In the sentence which follows in Julien’s translation the author’s meaning is again missed. The important words *huo-yue* (或曰) “or it is said” or “others say” are left out, and the translator erroneously introduces the words “mais nous”. The pilgrim mentions the two theories about the five topes, one was that they were the Treasure-stores of king Nanda, and the other, based on old records, was that they were Asoka topes.