Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist pilgrims, from China to India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.)

288 Pages·1869·5.502 MB·English

by  Samuel Beal,  Faxian, Xuanzhi Yang

TRAVELS
FAH -H IAN AND SU^TG-YUK
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1896*
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xo
si
aaHx<^hhMoHIol^otr^HIHaas•
“ It is not a little surprising that we should have to acknow­
ledge the &ct that the voyages of two Chinese travellers,
undertaken in the fifth and seventh century of our era, have
done more to elucidate the history and geography of Buddhism
in India^ than all that has hitherto been found in the San­
skrit and Pali books of India and the neighbouring countries.^
Life of Gaudcma^ p. 291, n. By Right Bev. P. Bigaadet,
一
Yicar-Apostolic of Ava and Pegu. 1868.

PREFACE.
The present work contains two Translations from
the Chinese一 (1) The Travels of Fah-HIan (400­
415 a.d.), and (2) The Mission of Sung-Tun; both
Buddhist pilgrims from China to India.
A translation of Fah-Hian’s Pilgrimage, by M.
Abel-R^musat, was published in Paris (1836), under
the well-known title, Fo-koue-ki.
Of this work, M. Stanislas Julien has said that,
although it is u tr^s-recommandable pour V 6poqu©
ou il a 4tk public, il n’est pas sans dangers pour les
personnes qui ne sont pas en dtat de verifier ses
traductions” (Yi© de Hiouen-Thsang, p. xi. n).
It was, in fact, published at a period when little
was known in Europe of Chinese-Buddliist literature,
and without haying received the last revision of its
lamented author.
That period has now passed by, and, owing to the
labours of M. Abel-E^musat's successors in the same
viii PREFACE.
field, and especially to the works of M. Stanislas
Julien, w© are able to approach the subject with some
degree of confidence.
To shew the faulty character of the translations
found in the Fo-koue-ki, it may be as well to select
any chapter in the book, and consider a few of them
in detail.
Let us take the 20th chapter as an example.
In that chapter (line 5) we read—“ on y est tr^s-
affectioiin6 k la loi,” as a- translation of 大 愛 道
but this plirase is, in fact (as we learn from Jul. iii.
495), the Chinese form of the name of Mah&praj&patt,
the aunt of Buddha.
Again, in the words immediately following the
above—“ aussi dans Fenceinte du temple”一we have
a translation of 故 箱 舍 處 but, in truth, this
clause ought to be joined with the previous one, and
the whole rendered, “ in the spot where stands the
old Yihftra of Mah&praj&pati,” (tbe use of the symbol
故，（because), for*古 (old or antique) is of very
frequent occurrence in the present work).
Following the same sentence, w© read一“au lieu
oik etait le mur du puits du vieillard Siu-tha,”
須 達 長 者 井 壁 處 W the expression 井 壁
PREFACE. ix
a phrase denoting the foundation walls of a build­
ing, and probably refers here to the foundation walls
of Sudatta’s house.
Further down (line 15) we read一“ k douze cents
pas k l’orient de la route,” as though it were 道 東
whereas the text is really 道 西 “ to tlie westward
of the road_”
Towards the bottom of the page we read一“ c’est
li ce qu’on appelle le Temple de Tchi-houan ’’
g{| 所 謂 穿亘 which Mr. Laidlay translates—
“tjiere too-is the temple called Tchi-houan,” as though
this temple were distinct from the one previously de­
scribed ; whereas the sense of the passage is, that the
account lie had just given applies to and is descriptive
of that, and all such Yih&ras, commonly known as (tsih
sho wei) Chi-iin temples. And so we read in the history
of the Sangh&r&mas of Lo-Tang, that in the neigh­
bourhood of various temples belonging to that city
{e.gr. the White Horse Temple) the founders had laid
out “Chi-iin” grounds, i.e. elaborate gardens一gardens,
in fact, corresponding to those which were, in the first
instance, attached to this Chi-iin Yih&ra at Sray&sti.
On page 172 (line 2) we have the expression
郎 刻 牛 頭 摊 檀 佛 像 rendered, “ il fit en