English
The middle division is the region of the Tsung Ling and the Snowy Mountains. The southei^n division includes the five Indias. This is the ter- ritory formerly governed by one Golden-wheel King. The people who inhabit it are descended from the Brahma Devas. It is called, in common conversation, the '^heavenly region"; it is also spoken of as the country of the Brahmans. The western division of Jambudwipa comprises the various coun- tries of Turkhara and Persia. The people who inhabit these countries are commonly known as " Western Barbarians." The northern division includes the countries of the various tribes of the Yuchi, the Turks, the Usun, and the Huns. The eastern division consists of two parts : 1 st, the terri- tory to the west of the Sandy Desert, inhabited by the Thibetan tribes of the Yuchis ; 2nd, to the eastward of the Tsih Eock, the people of China. We ought, therefore, care- fully, to distinguish between the Brahman people and the • Here follow two sections on the Geography of China and India, the latter taken almost verbatim from the Si-yu-chi. These accounts I omit. 18 A CATENA OP BUDDHIST mixed tribes of the North known as Hu. It is d great error to speak of these last as living in India. There are others, again, who speak of the Siitras as written in the Hu language, and of the Hu speech as though it were the same as that of the Sanscrit. This is not right ; they ought to say Sanscrit books, and Sanscrit language. 7. In reference to China being the middle country, there can be in reality no such distinction as middle or frontier, in respect of the beneficence of the great lawgiver (King of the Law. Dharmarajah) . The operation of the energy that results in phenomenal existence can admit of no defined hmits, how much less the diffusion of the sacred doc- trine. A dark cloud may indeed for a time obscure the brightness of the sun, and the pouring rain may destroy the young plants, and cause much evil ; yet in the unclouded vault of heaven his brightness remains undiminished, and it is only the enshrouding clouds that prevent his rays from reaching the earth. So let us once remove that which clouds our faith, and separates us from the Sun, and the bright rays of His great love will be impartially diffused. This opinion that China is the middle country, and that be- yond the nine provinces all are outside barbarians, is not a correct view of the case. We may understand this by look- ing at the map of the Western regions (or the work Si-yu- to). Yet, for the sake of those who are ignorant, I will proceed to illustrate this fact by adducing nine principal reasons from various Sutras and Shastras, in which the superior excellence of India is plainly exhibited : (1.) The superior reputation of India. The Pen-hing- kingi says, " The Bodhisatwa Prabhapala,- addressing the Deva Kin-twan, said, 'Whenever Bodhisatwa has been born, previous to his arrival at complete perfection as Buddha, it has ever been customary to see that the family of his parents possess the sixty quahfications of merit, and during three generations have been free from any pollution or impurity ! > The first version of the Lalita Vistara. 2 Tlint is, Buddha previous to his incarnation. SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. 19 Go, then ! descend to Jambudwipa, and find sucli a family for me, that I may be born, and become a supreme Buddha.' Kin-twan replied : ' The city of Kapila, the sovereign called Suddhodana, his wife, the queen, called Maya, possessing complete merit and perfectly pure, in this family Bodhisat- wa may be born.' Prabhapala replied : ^ It is good ! I will be born, as you say, of those parents.' '^ Buddha having made this selection, the Devas heard of it, and at once re- cognised the supreme excellency of the country of Kapila, the centre of all the kingdoms of Jambudwipa.^ (2.) From actual measurement. The extent of the entire world is scarcely to be ascertained by any human science. For who, from the eai-liest times till now, has ever reached the limits of the great north-western Ocean ? How, then, is it possible to fix the exact middle point of the earth ? But yet men are fond of talking about the " middle country," and say that this quarter in which we live is really the middle of the earth. But it certainly is not so. According to Chow-Kung," when he measured the heavens and the earth he determined Yu-cheou^ to be the middle point. He reported that on each side of this 5000 li would bring to the boundaries of the earth. But it is evident that from Yu to the Eastern sea is not so much as 5000 li, whilst to the West and North there is no calculating how many teij thousand li it is to the end of the earth, and yet Chow-Kung says it is only 5000 li. Again, Yu-kung* says that there are only 2,500 li from the centre to the limits of the earth ! In that case the earth must have been narrower in his time, and afterwards gradually expanded. In the time of the Han dynasty we find 9000 li fixed as the limit. And now it is still going on increasing ! At present it is stated " that the • The Pou-yao-king, i. e. the second Chiuese version of the Laiita Vistara^ is in agreement with this account. ^ The brother of AVu Wang, the first emperor of the Chow dynasty, 1122 B.C. ' In Shantung, probably the same as Yu-e of the Shu-king. Vide Chinese Repos.^ Dec. 1840. ♦ Ta-yu of the Hea dynasty ? C2 20 A CATENA OV BUDDHIST great earth is 280,000 li in circuit, and therefore 90,000 Kin diameter." If, then, we set off a Hne from east to west 90,000 li in length, and divide this into nine parts, we shall find that the division including China, is at the extreme East, so that eight divisions will remain for the regions to the west of China. And it will be found, moreover, that India occupies the middle of the fifth division. From either side of this, therefore, to the sea, will be 45,000 li. Hence it will be seen that our country is situated towards the east- ern limit of the great earth, and that India is in the middle. Here the case is plain to demonstration. (3.) With reference to the Mountain kings.^ All the mountains of the world sprang from the Kwan-Lun range. These are by far the highest and most extensive mountains of the earth. The different peaks that rise from this range embrace a circuit of ten thousand li, and more. Here the Naga Devas dwell, inaccessible to man ! The various off- shoots of this mountain system give rise to other ranges. Just like the shoots which spring from each side of the bamboo, so do all these mountains spriug from and depend on the central range of the Kwan-Lun. To the left, or eastern side, there are numerous branches ; but one especi- ally, stretching across the sandy desert to the Tsih Rock," originates^ all the mountains of China. Another branch, stretching to the sea, is the parent of the mountains of Eastern India, and, still stretching eastward, it ends in the various mountains of the Barbarian countries. On the right, or western side, the mountains stretch away into Western India, the Hwoh country (Ghour, bordering on the Oxus) and Persia. The front, or southern face of these mountains, consists of the Black Mountains (Hindukoosh), the Snowy range (Himavat), and all the hills of North India, stretching out and giving birth to all the hills of Central India. The northern face consists of the Tsuug-ling range, which ori- 1 i. e. the highest systems of mountains. The Pabbata Kajahs of the Singhalese. "- Asmakuta, Jul iii, 430. Tliis rock is marked in Chinese maps as bordering on the Koko-nor. SCRIPTURES PROM THE CHINESE. 21 ginates the mountains of the Northern Tartars. Thus it is all the ranges fly off in spurs from the high and central mountain system of the Kwan-Luu. And from this we con- clude that these mountains are in the centre of the earthy and the five Indies all lie to the south. (In common books the name of Kwan-Lun is given to an eastern range of the Snowy Mountains.) (4.) With respect to the central origin of the Rivers. The nature of water is to descend. So that we must look for the origin of all rivers in the highest mountains, and their dis- appearance in the ocean. At the top of the Himavat range is a lake occupied by a great Dragon, more than a thousand 11 in circuit. This is the common origin of all the rivers of the world. One s-reat river flows from each side of this lake. The breadth of each river is forty li.