English
” He then goes into an exhibition of those indications, which I need not transcribe. It is sufficient for us to know that the capital city was not far from Lob or Lop Nor, into which in lon. 38° E. the Tarim flows. Fâ-Hien estimated its distance to be 1500 le from T’un-hwang. He and his companions must have gone more than twenty-five miles a day to accomplish the journey in seventeen days. (2) This is the name which Fâ-Hien always uses when he would speak of China, his native country, as a whole, calling it from the great dynasty which had ruled it, first and last, for between four and five centuries. Occasionally, as we shall immediately see, he speaks of “the territory of Ts’in or Ch’in,” but intending thereby only the kingdom or Ts’in, having its capital, as described in the first note on the last chapter, in Ch’ang-gan. (3) So I prefer to translate the character {.} (sang) rather than by “priests.” Even in Christianity, beyond the priestly privilege which belongs to all believers, I object to the ministers of any denomination or church calling themselves or being called “priests;” and much more is the name inapplicable to the sramanas or bhikshus of Buddhism which acknowledges no God in the universe, no soul in man, and has no services of sacrifice or prayer in its worship. The only difficulty in the use of “monks” is caused by the members of the sect in Japan which, since the middle of the fifteenth century, has abolished the prohibition against marrying on the part of its ministers, and other prohibitions in diet and dress. Sang and sang-kea represent the Sanskrit sangha, constituted by at least four members, and empowered to hear confession, to grant absolution, to admit persons to holy orders, &c.; secondly, the third constituent of the Buddhistic Trinity, a deification of the _communio sanctorum_, or the Buddhist order. The name is used by our author of the monks collectively or individually as belonging to the class, and may be considered as synonymous with the name sramana, which will immediately claim our attention. (4) Meaning the “small vehicle, or conveyance.” There are in Buddhism the triyana, or “three different means of salvation, i.e. of conveyance across the samsara, or sea of transmigration, to the shores of nirvâna. Afterwards the term was used to designate the different phases of development through which the Buddhist dogma passed, known as the mahayana, hinayana, and madhyamayana.” “The hinayana is the simplest vehicle of salvation, corresponding to the first of the three degrees of saintship. Characteristics of it are the preponderance of active moral asceticism, and the absence of speculative mysticism and quietism.” E. H., pp. 151-2, 45, and 117. (5) The name for India is here the same as in the former chapter and throughout the book,—T’een-chuh ({.} {.}), the chuh being pronounced, probably, in Fâ-Hien’s time as tuk. How the earliest name for India, Shin-tuk or duk=Scinde, came to be changed into Thien-tuk, it would take too much space to explain. I believe it was done by the Buddhists, wishing to give a good auspicious name to the fatherland of their Law, and calling it “the Heavenly Tuk,” just as the Mohammedans call Arabia “the Heavenly region” ({.} {.}), and the court of China itself is called “the Celestial” ({.} {.}). (6) Sraman may in English take the place of Sramana (Pâli, Samana; in Chinese, Sha-man), the name for Buddhist monks, as those who have separated themselves from (left) their families, and quieted their hearts from all intrusion of desire and lust. “It is employed, first, as a general name for ascetics of all denominations, and, secondly, as a general designation of Buddhistic monks.” E. H., pp. 130, 131. (7) Tartar or Mongolian. (8) Woo-e has not been identified. Watters (“China Review,” viii. 115) says:—“We cannot be far wrong if we place it in Kharaschar, or between that and Kutscha.” It must have been a country of considerable size to have so many monks in it. (9) This means in one sense China, but Fâ-Hien, in his use of the name, was only thinking of the three Ts’in states of which I have spoken in a previous note; perhaps only of that from the capital of which he had himself set out. (10) This sentence altogether is difficult to construe, and Mr. Watters, in the “China Review,” was the first to disentangle more than one knot in it. I am obliged to adopt the reading of {.} {.} in the Chinese editions, instead of the {.} {.} in the Corean text. It seems clear that only one person is spoken of as assisting the travellers, and his name, as appears a few sentences farther on, was Foo Kung-sun. The {.} {.} which immediately follows the surname Foo {.}, must be taken as the name of his office, corresponding, as the {.} shows, to that of _le maitre d’hotellerie_ in a Roman Catholic abbey. I was once indebted myself to the kind help of such an officer at a monastery in Canton province. The Buddhistic name for him is uddesika=overseer. The Kung-sun that follows his surname indicates that he was descended from some feudal lord in the old times of the Chow dynasty. We know indeed of no ruling house which had the surname of Foo, but its adoption by the grandson of a ruler can be satisfactorily accounted for; and his posterity continued to call themselves Kung-sun, duke or lord’s grandson, and so retain the memory of the rank of their ancestor. (11) Whom they had left behind them at T’un-hwang. (12) The country of the Ouighurs, the district around the modern Turfan or Tangut. (13) Yu-teen is better known as Khoten. Dr. P. Smith gives (p. 11) the following description of it:—“A large district on the south-west of the desert of Gobi, embracing all the country south of Oksu and Yarkand, along the northern base of the Kwun-lun mountains, for more than 300 miles from east to west. The town of the same name, now called Ilchi, is in an extensive plain on the Khoten river, in lat. 37° N., and lon. 80° 35′ E. After the Tungani insurrection against Chinese rule in 1862, the Mufti Haji Habeeboolla was made governor of Khoten, and held the office till he was murdered by Yakoob Beg, who became for a time the conqueror of all Chinese Turkestan. Khoten produces fine linen and cotton stuffs, jade ornaments, copper, grain, and fruits.” The name in Sanskrit is Kustana. (E. H., p. 60). CHAPTER III. KHOTEN. PROCESSIONS OF IMAGES. THE KING’S NEW MONASTERY. Yu-teen is a pleasant and prosperous kingdom, with a numerous and flourishing population. The inhabitants all profess our Law, and join together in its religious music for their enjoyment.(1) The monks amount to several myriads, most of whom are students of the mahayana.(2) They all receive their food from the common store.(3) Throughout the country the houses of the people stand apart like (separate) stars, and each family has a small tope(4) reared in front of its door. The smallest of these may be twenty cubits high, or rather more.(5) They make (in the monasteries) rooms for monks from all quarters,(5) the use of which is given to travelling monks who may arrive, and who are provided with whatever else they require. The lord of the country lodged Fâ-Hien and the others comfortably, and supplied their wants, in a monastery(6) called Gomati,(6) of the mahayana school. Attached to it there are three thousand monks, who are called to their meals by the sound of a bell. When they enter the refectory, their demeanour is marked by a reverent gravity, and they take their seats in regular order, all maintaining a perfect silence. No sound is heard from their alms-bowls and other utensils. When any of these pure men(7) require food, they are not allowed to call out (to the attendants) for it, but only make signs with their hands. Hwuy-king, Tao-ching, and Hwuy-tah set out in advance towards the country of K’eeh-ch’a;(8) but Fâ-Hien and the others, wishing to see the procession of images, remained behind for three months. There are in this country four(9) great monasteries, not counting the smaller ones. Beginning on the first day of the fourth month, they sweep and water the streets inside the city, making a grand display in the lanes and byways. Over the city gate they pitch a large tent, grandly adorned in all possible ways, in which the king and queen, with their ladies brilliantly arrayed,(10) take up their residence (for the time). The monks of the Gomati monastery, being mahayana students, and held in great reverence by the king, took precedence of all others in the procession. At a distance of three or four le from the city, they made a four-wheeled image car, more than thirty cubits high, which looked like the great hall (of a monastery) moving along. The seven precious substances(11) were grandly displayed about it, with silken streamers and canopies hanging all around. The (chief) image(12) stood in the middle of the car, with two Bodhisattvas(13) in attendance upon it, while devas(14) were made to follow in waiting, all brilliantly carved in gold and silver, and hanging in the air. When (the car) was a hundred paces from the gate, the king put off his crown of state, changed his dress for a fresh suit, and with bare feet, carrying in his hands flowers and incense, and with two rows of attending followers, went out at the gate to meet the image; and, with his head and face (bowed to the ground), he did homage at its feet, and then scattered the flowers and burnt the incense. When the image was entering the gate, the queen and the brilliant ladies with her in the gallery above scattered far and wide all kinds of flowers, which floated about and fell promiscuously to the ground. In this way everything was done to promote the dignity of the occasion. The carriages of the monasteries were all different, and each one had its own day for the procession. (The ceremony) began on the first day of the fourth month, and ended on the fourteenth, after which the king and queen returned to the palace.