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Max Miiller, who has ‘taken an unceasing interest in this work from the beginning to the end. Without his instruction, advice, and help I ‘should never have been able to introduce I-tsing’s work to students of Sanskrit Literature and Buddhism. For his patience and attention in the revision of the whole of my MS., the settlement of the meaning of a number of passages, &c., and for several other valuable suggestions, I here express my sincere gratitude. For some matters I am obliged to Profs. Buhltr.and Oldenberg, and also to Profs. Kern, Kielhorn, and Légge, Dr. Winternitz, and Mrs. H. Smith. Prof. Nagaoka of Tokyo, now in Berlin, kindly looked through the points relating to astronomy. Thanks are due also to Prof. Windisch, who pointed Sut some matters of importance, just before my Introduction was ready for Press. The printing reflects great credit on the University Press of Oxford, and has been carefully superintended by Mr. J. C. Pembrey, the Oriental Reader. J. Taxaxusu. | Beruin, January 6, 1896. : ADDITIONAL NOTES TO THE MAP, 1. The degree of longitude from Ferro is given on the map. To know that from Greenwich, reduce about 18° (exactly, 17° 36’ 46”) from the given numbers. 7 2, The position of La?a on the map is not right; see my note at the end (p. 217, note to p. 9). J A RECORD OF BUDDHIST PRACTICES SENT HOME FROM THE SOUTHERN SEA By I-TSING. INTRODUCTION. In the beginning, as the three thousand worlds were being produced, there appeared a sign of their coming into existence, When all things were created, there was as yet no distinction between animate and inani- mate things. The universe was an empty waste, without either sun or moon revolving. While misery and happiness were in an undistinguished state, there was no difference between positive and negative principles. When the Brahman gods (lit. ‘ pure heaven’) came down to the earth, their bodily light naturally followed them. As they derived their nourishment from the fatness of the earth, there sprang up a dtidy and grasping nature, and they began to consume one-after anether -the creeping plants of the forest and fragrant grains of rice. When theit'odily, light gradually faded away, the sun and moon became manifests The state of marriage and agriculture arose, and the principles relating to sovereign and subjegt, father and son, were established. Then che inhabitants looked un to the azure firmament ahove and caw ite heavenly hrdiec 2 A RECORD OF BUDDHIST PRACTICES. saw the yellow earth with the water ever moved by the wind, and the earth becoming more and more solid. The statements that the two principles, positive and negative, converted themselves into heaven and earth, and men came into being in the space between them !} that, influenced by impure and pure air, the dualisation of nature came into existence of its own accord?; and that the fashioning power of the two divisions of nature may be compared to the art of casting with its ‘large furnace ®, and that the production of all things can be likened to the making of clay images *,—all these are only absurd statements resulting from narrow learning. Thereupon the mountains stood firm, the stars were scattered above, and the inanimate beings spread and multiplied. At last their views became different, and they were classed under ninety-six heads; the principles (tattva) were divided into twenty-five classes. The Sankhya system of philosophy teaches that all things came into existence from One®. But the Vaiseshika system declares that the five forms of existence arose from the six categories (padartha). Some think it necessary, in order to get rid of rebirth, to have their body naked (Digambara) and the hair plucked out; others igsist, as the means of securing heaven, on anointing their body with ashes ¢ or tying up their locks of hair. Some say life is self- existent, while others believe that the soul becomes extinct on death, There are many who think that existence is a perfect mystery, dark and obagyre, and its reality is not to be explored, and it is too minute and for us to know whence we have come into being. Others say that man always regains human form by recurring births, or that after death men become spirits. ‘I do not know,’ one says’, * See the I-king (Sacred ‘Books of theaktgsts vol. xvi, p. 373). ? See the Lieh-tze, book i, p. 3a (F icius, p..4)*. ~ beri 5% See the Awang-tze (T4-sung-shi), S on vol. xxxix, p. 250. . * See the Lao-tze, S. B. E., vol. xxxix, - BB. ° For the tenets of Indian Philosophy, see Prof. Cowell's Sarvadarsana Sahgraha under each system, and Colebrooke’s Miscellaneous Essays, vol. i. * These are the Bhfitas according to Hiuen Thsang, probably Saivas. 7 See the Writings of Kwang-tze, S.B.E., vol. xxxix, book ii, sect. 11, p- 197. INTRODUCTION. 3 ‘whether a butterfly became myself or whether I became a butterfly.’ Once, when gathered together men imagined that they saw wasps in the place, and again coming together they were perplexed on finding cater- pillarsthere'. One compares Chaos with a bird's egg (anda), or Darkness with the state of an embryo (or infancy). These people do not as yet realise that birth is in consequence of the grasping condition of mind and heart (Trishva,‘ thirst’), and that our present existence is due to our former actions (Karma). Are they not, thus plunged and floating in the sea of suffering, borne to and fro, as it were, by the stream of error? It is only our Great Teacher, the highest of the world (Lokagyeshvfa), the Sakya, who has himself pointed out an easy path, teaching an admirable principle, he who has explained the twelve chains of causation (Nidana)? and acquired the eighteen matchless qualities (Dharma) *, who has called himself the teacher of gods and men (S4sta Devamanu- shy4z4m), or the Omniscient One (Sarvagfia) ; he alone has led the four classes of living beings* out of the House of Fire (the world), and delivered the three stages® of existence from abiding in Darkness. He has crossed over the stream of Klesa (passion), and ascended to the shore of Nirvava. When our Sage first attained to Buddhahood on the Dragon River 1 This %a famous simile in China. When caterpillars have young ones, wasps come and carry them off, and this has given rise to the belief that caterpillars are changed into wasps. ay rail fA cd gives this story. 2 For the twelve Nidanas, see Prof. Oldenberg’s Buddha, &c., chap. ii. 8 These are: perfect deed, speech, and thought; knowledge of past, present, and future; Pragaa, Moksha, calem snd, and the like. 4 Le. ‘Those ‘born of the wow of eggs (2), from moisture (3), or miraculously (4). The fourth ‘miraculously born’ is aupapaduka in the Northern Buddhist texts; this is a misrepresentation of the P&li Opapatiko. See Childers, s. v., and Burnouf, Lotus, p. 394. Cf. Vagrakkhedika IIL, 8. B. E., vol. xlix, p. 113. The fourth is generally udbhigga, i.e. ‘ produced from sprouts,’ but not so with the Buddhists. 5 The three stages of existence: (1) the world of passion (kdma); (2) the world of form (rapa); (3) the world without form (arépa). See bhavo, Childers. B2 4 A RECORD OF BUDDHIST PRACTICES. (Nagafiadi, i.e. Naira#gand)}, the nine classes of beings? began to entertain hopes of emancipation. Then the removal of Light to the Deer Park (mrigadava at Benares) brought satisfaction to the religious cravings of the six paths ® of existence. Ass soon as he had begun to set in motion the Wheel of the Law, five persons * first enjoyed the benefit of his teaching. Next, he taught the typical virtue (lit. ‘the footsteps of Sila’) of discipline, and thousands of people bowed their heads before him. Thereupon His Brahma-voice was heard in the city of Ragagvtha, bringing salvation (fruit) to numberless souls, : Returning home to requite parental love in the Palace of Kapilavastu, he found numerous disciples who inclined their hearts to his teaching. He began his teaching with (the conversion of) Ag#ata Kaundinya ’, whose first prayer he accepted in order to reveal the truth, He concluded his career with the ordination of Subhadra®, so that the last period of his life should accord with his original wish (lit. ‘tied-up mind, resolution’). ; Eight decades he lived, founding and protecting the Brotherhood ; he preached his doctrine of salvation in the nine assemblages®. Any doctrine, however hidden, he expounded in teaching. Even'a man of little ability he received without reserve. When he preached to the lay followers he expressed himself in a concise form, and taught the five prohibitive precepts (pazkasila) only. al > Here the Naganadt must mean Naira@gana (Nilajan), as it is the place where Sakyamuni attained Buddhahood. Cf. Naganadi, Lalita-vistara, p. 336. * The nine classes of beings are the subdivisions of the above three stages ; each of those three are divided into three. ° The six paths of existence are as follows: human beings, Devas, Pretas (spirits), the brute creation (Tiryagyoni), Asuras (demons), and hells. * Rowata Kaundinya and his friends first received the teaching of the Buddha. Rhys Davids, Buddhist Suttas, p. 155; Oldenberg, Buddha, p. 130. id Agfata and Subhadra are here translated Be and yy BS respectively, The last convert of the Buddha was Subhadra, Rhys Davids, Buddhism, p. 81; Buddhist Suttas, pp. 103-111. For Agfata Kauzdinya, see the last note. * The commentator Kasyapa understands this to mean the nine classes of beings above referred to. er INTRODUCTION. 5 But in instructing the priests exclusively, he fully explained the purport of the seven skandhas (i.e. groups)! of offences.