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’ In Vaisdlt there was a house which is said to be the room of Vimalakfrti, contemporary of the Buddha ; Wan-hiuen-ts‘é, chief envoy to Siladitya, when in *Vaisali, measured the house and found that this room was ten cubits each way (KAsyapa). Hence it was afterwards known as Fan-chang; later any room where a head priest lived was called so. Now any abbot and also any monastery are called Fan-chang. Compare Julien, Mémoires, vii, p. 385; Beal, Life of Hiuen Thsang, p. 100; Chavannes, Memoirs, p. 72, where I-tsing passes Vaisili between the Diamond Seat and Kysinagara. * Memoirs, vol. i, fol. 6; Chavannes, p. 10. * Loc. cit., vol. ii, fol. 11"; Chavannes, p. 147. See below, p. xlvi. * Yen here is not a verb but a particle; for an analogous use, see the Nestorian Inscription (Legge, Christianity in China, &c., p. 25), and Memoirs, vol, ii, fol. 13, line 9. * He landed here and met a man from the north (Tukhra or Siili), who told him that there were two Chinese priests travelling in the north (whom I-tsing considered to be his own fends), Chavannes, p. 106, 7 The Millasarvastivada-ckasatakarman (Nanjio's Catal., No. 1131), book v, p. 57. xxxiv GENERAL INTRODUCTION. rich. It belongs to E. India, and is about sixty yoganas from Mahabodhi and Sri-Nalanda. This is the place where we embark when returning to China. Sailing from here two months in the south-east direction we come to Ka-cha. By this time a ship from Bhoga will have arrived there. This is generally in the first or second month of the year. But those who go to the Simhala Island (Ceylon) must sail in the south-west direction. They say that that island is 700 yoganas off. We stay in Ka-cha till winter, then start on board ship for the south, and we come after a month to the country of Malayu, which has now become Bhoga; there are many states (under it). The time of arrival is generally in the first or second month. We stay there till the middle of summer and we sail to the north; in about a month we reach Kwang-fu (Kwang-tung). The first half of the year will be passed by this time. When we are helped by the power of our (former) good actions, the journey everywhere is as easy and enjoyable as if we went through a market, but, on the other hand, when we have not much influence of Karma, we are often exposed to danger as if (a young one) in a reclining nest. I have thus shortly described the route and the way home, hoping that the wise may still expand their knowledge by hearing more. Many kings and chieftains in the islands of the Southern Ocean admire and believe (Buddhism), and their hearts are set on accumulating good actions, In the fortified city of Bhoga Buddhist priests number more than 1,000, whose minds are bent on learning and good practices. They invegigate and study all the subjects that exist just as in the Middle Kingdom (Madhya-desa, India); the rules and ceremonies are not at all different. If a Chinese priest wishes to go to the West in order to hear (lectures) and read (the original), he had better stay here one or two years and practise the proper rules and then proceed to Central India. * At the mouth of the river Bhoga I went on board the ship to send a letter® (through the merchant) as a credential to Kwang-chou (Kwang-tung), 7” order to meet (my friends) and ask for paper and cakes of ink, which are to be used in copying the Sfitras in the Brahma-language, and also for the means (cost) of hiring scribes. Just at that time the merchant found the wind favourable, and raised the sails to their utmost height. I was in this way conveyed back (although - ? Or does this refer to a robbers’ den? ? Memoirs, vol. ii, fol. 17%; Chavannes, p. 176, * Fu-shu means ‘to send a letter.’ I-tsing does not intend to go home, therefore he says (below}: ‘Even if I asked to stop,’ &c. This was a very puzzling point. Beal makes out that I-tsing was intending to return but was left behind, while Chavannes thinks that I-tsing intended to return in order to get paper and ink, and did so. LIFE AND TRAVELS OF I-TSING. XXXV not myself intending to go home). Even if I asked to stop, there would have been no means of doing so. By this I see it is the influence of Karma that can fashion (our course), and it is not for us, men, to plan it, It was on the twentieth day of the seventh month in the first year of the Yung-ch‘ang period (689) that we reached Kwang-fu. I met here again with all the priests and laymen. Then in the midst of the assembly in the temple of Chih-chih I sighed and said: ‘I first went to the country of the West with the hope of transmitting and spreading (the Law)’; I came back and stayed in the island of the Southern Ocean. Some texts are still wanting, though what I brought (from India) and left at Bhoga amounts to 300,000 slokas belonging to the Tripi/aka. It is necessary under this circumstance that I should go there once again. But I am already more than fifty years of age (fifty-five); while crossing the running waves once more, the horses that pass through cracks* may not stay, and the rampart of my body may be difficult to guard. If the time for the morning dew (for drying) comes on a sudden, to whom shall those books be entrusted ? ‘The Sacred Canon is indeed an important doctrine. Who is then able to come with me and take it over? To translate (the texts) as we receive (instruc- tions in them) we want an able person.’ The assembly unanimously told me: ‘Not far fei here there is a priest, Chéng-ku (Sdlagupta), who has long been studying the Vinaya doctrine ; from his earliest age he has preserved himself perfect and sincere. If you get that man, he . will prove an excellent tompanion to you.’ As soon as I heard these words, I thought that he would, in all probability, answer my want. Thereupon I sent a letter to him to the temple of the mountain, roughly describing the preparation for the journey. He then opened my letter; on seeing it he soon made up his mind to come with me. ._To make a comparison, a single sortie at the town of Liao-iung broke the courageous hearts of the three generals, or one little stanza from (or, about) the Him4laya mountain drew the profound resolution of the great hermit °, He left with joy the quiet streams and pine forests in which he lived ; he tucked up his sleeves before the hill of the Stone Gate (Shih-mén, N.W. of Kwang-tung), and he raised his skirts in the temple of the Edict (Chih-chih), We bent our parasol (and talked friendly as Confucius did) and united our feelings in rubbing away the worldly dust; as we both gave up (to Religion) our five limbs, + Liu-t'ung =‘ propagating’ or ‘ transmitting.’ ° A strange simile in Chinese: ‘Human life passes away as quickly as a white colt runs through a crack.” xxxvi GENERAL INTRODUCTION. we concluded (our friendship) in openheartedness, as if from former days. Although I never saw him before in my life, yet he was, I found, just the man who answered unexpectedly my wish. On a fine night we both discussed seriously as to what had to be done. Chéng-ku then said to me: ‘When Virtue wishes to meet Virtue, they unite themselves without any medium, and when the time is about ripe, no one can stay it even if they wanted. ‘Shall I then sincerely propose to propagate our Tripi/aka together with you, and to help you in lighting a thousand lamps (for the future)?’ Then we went again to the mountain Hsia? to bid farewell to the head of the temple, K‘ien, and others. Kien clearly saw what was to be done at the right moment and acted accordingly ; he never intended to retain us any longer. with him. When we saw him and laid before him what we had meditated, he helped us and approved of all. He was never anxious about what might be wanting to himself, whilst his mind was intent only on helping others. He made, together with us, the preparations for the journey, so as not to let us be in want of anything. Besides, all the priests and laymen of Kwang-tung provided us with necessary things. Then on the first day of the eleventh month of the year (a.p. 689) we departed in a merchant ship. Starting from P'an-yii we set sail in the direction of Champa ? with the view of reaching Bhoga after a long vogage, in order to become the ladders for all beings, or the boats, to carry them across the sea of passion. While we were glad to accomplish our resolutions as soon as possible, we hoped not to fall in the middle of our journey. {Chéng-ku, Tao-hung, and two other priests followed I-tsing and studied Sfitras three years in Bhoga; Tao-hung was then (689) twenty years old, and, when I-tsing wrote the Memoirs, twenty-three years®.] “I, I-tsing, met Ta-ts‘in in Sribhoga (where he came a.p. 683). I requested him to return home to ask an imperial favour in building a temple in the West. When he saw that benefits would be great and large (had this petition been granted), . Ta-ts'iin disregarding his own life agreed to re-cross the vast ocean. It is on the fifteenth day of the fifth month in the third year of the Tien-shou period (692) ‘that he takes a merchant ship to return to Ch'ang-an (Si-an-fu), Now I send with him a new translation of various Sfitras and Sistras in ten volumes, the Nan-hai-chi-kuei-nai-fa-ch'uan (the Record) in four volumes, and the Ta-t'ang-si- yu-ku-fa-kao-séng-ch'uan (the Memoirs) in two volumes. * A hill situated near Kwang-tung, where Chéng-ku lived. ? Zampa of Odoric (about 1323 A.D.) ; Chamba of Marco Polo (1288 A.D.). Skt. Xampa. 3 Chavannes. pp. 18. 187. cg Se ake eee eer ed a LIFE AND TRAVELS OF I-TSING. xxxvii Ill. His Return Home, to his Death. The Biography ?