characterises Foë Kouë Ki and the other works, that I beg to have recourse to his language:-"The description of the Buddhist kingdoms, which is the object of the present publication, has reference to the half of the second period of M. Remusat1." In many other works, M. Remusat endeavoured to show that the Chinese had learnt to make the tour of Asia, long before Europeans had doubled the Cape of Good Hope; and that they were not so ignorant in practical geography, as people are generally disposed to believe. Numerous texts prove in an incontestible manner the part which they had taken, two centuries before our era, in the events and commerce of Western Asia. From that time they never ceased to entertain either amicable or hostile, commercial or political relations with the inhabitants of those two lines of towns which seemed to trace through Tartary the road from China to Persia. In the century that preceded the birth of Christ, they sought to contract an alliance with the kings of Bactriana; and subsequently the last members of the Sassanides, overthrown in Persia by the Arabs, sought refuge with the Emperor Taï-tsoung. The Chinese profited by all these events to obtain a knowledge of the places of which they were the theatre; but above all, it is to the religious communications established and entertained by Buddhism that they owe the most precious part of the knowledge which they collected respecting foreign nations. Never did the ambition of conquest, nor the appetite of gain, conduct into countries so far removed as those into which the zeal of proselytism penetrated; and it is not without admiration, mixed with astonishment, that we see humble ecclesiastics cross the rivers and the seas which had stopped armies, traverse deserts and mountains into which no caravan had dared to penetrate, and brave perils, and surmount obstacles, which had set at nought the all-powerful will of emperors: some of them to sow at a distance the belief to which they themselves were attached; and others to verify the principles of their faith, in the country which gave them birth, and to visit the places rendered sacred by events in the life of Buddha." "The most ancient of these religious undertakings, of which history preserves mention, is that of the travels of Lao-tseu to the west, in the sixth century before our era. Whatever opinion may be entertained of the authenticity of this tradition, and particularly as the circumstances that he reports are not all equally worthy of credence, it is beyond all doubt that at extremely remote periods there was a kind of reciprocity in the importations into China of the doctrine of Buddha, and in the propagation beyond the limits of this country

of the precepts of Lao-tseu. It follows from many passages in Foë

1 M. Remusat divides his history of Buddhism into three periods.

Kouë-ki that the philosophical sect which acknowledged Lao-tseu as its head and founder was, at the commencement of the fifth century before our era, already from an early period dispersed in the countries situated to the west and south-west of China, and even in India. Moreover, we could not well deny the analogy which exists between the opinions of the Doctors of Reason (Lao-tseu) and those of the Buddhists-an analogy which extends to the very base of their doctrines, as well as to the details of the popular belief, and which is removed too far from the circle of truths and of errors, which constantly lead men to the same point, to permit us to believe that this analogy should have sprung up in two countries independent of all communication, or of some traditional influence. A Buddhist priest, of the name of Chi li fang, appears to have been the first Buddhist missionary who came to China from the westward to propagate his faith. He arrived in Chan si in the year 217 before our era; thus this province, which passes for having been the seat of the government of the first sovereigns of China, and where there is every reason to believe that Chinese civilization had its birth, was also the first to become acquainted with Buddhism. Chi li fang was accompanied by eighteen ecclesiastics, and had some sacred books with him. Under Ai ti, of the dynasty of Han, in the first year of Youan Chiou, (two years before Jesus Christ,) some other books were taken by I tsun Keow, who was sent from the nation of the Getes1; and about the same time the king of their country ordered a learned disciple of the sect of Buddha, named King lou, to proceed to India to study [verify?] the precepts of Buddhism. At this period, says the Chinese historian, the Buddhist sectaries were dispersed throughout our frontiers, and their doctrine was known in the empire, but it was not professed. That which may be called its official adoption did not occur until about sixty years afterwards. Buddha having manifested himself in a dream to the Emperor Mingti, this prince charged several learned individuals to collect in Hindústan information respecting the Buddhist religion, to copy its precepts, and to draw its temples and images. They returned accompanied by two ecclesiastics. It was then that Central China commenced to possess Buddhist priests, and that their religion was publicly professed. By frequent and regular communications from China to India it reached most of the nations of interior Asia: some received it from the labours of zealous missionaries; and others sent pious pilgrims to search for it in the countries where it was known to have been long held in honour.

1 Scythians.

"Before the end of the second century very many Buddhist priests had arrived in China from Bokhara, from the country of the Getes, and from Hindústan, to form religious establishments; and they preached their doctrines, and taught the languages of India.

"In the year A.D. 257, a Chinese Buddhist travelled over the lesser Bokhara; and in 265 a Scythian, who had collected in the countries of the West numerous holy books, had arrived in China to translate them. The notice which M. Remusat has devoted to Fo thou tchhing in the Universal Biography informs us of the influence which this Buddhist priest, from Hindústan, exercised in the beginning of the fourth century in the north and west of the Chinese empire. The disciples which he united in crowds around him extended his fame: the people ran to profit by his sermons, and to witness his miracles. Many embraced a religious and contemplative life; and this may be looked upon as the period in which Buddhism made the greatest progress in China. Sangadeva, Fo tho ye ho, Tan ma ye ho, and, above all, Kieou ma lo chi, the first a native of Cophene, and the others of Hindústan, trod in the steps of Fo thou tchhing, and, like him, powerfully contributed to extend the influence of the new religion."

M. Landresse now introduces the author of Foë Kouë Ki, the book from which my notes are chiefly taken. He says of the traveller that he was "a Buddhist priest, belonging to the clerical school, of which Kieou ma lo chi was the head. His family name was Koung, and his ancestors were originally from Ping yang, in Chan si. Dedicated to the monastic life from his birth, he received at the age of three years, when he was made a Cha me, or disciple, or aspirant, one of those religious names which is imitated from similar Indian terms, and which indicate some moral or ascetic idea. That which was then given to him, and the only one by which it is permitted us to know him, is Chy Fa Hian, or, shortly, Fa hian, which signifies 'Manifestation of the Law.' The wisdom and holiness of Kieou ma lo chi continually attracted to Tchhang'an (now Si'an fou) a great concourse of devout persons; and it was there that Fa hian came to complete his theological studies; and after having been initiated in all the mysteries of the esoteric doctrine, he received the final precepts, and obtained the quality or dignity of Samanean, or priest of Buddha. But the wars, which lost to the Imperial Dynasty almost the whole of the northern part of China, and occasioned its division amongst a number of petty Thibetan and Tartar princes, proved fatal to Buddhism. At the end of the fourth century of our era, the sacred texts were found to be mutilated or

dispersed, the precepts were neglected or abandoned, all zeal became extinct, and the faith, wanting lights and support, ceased to operate. Profoundly afflicted at this state of things, Fa hian quitted his native land, and directed his steps towards those countries watered by the holy rivers. Many of his co-religionists joined with him, and in the year of our era 399 the little band were beyond the frontiers of China. They crossed all Tartary; they penetrated into the mountains of Thibet, where are the highest chains of the globe. By means of cords, and flying bridges, and steps hewn in the rock, they cleared otherwise inaccessible valleys, and precipices of 8000 feet in height: they twice passed the Indus, and followed the banks of the Ganges to the sea. There Fa hian alone remained of the little band that had set out with him. He embarked for Ceylon, whence, after having navigated the Indian seas for nearly three months, touching at Java, he returned to Tchhang'an, in the year A.D. 414, having travelled about twelve hundred leagues by land, and more than two thousand by He had traversed thirty kingdoms, visited all the places which tradition had rendered sacred, and above all, said he, 'I could not but admire the virtues, the piety, and the regular conduct of the Buddhist ecclesiastics.'

sea.

But spectacles less gratifying awaited him in his native country. Since his departure, the state of the Buddhists was not ameliorated. A violent persecution was preparing against them in the north of China, which burst forth about the middle of the fifth century, and for a time arrested their progress. They were obliged to fly or conceal themselves, and their books became a prey to the flames. But from the first years of the next century, they were seen to make other efforts, to recommence by new means to render popular their belief, and to re-establish their religious traditions upon the authority of the originals. In the year A.D. 502, Soung-yun and Hoeï-seng traversed the countries of Badakshhan, Oudyâna, Kandahar, and Eastern Persia. Fifteen years afterwards the emperor Ming ti sent Yun [surnamed the Samanêen], Fa lí, and others, into the western countries to study the books of Buddha. In A.D. 650 Hiuan thsang was on his way back to China, after an absence of more than twenty years, employed in visiting Tokharestan, Afghanistan, Scind, and almost every part of Hindústan. It is he who extended his steps the farthest; at least the narrative of his travels, which contains a description of 140 different countries, is the most extended and detailed of all those with which we are acquainted from Chinese authorities. About the same time, the sovereign of Kashgar sent the mantle of Sákya [Buddha], as a precious relic to the emperor Kao tsoung. There is also in two

books, a catalogue of the narratives, written by fifty-six ecclesiastics, who, during the three centuries that the dynasty of Tang lasted, undertook travels in the West. But the most considerable expedition is that which took place in 964 of our era. In conformity with a decree of the emperor Taï tsou, three hundred Buddhist priests set out for Hindústan to collect reliques of Buddha, and books written upon the leaves of the Latanier tree. There was amongst them a man versed in the knowledge of the three doctrines-those of Confucius, of Lao tseu, and Buddha; his name was Wang, and he was a native of Hoei tcheou, and it was he who edited the narrative of the expedition. The narrative is not very detailed; but the accounts of different countries merit the more attention, as they relate to a period at which we have very imperfect ideas respecting the state of the kingdoms situated to the westward of China, and many particulars are found mentioned, of which we have but slight knowledge from other sources."

M. Landresse then indulges in some admirable reflections on the singularity and importance of our finding in Chinese literature these new lights with respect to India, but which my limits will not admit of my detailing. He then adds, that "Fa hian, Soung yun, and Hiuan thsang, had each traversed the same countries at the lapse of a century from each other. Their narratives offer for distinct and well-determined epochs details often similar, but sometimes different; and these compared and discussed, fix very important points in religious chronology, and furnish, respecting the history and geography of Hindústan in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, very valuable information. But the state of Buddhism, and that of all Asia, in Fa hian's time, recommends his narrative peculiarly to our notice, and has occasioned M. Remusat to accord to it a preference over the other two, which it does not owe entirely to its precedence. Then in effect, India seemed (so to use the expression) to have passed its bounds; Buddhism had penetrated everywhere, and at the same time in extending itself to a distance, this religion preserved in the places of its birth, its influence of fourteen hundred years'.

"In Central India, according to Fa hian, it had lost nothing of its superiority over Brahmanism. If in some countries the Brahmans had banished the practice and ceremonies of Buddhism, the advantages assured to its followers had nevertheless not ceased to exist; and Benares, so renowned in our days as an ancient school of the wisdom of the Brahmans, was peopled by Buddhist priests. The narrative of Soung yun, and that of Hiuan thsang, on the contrary, prove that the Brahmans had obtained the supremacy in the sixth and 1 M. Remusat follows the Chinese in the date of Sakya's birth.