who were all students of the hînayâna1. The common people of this and other kingdoms (in that region), as well as the śramans2, all practise the rules of India 3, only that the latter do so more exactly, and the former more loosely. So (the travellers) found it in all the kingdoms through which they went on their way from this to the west, only that each had its own peculiar barbarous speech *. (The monks), however, who had (given up the worldly life) and quitted their families, were all students of Indian books and the Indian language. Here they stayed for about a month, and then proceeded on their journey, fifteen days walking to the north-west bringing them to the country of Woo-e5. In this also there were more

1 Meaning the small vehicle, or conveyance.' There are in Buddhism the triyâna, or three different means of salvation, i. e. of conveyance across the samsâra, or sea of transmigration, to the shores of nirvâņa. Afterwards the term was used to designate the different phases of development through which the Buddhist dogma passed, known as the mahâyâna, hînayâna, and madhyamayâna.' 'The hînayâna 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.

2 The name for India is here the same as in the former chapter and throughout the book,-Teen-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'

(F), and the court of China itself is called 'the Celestial' (§).

36

Śraman' may in English take the place of Śramana (Pâli, Samana; in Chinese, Shâ-măn), 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. Tartar or Mongolian.

5 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

than four thousand monks, all students of the hînayâna. They were very strict in their rules, so that śramans from the territory of Ts'in1 were all unprepared for their regulations. Fâ-hien, through the management of Foo Kung-sun, maître d'hôtellerie2, was able to remain (with his company in the monastery where they were received) for more than two months, and here they were rejoined by Pâo-yun and his friends 3. (At the end of that time) the people of Woo-e neglected the duties of propriety and righteousness, and treated the strangers in so niggardly a manner that Che-yen, Hwuy-keen, and Hwuy-wei went back towards Kâo-ch'ang, hoping to obtain there the means of continuing their journey. Fâ-hien and the rest, however, through the liberality of Foo Kung-sun, managed to go straight forward in a south-west direction. They found the country uninhabited as they went along. The difficulties

Kutscha.' It must have been a country of considerable size to have so many monks in it.

1 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.

2 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 maître d'hôtellerie 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. 3 Whom they had left behind them at T'un-hwang.

=

The country of the Ouighurs, the district around the modern Turfan or Tangut.

which they encountered in crossing the streams and on their route, and the sufferings which they endured, were unparalleled in human experience, but in the course of a month and five days they succeeded in reaching Yu-teen 1.

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 2. The monks amount to several myriads, most of whom are students of the mahâyâna3. They all receive their food from the common store. Throughout the

1 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 mount ins, for more than 300 miles from east to west. The town of the same name, now called Ilchî, is in an extensive plain on the Khoten river, in lat. 37° N., and lon. 80° 35′ E. After the Tungâni insurrection against Chinese rule in 1862, the Mufti Hâji 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).

2 This fondness for music among the Khoteners is mentioned by Hsüan Ch'wang and others.

3

Mahâyâna; see note I on p. 14. It is a later form of the Buddhist doctrine, the second phase of its development corresponding to the state of a Bodhisattva, who, being able to transport himself and all mankind to nirvâņa, may be compared to a huge vehicle. See Davids on the Key-note of the "Great Vehicle," Hibbert Lectures, p. 254.

Fâ-hien supplies sufficient information of how the common store or funds of the monasteries were provided, farther on in chapters xvi and xxxix, as well as in other passages. As the point is important, I will give here, from Davids' fifth Hibbert Lecture (p. 178), some of the words of the dying Buddha, taken from 'The Book of the Great Decease,' as illustrating the statement in this text:-'So

country the houses of the people stand apart like (separate) stars, and each family has a small tope1 reared in front of its door. The smallest of these may be twenty cubits high, or rather more 2. They make (in the monasteries) rooms for monks from all quarters 2, 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 called Gomati 3, of the mahâyâna school. Attached to it there are three thousand monks, who

long as the brethren shall persevere in kindness of action, speech, and thought among the saints, both in public and private; so long as they shall divide without partiality, and share in common with the upright and holy, all such things as they receive in accordance with the just provisions of the order, down even to the mere contents of a begging bowl; .... so long may the brethren be expected not to decline, but to prosper.'

1 The Chinese (tah; in Cantonese, t'ap), as used by Fâ-hien, is, no doubt, a phonetisation of the Sanskrit stûpa or Pâli thûpa; and it is well in translating to use for the structures described by him the name of topes,-made familiar by Cunningham and other Indian antiquarians. In the thirteenth chapter there is an account of one built under the superintendence of Buddha himself, as a model for all topes in future.' They were usually in the form of bell-shaped domes, and were solid, surmounted by a long tapering pinnacle formed with a series of rings, varying in number. But their form, I suppose, was often varied; just as we have in China pagodas of different shapes. There are several topes now in the Indian Institute at Oxford, brought from Buddha Gâyâ, but the largest of them is much smaller than 'the smallest' of those of Khoten. They were intended chiefly to contain relics of Buddha and famous masters of his Law; but what relics could there be in the Triratna topes of chapter xvi?

2 The meaning here is much disputed. The author does not mean to say that the monk's apartments were made 'square,' but that the monasteries were made with many guest-chambers or spare rooms.

3

The Sanskrit term for a monastery is used here,-Sanghârâma, 'gardens of the assembly,' originally denoting only 'the surrounding park, but afterwards. transferred to the whole of the premises' (E. H., p. 118). Gomati, the name of this monastery, means 'rich in cows.'

d

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 men1 require food, they are not allowed to call out (to the attendants) for it, but only make signs with their hands.

Hwuy-king, Tâo-ching, and Hwuy-tah set out in advance towards the country of K'ech-ch'â; but Fâ-hien and the others, wishing to see the procession of images, remained behind for three months. There are in this country four 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, take up their residence (for the time).

The monks of the Gomati monastery, being mahâyâna students, and held in greatest reverence by the king, took precedence of all the 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 5 were grandly displayed about it, with silken streamers and

1 A denomination for the monks as vimala, 'undefiled' or 'pure.' Giles makes it 'the menials that attend on the monks,' but I have not met with it in that application.

2 K'eeh-ch'â has not been clearly identified. Rémusat made it Cashmere ; Klaproth, Iskardu; Beal makes it Kartchou; and Eitel, Khas'a, 'an ancient tribe on the Paropamisus, the Kasioi of Ptolemy.' I think it was Ladak, or some wellknown place in it. Hwuy-tah, unless that name be an alias, appears here for the first time.

3 Instead of 'four,' the Chinese copies of the text have 'fourteen;' but the Corean reading is, probably, more correct.

4 There may have been, as Giles says, 'maids of honour;' but the character

does not say so.

The Sapta-ratna, gold, silver, lapis lazuli, rock crystal, rubies, diamonds