A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 180 pages of information about A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms.

A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 180 pages of information about A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms.
a sort of fourth Pitaka.  See Nanjio’s fourth division of the Canon, containing Indian and Chinese miscellaneous works.  But Dr. Davids says that no work of this name is known either in Sanskrit or Pali literature.

   (4) We have in the text a phonetisation of the Sanskrit Kundika, which
   is explained in Eitel by the two characters that follow, as="washing
   basin,” but two things evidently are intended.

   (5) See chap. xvi, note 23.

(6) At his novitiate Fa-hien had sought the refuge of the “three Precious Ones” (the three Refuges {.} {.} of last chapter), of which the congregation or body of the monks was one; and here his thoughts turn naturally to the branch of it in China.  His words in his heart were not exactly words of prayer, but very nearly so.

   (7) In the text {.} {.}, ta-fung, “the great wind,"=the typhoon.

(8) They had got to the south of the Shan-tung promontory, and the foot of mount Lao, which still rises under the same name on the extreme south of the peninsula, east from Keao Chow, and having the district of Tsieh-mih on the east of it.  All the country there is included in the present Phing-too Chow of the department Lae-chow.  The name Phing-too dates from the Han dynasty, but under the dynasty of the After Ch’e {.} {.}, (A.D. 479-501), it was changed into Ch’ang-kwang.  Fa-hien may have lived, and composed the narrative of his travels, after the change of name was adopted.  See the Topographical Tables of the different Dynasties ({.} {.} {.} {.} {.}), published in 1815.
(9) What these vegetables exactly were it is difficult to say; and there are different readings of the characters for them.  Williams’ Dictionary, under kwoh, brings the two names together in a phrase, but the rendering of it is simply “a soup of simples.”  For two or three columns here, however, the text appears to me confused and imperfect.
(10) I suppose these men were really hunters; and, when brought before Fa-hien, because he was a Sramana, they thought they would please him by saying they were disciples of Buddha.  But what had disciples of Buddha to do with hunting and taking life?  They were caught in their own trap, and said they were looking for peaches.
(11) The Chinese character here has occurred twice before, but in a different meaning and connexion.  Remusat, Beal, and Giles take it as equivalent to “to sacrifice.”  But his followers do not “sacrifice” to Buddha.  That is a priestly term, and should not be employed of anything done at Buddhistic services.

   (12) Probably the present department of Yang-chow in Keang-soo; but
   as I have said in a previous note, the narrative does not go on so
   clearly as it generally does.

   (13) Was, or could, this prefect be Le E?

   (14) Probably not Ch’ang-gan, but Nan-king, which was the capital of
   the Eastern Tsin dynasty under another name.

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A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.