I may be allowed to say that, so far as my own study of it has gone, I
think there are many things in the vast field of Buddhist literature
which still require to be carefully handled. How far, for instance,
are we entitled to regard the present Sutras as genuine and
sufficiently accurate copies of those which were accepted by the
Councils before our Christian era? Can anything be done to trace the
rise of the legends and marvels of Sakyamuni's history, which were
current so early (as it seems to us) as the time of Fa-hien, and which
startle us so frequently by similarities between them and narratives
in our Gospels? Dr. Hermann Oldenberg, certainly a great authority on
Buddhistic subjects, says that "a biography of Buddha has not come
down to us from ancient times, from the age of the Pali texts; and, we
can safely say, no such biography existed then" ("Buddha - His Life,
His Doctrine, His Order," as translated by Hoey, p. 78). He has also
(in the same work, pp. 99, 416, 417) come to the conclusion that the
hitherto unchallenged tradition that the Buddha was "a king's son"
must be given up. The name "king's son" (in Chinese {...}), always
used of the Buddha, certainly requires to be understood in the highest
sense. I am content myself to wait for further information on these
and other points, as the result of prolonged and careful research.
Dr. Rhys Davids has kindly read the proofs of the Translation and
Notes, and I most certainly thank him for doing so, for his many
valuable corrections in the Notes, and for other suggestions which I
have received from him. I may not always think on various points
exactly as he does, but I am not more forward than he is to say with
Horace, -
"Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri."
I have referred above, and also in the Introduction, to the Corean
text of Fa-hien's narrative, which I received from Mr. Nanjio. It is
on the whole so much superior to the better-known texts, that I
determined to attempt to reproduce it at the end of the little volume,
so far as our resources here in Oxford would permit. To do so has not
been an easy task. The two fonts of Chinese types in the Clarendon
Press were prepared primarily for printing the translation of our
Sacred Scriptures, and then extended so as to be available for
printing also the Confucian Classics; but the Buddhist work
necessarily requires many types not found in them, while many other
characters in the Corean recension are peculiar in their forms, and
some are what Chinese dictionaries denominate "vulgar." That we have
succeeded so well as we have done is owing chiefly to the
intelligence, ingenuity, and untiring attention of Mr. J. C. Pembrey,
the Oriental Reader.
The pictures that have been introduced were taken from a superb
edition of a History of Buddha, republished recently at Hang-chau in
Cheh-kiang, and profusely illustrated in the best style of Chinese
art. I am indebted for the use of it to the Rev. J. H. Sedgwick,
University Chinese Scholar.
James Legge.
Oxford:
June, 1886.
[ PICTURE: SKETCH MAP OF FA-HIEN'S TRAVELS ]
The accompanying Sketch-Map, taken in connexion with the notes on the
different places in the Narrative, will give the reader a sufficiently
accurate knowledge of Fa-hien's route.
There is no difficulty in laying it down after he crossed the Indus
from east to west into the Punjab, all the principal places, at which
he touched or rested, having been determined by Cunningham and other
Indian geographers and archaeologists. Most of the places from Ch'ang-
an to Bannu have also been identified. Woo-e has been put down as near
Kutcha, or Kuldja, in 43d 25s N., 81d 15s E. The country of K'ieh-ch'a
was probably Ladak, but I am inclined to think that the place where
the traveller crossed the Indus and entered it must have been further
east than Skardo. A doubt is intimated on page 24 as to the
identification of T'o-leih with Darada, but Greenough's "Physical and
Geological Sketch-Map of British India" shows "Dardu Proper," all
lying on the east of the Indus, exactly in the position where the
Narrative would lead us to place it. The point at which Fa-hien
recrossed the Indus into Udyana on the west of it is unknown.
Takshasila, which he visited, was no doubt on the west of the river,
and has been incorrectly accepted as the Taxila of Arrian in the
Punjab. It should be written Takshasira, of which the Chinese
phonetisation will allow; - see a note of Beal in his "Buddhist Records
of the Western World," i. 138.
We must suppose that Fa-hien went on from Nan-king to Ch'ang-an, but
the Narrative does not record the fact of his doing so.
INTRODUCTION
Life of Fa-Hien; Genuineness and Integrity of the Text of his
Narrative; Number of the Adherents of Buddhism.
1. Nothing of great importance is known about Fa-hien in addition to
what may be gathered from his own record of his travels. I have read
the accounts of him in the "Memoirs of Eminent Monks," compiled in
A.D. 519, and a later work, the "Memoirs of Marvellous Monks," by the
third emperor of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1403-1424), which, however, is
nearly all borrowed from the other; and all in them that has an
appearance of verisimilitude can be brought within brief compass.
His surname, they tell us, was Kung, and he was a native of Wu-yang in
P'ing-Yang, which is still the name of a large department in Shan-hsi.
He had three brothers older than himself; but when they all died
before shedding their first teeth, his father devoted him to the
service of the Buddhist society, and had him entered as a Sramanera,
still keeping him at home in the family.
