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.
