CHAPTER XXXVI
~F‚-Hien's Indian Studies~
From V‚r‚nasÓ the travellers went back east to P‚taliputtra. F‚-hien's original object had been to search for copies of the Vinaya. In the various kingdoms of North India, however, he had found one master transmitting orally the rules to another, but no written copies which he could transcribe. He had therefore travelled far and come on to Central India. Here, in the mah‚y‚na monastery, he found a copy of the Vinaya, containing the Mah‚s‚nghik‚ [1] rules—those which were observed in the first Great Council, while Buddha was still in the world. The original copy was handed down in the Jetavana vih‚ra. As to the other eighteen schools, each one has the views and decisions of its own masters. Those agree with this in the general meaning, but they have small and trivial differences, as when one opens and another shuts. This copy of the rules, however, is the most complete, with the fullest explanations. [2]
He further got a transcript of the rules in six or seven thousand g‚thas, [3] being the sarv‚stiv‚d‚h [4] rules—those which are observed by the communities of monks in the land of Ts'in; which also have all been handed down orally from master to master without being committed to writing. In the community here, moreover, he got the Samyukt‚bhi-dharma-hridaya-s‚stra, containing about six or seven thousand g‚thas; he also got a SŻtra of two thousand five hundred g‚thas; one chapter of the Pari-nirv‚na-vaipulya SŻtra, of about five thousand g‚thas; and the Mah‚s‚nghik‚ Abhidharma.
In consequence of this success in his quest F‚-hien stayed here for three years, learning Sanscrit books and the Sanscrit speech, and writing out, the Vinaya rules. When T‚o-ching arrived in the Central Kingdom, and saw the rules observed by the Sramanas, and the dignified demeanor in their societies which he remarked under all occurring circumstances, he sadly called to mind in what a mutilated and imperfect condition the rules were among the monkish communities in the land of Ts'in, and made the following aspiration: "From this time forth till I come to the state of Buddha, let me not be born in a frontier-land." He remained accordingly in India, and did not return to the land of Han. F‚-hien, however, whose original purpose had been to secure the introduction of the complete Vinaya rules into the land of Han, returned there alone.
[Footnote 1: Mah‚s‚nghik‚ simply means "the Great Assembly," that is, of monks.]
[Footnote 2: It was afterwards translated by F‚-hien into Chinese.]
[Footnote 3: A g‚tha is a stanza, generally consisting of a few, commonly of two, lines somewhat metrically arranged.]
[Footnote 4: "A branch," says Eitel, "of the great vaibh‚shika school, asserting the reality of all visible phenomena, and claiming the authority of R‚hula.">[