The pictures that have been introduced were taken from a superb edition of a History of Buddha, republished recently at Hang-châu 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.
Sketch Map Of Fâ-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 Fâ-Hien’s route.
There is no difficulty in laying it down after he crossed the Indus from east to west into the Punjâb, 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 43° 25′ N., 81° 15′ 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 Fâ-Hien recrossed the Indus into Udyâna 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 Punjâb. 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 Fâ-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 Fâ-Hien; Genuineness and Integrity of the Text of his Narrative; Number of the Adherents of Buddhism.