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The text only says that they set out from Khoten "towards it." Tsze-hoh has not been identified. Beal thinks it was Yarkand, which, however, was north-west from Khoten. As it took Fa-Hsien twenty-five days to reach it, it must have been at least 150 miles from Khoten. Nor has Yu-hwuy been clearly identified. Evidently it was directly south from Tsze-hoh, and among the "Onion" mountains.
Fa-Hsien, however, whose original purpose had been to secure the introduction of the complete Vinaya rules into the land of Han, returned there alone. Mentioned before in chapter xxvii. Mahasanghikah simply means "the Great Assembly," that is, of monks. When was this first assembly in the time of Sakyamuni held? It does not appear that the rules observed at it were written down at the time.
Beal says, "There is a full account of this perilous visit of Fa-Hsien, and how he was attacked by tigers, in the 'History of the High Priests." But "the high priests" merely means distinguished monks, "eminent monks," as Mr. Nanjio exactly renders the adjectival character. Nor was Fa-Hsien "attacked by tigers" on the peak. No "tigers" appear in the Memoir.
Hwuy-king came to his end in the monastery of Buddha's alms-bowl, and on this Fa-Hsien went forward alone towards the place of the flat-bone of Buddha's skull. The modern Peshawur, lat. 34d 8s N., lon. 71d 30s E. A first cousin of Sakyamuni, and born at the moment when he attained to Buddhaship.
Eitel says, "The Taxila of the Greeks, the region near Hoosun Abdaul in lat. 35d 48s N., lon. 72d 44s E." But this identification, I am satisfied, is wrong. So far he may be correct; but the Takshasila of Fa-Hsien was on the other, or western side of the Indus; and between the river and Gandhara.
These, like Fa-Hsien itself, are all what we might call "clerical" names, appellations given to the parties as monks or sramanas. Dr. However this be, it was about the vinaya works that Fa-Hsien was chiefly concerned. He wanted a good code of the rules for the government of "the Order" in all its internal and external relations.
This will be received, I hope, as a sufficient apology for the minuteness and length of some of the notes. A second object in them was to teach myself first, and then others, something of the history and doctrines of Buddhism. I have thought that they might be learned better in connexion with a lively narrative like that of Fa-Hsien than by reading didactic descriptions and argumentative books.
In former times men had chiselled paths along the rocks, and distributed ladders on the face of them, to the number altogether of 700, at the bottom of which there was a suspension bridge of ropes, by which the river was crossed, its banks being there eighty paces apart. The monks asked Fa-Hsien if it could be known when the Law of Buddha first went to the east.
Such is all the information given about our author, beyond what he himself has told us. Fa-Hsien was his clerical name, and means "Illustrious in the Law," or "Illustrious master of the Law." The Shih which often precedes it is an abbreviation of the name of Buddha as Sakyamuni, "the Sakya, mighty in Love, dwelling in Seclusion and Silence," and may be taken as equivalent to Buddhist.
We naturally suppose that the merchant-offerer was a Chinese, as indeed the Chinese texts say, and the fan such as Fa-Hsien had seen and used in his native land. This should be the pippala, or bodhidruma, generally spoken of, in connexion with Buddha, as the Bo tree, under which he attained to the Buddhaship. It is strange our author should have confounded them as he seems to do.
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