A record of Buddhistic kingdoms being an account by the Chinese monk of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline / translated and annotated with a Corean recension of the Chinese text by James Legge.

  • Faxian, approximately 337-approximately 422.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A record of Buddhistic kingdoms being an account by the Chinese monk of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline / translated and annotated with a Corean recension of the Chinese text by James Legge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/214 (page 13)
    followed the spelling of Morrison rather than the Pekinese, which is now in vogue. We cannot tell exactly what the pronunciation of them was, about fifteen hundred years ago, in the time of Fa-hien ; but the southern mandarin must be a shade nearer to it than that of Peking at the present day. In transliterating the Indian names I have for the most part followed Dr. Eitel, with such modification as seemed good and in harmony with growing usage. For the Notes I can do little more than claim the merit of selection and condensation. My first object in them was to explain what in the text required explanation to an English reader. All Chinese texts, and Buddhist texts especially, are new to foreign students. One has to do for them what many hundreds of the ablest scholars in Europe have done for the Greek and Latin Classics during several hundred years, and what the thousands of critics and commentators have been doing for our Sacred Scriptures for nearly eighteen centuries. There are few pre- decessors in the field of Chinese literature into whose labours translators of the present century can enter. 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-hien than by reading didactic descriptions and argumentative books. Such has been my own experience. The books which I have consulted for these notes have been many, besides Chinese works. My principal help has been the full and masterly handbook of Eitelj mentioned already, and often referred to as E. H. Spence Hardy’s ‘ Eastern Monachism ’ (E. M.) and < Manual of Buddhism ’ (M. B.) have been constantly in hand, as well as Rhys Davids，Buddhism, published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, his Hibbert Lectures, and his Buddhist Suttas in the Sacred Books of the East, and other writings. I need not mention other authorities, having endeavoured always to specify them where I make use of them. My proximity and access to the Bodleian Library and the Indian Institute have been of great advantage.