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佛國記

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Text ID
KR2k0136
Date
414–416
Dynasty
南朝宋

Fóguó jì 佛國記

Record of the Buddha-Lands by 釋法顯 (Shì Fǎxiǎn / Faxian, ca. 337 – ca. 422) — zhuàn 撰

About the work

The 1-juan record of the Buddhist monk Faxian’s pilgrimage from Chángān to India, Sri Lanka, and back to China, undertaken in Hóngshǐ 3 / Lóngān 3 (399 CE) and completed with his return to Qīngzhōu in Yìxī 8 (412); the record was composed at Jiànkāng (modern Nánjīng) ca. 414–416 in dialogue with the Indian chánshī Buddhabhadra. Also known as the Fǎxiǎn zhuàn 法顯傳 and Fǎxiǎn xíng zhuàn 法顯行傳; the Suízhì records both titles, and the present standard form Fóguó jì derives from the Sòngshǐ yìwénzhì. Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn cites the work under the title Fǎmíng 法明 — míng substituted for xiǎn under the Táng Zhōngzōng taboo (Lǐ Xiǎn 李顯). The work is the earliest extant Chinese-language monograph on India and Central Asia from on-the-ground observation, the principal pre-Xuán-zàng source for fifth-century Indian and Central-Asian Buddhist culture, and one of the foundational texts of Chinese pilgrimage literature.

The work is in the Sìkù under category 10 (wàijì zhī shǔ, “outer-region records”). Although Faxian was a Buddhist monk, the present work is here not in KR6 (the Buddhist canon proper) but in the historical-geographical division as a foreign-record (Sìkù Shǐbù dìlǐlèi 10).

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Fóguó jì in one juan was composed by Shì Fǎxiǎn of Sòng. Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn cites this work also as Fǎmíng; presumably Zhōngzōng tabooed Xiǎn, and Táng-period persons substituted Míng — hence the original note “guóhuì gǎi yān” (avoiding the dynastic taboo, hence changed) in four characters. Fǎxiǎn in Yìxī of Jìn (399–411) travelled from Chángān to Tiānzhú (India), passing through more than thirty countries; on returning to the capital, in cross-discussion with the Indian chánshī (Buddhabhadra) he established and composed this work.

Hú Zhènhēng cut it into the Mìcèhán; following the old title he calls it Fóguó jì; but Zhènhēng’s appended colophon says it should be named Fǎxiǎn zhuàn. Now examining: Lì Dàoyuán’s Shuǐjīng zhù cites this work — saying “from this following the ridge southwest he travelled fifteen days” and so on for 89 characters; and again citing “the upper stream of the Hēngshuǐ has a country” and so on for 276 characters — both call it Fǎxiǎn zhuàn. So Zhènhēng’s argument seems to have basis. Yet the Suízhì zázhuàn category records Fǎxiǎn zhuàn in two juan, Fǎxiǎn xíngzhuàn in one juan — without recording the compiler; while in the dìlǐ category it records Fóguó jì one juan, with the note “shāmén Shì Fǎxiǎn zhuàn” — one work doubly recorded under three names mutually appearing. So one need not necessarily change to Fǎxiǎn zhuàn.

The work treats Tiān-zhú (India) as the Central Country and the Central Country (China) as the borderland — presumably the Buddhists honour their own teaching; their absurdity is not worth disputing. Further, Yú-tián (Khotan) is today’s Hé-tián 和闐; from antiquity it has revered the Huí-huí (Islamic) teaching. The Qīn-dìng Xī-yù tú-zhì verifies this very clearly. Yet this work records that there are 14 sēng-jiā lán (saṃghārāma) and the monks number tens of thousands — what is recorded need not all be factual.

But Liùcháo old volumes have circulated rather long; the narration is dignified-and-elegant, also not what later xíngjì (travel-records) can match; preserving and broadening the strange reports is also not impossible.

The work calls Hóngshǐ 3 suìzài jǐhài. Examining: the Jìnshū — Yáo Cháng’s Hóngshǐ 2 corresponds to Lóngān 4 of Jìn — should be called gēngzǐ; what is recorded is one year off. But the Jìnshū běnjì records that Zhào Shí Hǔ Jiànwǔ 6 corresponds to Xiánkāng 5 of Jìn, suì zài jǐhài; while the Jīnshí lù records Zhào Héngshān Lǐjūn shénbēi and the Xīmén Bào cí diànjī jì both make Jiànwǔ 6 gēngzǐ, also off by one year — presumably at that time the various states fought, sometimes the year changed and the era-name changed, sometimes it didn’t. This is one possible explanation.

Abstract

The Fóguó jì is the earliest extant Chinese-language monograph on India and Central Asia from on-the-ground observation, and the foundational text of the genre of Chinese Buddhist pilgrimage literature that culminates in Xuánzàng’s Dà Táng Xīyù jì KR2k0137 and Yìjìng’s Nánhǎi jìguī nèifǎ zhuàn. It records the journey of the Chinese monk Faxian (法顯; pinyin Fǎxiǎn; conventional dates ca. 337 – ca. 422; DILA Buddhist Authority id A000750) from Chángān (399) by overland route through the Héxī corridor, Khotan, Kashgar, the Pamirs, Gandhāra, the Indus valley, the central Gangetic plain, and Magadha, to Sri Lanka and finally back to Qīngzhōu (412) by sea via Sumatra and Java; the record was composed at Jiànkāng ca. 414–416 in dialogue with Buddhabhadra (覺賢; Fótuóbátuóluó).

The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 593.4), and also in the Buddhist canon as Gāosēng Fǎxiǎn zhuàn (T 51, no. 2085), where it is conventionally taken as the canonical recension. The Sìkù tíyào notes its multiple title-traditions (Fǎxiǎn zhuàn, Fǎxiǎn xíngzhuàn, Fóguó jì) and the Tang-period Lǐ Xiǎn taboo replacement Fǎmíng in the Tōngdiǎn.

The work is the principal pre-Xuán-zàng documentary witness to: (i) early-fifth-century Khotanese Buddhism; (ii) the state of the Buddhist sites of north-west India after the Bái-Xiōng-nú (Hephthalite / Hūṇa) destructions; (iii) the early-fifth-century state of the Mahāyāna and Theravāda communities at the major Indian sites (Pāṭaliputra, Rājagṛha, Gayā, Bodh Gayā); (iv) Sri Lankan Theravāda Buddhism in the early fifth century; (v) the maritime route from Tāmraliptī through Sumatra to China.

Faxian carried back several major Sanskrit Vinaya texts and translated them — most importantly the Mahāsāṃghika-vinaya and the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra (the Dà bān ní-huán jīng) — collaboratively with Buddhabhadra; these translations are foundational to the development of fifth-century Chinese Buddhism.

Translations and research

  • James Legge, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fâ-Hien of His Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399–414) in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886; numerous reprints). The classic English translation; still the standard text-with-translation of the Chinese for general use.
  • H. A. Giles, The Travels of Fa-hsien (399–414 A.D.), or Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms (Cambridge, 1923; rev. 1956). The principal alternative English translation.
  • Samuel Beal, Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist Pilgrims, from China to India (London, 1869). The earliest complete English translation.
  • Max Deeg, Das Gaoseng-Faxian-Zhuan als religionsgeschichtliche Quelle (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005). The most thorough modern critical edition with German translation, exhaustive philological-and-historical apparatus; the standard scholarly reference.
  • Étienne Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien (Louvain, 1958), draws extensively on Faxian.
  • T. H. Barrett, “Exploratory Observations on Some Weeping Pilgrims,” in T. Skorupski, ed., The Buddhist Forum, vol. 1 (London: SOAS, 1990), pp. 99–110. On Faxian.
  • Étienne de la Vaissière in Cambridge History of China, vol. 1.
  • Wilkinson §39.7.

Other points of interest

The Fóguó jì is the foundational document of Chinese Buddhist pilgrimage literature and the principal pre-modern Chinese monograph on India in any genre. Its date of Hóngshǐ 3 suìzài jǐhài — which the Sìkù tíyào correctly notes is one year off the standard Jìnshū synchronisation — is one of the principal pieces of evidence in the long-running scholarly discussion about Yáo Cháng’s Hóngshǐ era’s actual gānzhī sequence.

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