The travels of Fa-hsien (399-414 A.D.), or Record of the Buddhistic kingdoms / retranslated by H.A. Giles.
- Faxian
- Date:
- 1923
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The travels of Fa-hsien (399-414 A.D.), or Record of the Buddhistic kingdoms / retranslated by H.A. Giles. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![NOTE BY HU C扫EN-HENG [A distinguished scholar of the Ming dynasty, 1368-1644] old title of this work was The Nanative 1 of Fa -hsien, but according to a note by a Buddhist priest of the Sung dynasty (a.d. 420- 479), it should be called Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms. Such a work as the latter, in one volume, occurs only in the geographical section of the History of the Sui dynasty (a.d. 581-618), so that the above statement does not appear to have sufficient foundation. There were originally two Narratives of Fa-hsien, the first of which, in two parts, has been lost, and the second, in one volume, is the work we have now. At the end of the narrative a man of the Chin dynasty (a.d. 317-420) added these words: ‘‘I therefore urged him to write out in detail that which so far he had merely sketched, and he retold the whole story from beginning to end. This must have been the single volume, which was afterwards expanded into a more detailed account in two volumes, but never became popular in that form and dis¬ appeared. A Buddhist priest of the Liang dynasty (a.d. 502—557), named Hui-chiao, states that there was another and more extensive Narrative of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31351803_0106.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
