620 



MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



[Part Y. 



appears to have proceeded overland by way of India, 

 and was ten years before reacliing t]:e capital of China. 

 It was the bearer of "a jade-stone image of Buddha, 

 exhibiting every colour in purity and richness, in work- 

 manship unique, and appearing to be beyond human 

 art." 1 



During the same century there were four other em- 

 bassies from Ceylon. One a.d. 428, when the King 

 Cha-cha Mo-ho-nan (Eaja Maha Naama) sent an ad- 

 dress to the emperor, which will be found in the history 

 of the Northern Sung dynasty^, together with a "model 

 of the shrine of the tooth," as a token of fidelity ; — 

 two in A.D. 430 and a.d. 435 ; and a fourth a.d. 456, 

 when five priests, of whom one was Nante, the celebrated 

 sculptor, brought as a gift to the emperor a " three-fold 

 image of Buddha." ^ 



According to the Chinese annahsts, the kings of 

 Ceylon, in the sixth century, acknowledged themselves 

 vassals of the Emperor of China, and in the year 515, 

 on the occasion of Kumara Das raising the chatta, an 

 envoy was despatched with tribute to China, together 

 with an address, announcing the royal accession, in 

 which the king intimates that he " had been desirous to 

 go in person, but Avas deterred by fear of winds and 

 waves." '^ 



the island of Ceylon." — De:lvne and 

 Fall, c. xl. 



^ Leanf/shoo, A.D. COO, b. liv. p. 

 13. The ultimate fate of this re- 

 nowned work of art is related in the 

 Leang-shoo, and several other of the 

 Chinese chronicles. Throughout the 

 Tsin and Sung dynasties it was pre- 

 served in the Wa-kwan monastery at 

 Nankin, along vsdth five other statues 

 and three paintings which were es- 

 teemed chefs-d'oeuvre. The jade- 

 stone image was at length destroyed 

 in the time of Tung-hwan, of the 

 Ts8 dynasty ; first, the arm was 

 broken ofl^, and eventually the body 

 taken to make hair-pins and arm- 



lets for the emperor's favourite con- 

 sort PAvan. Nmi-sM, b. Ixxviii. p. 

 1.3. Ttm(/-teen, b. cxciii. p. 8. Tae- 

 ping, &c., b. dcclxxxvii. p. G. 



^ Sung-shoo, a.d. 487, b. xcvii. 

 p. 5. 



^ Probably one in each of the 

 three orthodox attitudes, — sitting in 

 meditation, standing to preach, and 

 reposing in "nirwana." Wei-shoo, 

 " History of the Wei Tartar Dynasty," 

 a.d. 590, b. cxiv. p. 9. 



* Leanq-shoo, b. liv. p. 10. Yuh~ 

 hne, " Ocean of Gems," A.D. 1331, b. 

 clii. p. 33. The latter authority an- 

 noimces in like terms two other em- 

 bassies with tribute to China, one in 



