DISCOVERY 



311 



science to the task of harnessing the world's resources, 

 and of an increasing spirit of international friendship 

 in the general march forward of humanity, that we 

 shall rest content if our journal has lit a small torch 

 on the pathway of progress. 



A Buddhist Traveller of 

 the Fifth Century A.D. 



At a time when " self-interest " is advocated as a moral 

 code to influence the actions of individuals and nations, 

 it is encouraging to turn to the lives and teachings of 

 the founders of the two greatest religions the world has 

 yet been given, Buddhism and Clyistianity, and to those 

 of the men who subsequently spread and fostered them. 



It will be remembered how Gautama Buddha left his 

 young wife and one-day-old child, and rode away into the 

 Indian night, having renounced everything that was 

 precious to him. That was 2,500 years ago, and many 

 travels, pilgrimages, and wanderings have since been 

 performed by his followers. None, perhaps, has been 

 more remarkable than the travels of Fa-hsien, wliich 

 even vie with the journeyings of St. Paul in the matter 

 of dangers encountered, and certainly exceed them in 

 the distances covered. This Chinese shaman set out 

 from Ch'ang-an, in Central China, in a.d. 399, being 

 " distressed by the imperfect state of the Buddhist 

 Disciplines " and wishing to obtain these " Rules " in 

 India. He walked practically the whole way across 

 the Desert of Gobi, over the Hindu Kiish and down 

 through India to the mouth of the Hoogly River'. Thence 

 he took ship to Ceylon, where he remained for two years, 

 finally returning by ship to China through the Sunda 

 Strait. It took him fifteen years to accompHsh his 

 journey ; he brought back with him the objects of his 

 quest — books of the Buddhist Canon and images of 

 Buddhist deities ; and subsequently " he wTote down 

 on bamboo tablets and silk an account of what he had 

 been through, desiring that the gentle reader should share 

 his information." 



The first translation into a European language of this 

 " Record " was the French version of Remusat, published 

 in 1836. Of later translations that of Professor H. A. 

 Giles into English is most worthy of mention. It was 

 first published in 1877, and this great Chinese scholar 

 has now given the English public a revised version of 

 his work.' " From this little book of travel," says the 

 translator. " the unbiased reader may perhaps obtain a 

 furtive glimpse of the grandeur of the Buddhist religion 

 in the early years of the fifth century a.d." Fa-hsien's 

 records show the vast institutional development, that had 

 taken place in a thousand years, among Oriental peoples 

 of the original simple and beautiful doctrines of primiti\e 

 Buddhism. The monasteries, housing thousands of monks 

 each, the richly built pagodas, the elaborate ritual of 

 worship, the hundred and one places superstitiously 

 associated with Gautama's saintly acts and endurances, 

 legends and relics of all kinds, existing at that date from 



' The Travels of Fa-hsien (.\.d. 399-414), or Record of the 

 Buddhistic Kingdoms. (Cambridge University Press, 5s.) 



Tibet to Ceylon, are described by the shaman in vivid 

 detail. 



A typical passage is that relating to Ceylon, " not 

 originally inhabited by human beings, but only by devils 

 and dragons " : " WTien Buddha came to this country, 

 he wished to convert the wicked dragons ; and by his 

 divine power he placed one foot to the north of the royal 

 city and the other on the top of Adam's Peak. . . . 

 0\er the footprint to the north of the city a great pagoda 

 has been built, four hundred feet in height and decorated 

 with gold and silver and with all kinds of precious sub- 

 stances combined. By the side of the pagoda a monastery 

 has also been built, called No-Fear Mountain, where there 

 are now five thousand priests. There is a Hall of Buddha 

 of gold and silver carved work with all kinds of precious 

 substances, in which stands his image in green jade, over 

 twenty feet in height, the whole of which glitters with the 

 seven preciosities, the countenance being grave and 

 dignified beyond expression in words. On the palm of 

 the right hand lies a priceless pearl." 



Much research is now being made into the fundamental 

 teaching of Gautama, which is being studied from the 

 original sources. As in the case of Christianity, it has 

 been overlaid with a complicated fabric of ritual and 

 legend ; " common men," as Mr. H. G. Wells - has said, 

 " must have their cheap marvels and wonders." But at 

 the same time it is universally acknowledged that the 

 growth of both religions has inspired mankind with new 

 and higher ideals and has been responsible for much of 

 the world's finest literature and works of art.' Un- 

 selfishness and regard for truth are the central teachings 

 of both religions. As a worker in the cause of Buddhism 

 Fa-hsien lived up to its central doctrines. " That in the 

 dangers which I encountered whether riding or on foot," 

 he explained to one who met him at the end of his travels, 



I did not spare my body, was because I kept my object 

 steadily in vif^w and concentrated upon it a simple honesty 

 of purpose." 



In the autumn months many a road in the East is still 

 thronged with bands of Buddhist pilgrims going from 

 one monastery to another. From a guide-book carried 

 on such pilgrimages Dr. Carpenter, in his book referred to, 

 cites a counsel of piety recorded originally by Mr. R. F. 

 Johnston in his Buddhist China. It bears an interesting 

 resemblance to the utterance of Fa-hsien : "It should 

 be remembered that the proper object of the pilgrim's 

 quest is truth ; he must not expect to find his task an 

 easy one. In this world of ours we cannot hope that 

 heaven will make Buddhas of us for the asking. It is 

 not till the plum-tree has endured the icy rigours of 

 winter that its blossoming time will come. It is not till 

 the pilgrim has won his way with zeal and courage 

 through all the pains and woes of human life that he can 

 hope to attain the objects of his quest." 



EdW.\RD LiVElNG. 



- Vide his Outline of History, chapter xxv : The Rise anii 

 .Spread of Buddhism. (Ca^sell & Co., Ltd.) 



^ In Dr. J. E.sthn Carpenter's recently published book on 

 Buddhism and Christianity ^Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., 3s. 6d.} 

 the reader will find the most luminous account of the teachings, 

 development, and the contrasting and similar characteristics 

 of the two religions yet written. 



