04 Chinese Account of India. [Jan. 



countries (subjected to the Chinese) then revolted, and separated from 

 the empire. 



In the second of the years Yin-he of Hwan-te (A. D. 159) strangers 

 often came by the way of Jih-nan ( ( south of the sun ;' Tonquin and 

 Cochin-China), to offerpresents. 



A tradition of this time relates that the emperor Ming-te (A. D. 58 to 

 76), having dreamed that he saw a man of gold, very large, whose head 

 and neck shone with prodigious brightness, interrogated his ministers on 

 the subject. One of them told him that, in the western region (se-fung), 

 was a spirit (shin), whose name was Fuh ; that his statue was six feet high, 

 and his color that of gold. The emperor, upon this, despatched ambas- 

 sadors to India to learn the laws and doctrine of Fuh, and to bring to 

 China his portrait painted, as well as some of his statues. The king of 

 Tsoo (a petty feudatory kingdom of China), named Ying, was the first 

 who believed in this false doctrine (of Fuh) ; hence it was that other per- 

 sons in the Middle Empire adopted it. 



Thereupon, Hwan-te (A. D. 147 to 167) imbibed a great partiality for 

 the shin (spirits or genii) ; he sacrificed repeatedly to Fiih-too and to 

 Laou-tsze. The people of China gradually adopted (this new religion) : 

 its followers augmented greatly. 



In the time of the How and Tsin dynasties (A. D. 222 to 280), no new 

 relation took place between India and China; it was not till the period of 

 the Woo dynasty, that the king of Foo-nan, named Fan-chan, sent one of 

 his relations, named Soo-wih, as ambassador to India. On quitting Foo- 

 nan, the embassy returned by the mouth of the Taou-keaou-le*, continu- 

 ing its route by sea in the great bay (or gulf of Martaban), in a north- 

 westerly direction ; it then entered the bay (of Bengal), which they cross- 

 ed, and coasted the frontiers of several kingdoms. In about a year it was 

 able to reach the mouth of the river of India, and ascended the river 

 7,000 le, when it arrived at its destination. The king of India, astonished 

 at the sight of the strangers, exclaimed: "the sea-coast is very far off; 

 how could these men get here ?" He commanded that the ambassador 

 should be shown the interior of the kingdom, and with this view he ap- 

 pointed as guides to attend him, two strangers of the same race as the 

 Chineset, and he supplied Soo-wih (the ambassador) with provisions for 

 his journey, and presents for Fan-chan, king of Foo-nan, consisting of 

 Scythian horses, and four pieces of valuable woollen stuffsj. 



During this time, the Woo dynasty§ despatched an officer of the second 

 rank, named Kang-tae, as ambassador to Foo-nan, where he saw foreign 

 guides of the same nation as the Chinese. To all the questions he put to 

 them, concerning the manners and customs of the people of India, they 

 answered him as follows: " The doctrine of Fuh is that which is in vogue 

 in this kingdom. The population is very numerous ; the soil rich and 



barbarians, by the aid of the Chinese armies, which could oblige their revolted 

 subjects to return to their duty. Thus we may easily explain facts apparently so 

 improbable. 



* The Irrawaddy, in the Burman empire. 



+ Literally : " in consequence, as attendants or guides (he had given to him) two 

 men, foreigners, of the same species as the Sung." By Sung-jin, ' men of Sung,' 

 Ma-twan-lin designates the Chinese, who were so called in his time ; he wrote 

 under the Sung dynasty, in the latter part of the thirteenth century. The sense 



which Jftw chin has received is that which it bears in the phraseology of the Le-ke, 

 cited by the dictionary of Kang-he, in explaining this character. 

 X J5f/£ Sze-pei. 



§ One of the three dynasties which reigned simultaneously over three divisions of 

 the Chinese empire : it subsisted from A. D. 222 to 280. 



