A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms. Faxian

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       Ts'in kingdoms, which, with many other minor ones, maintained a

       semi-independence of Tsin, their rulers sometimes even assuming the

       title of emperor.

       (2) The period Hwang-che embraced from A.D. 399 to 414, being the

       greater portion of the reign of Yao Hing of the After Ts'in, a

       powerful prince. He adopted Hwang-che for the style of his reign

       in 399, and the cyclical name of that year was Kang-tsze. It is

       not possible at this distance of time to explain, if it could be

       explained, how Fa-Hsien came to say that Ke-hae was the second year of

       the period. It seems most reasonable to suppose that he set out on his

       pilgrimage in A.D. 399, the cycle name of which was Ke-hae, as {.},

       the second year, instead of {.}, the first, might easily creep into

       the text. In the "Memoirs of Eminent Monks" it is said that our author

       started in the third year of the period Lung-gan of the eastern Tsin,

       which was A.D. 399.

       (3) These, like Fa-Hsien itself, are all what we might call "clerical"

       names, appellations given to the parties as monks or sramanas.

       (4) The Buddhist tripitaka or canon consists of three collections,

       containing, according to Eitel (p. 150), "doctrinal aphorisms

       (or statements, purporting to be from Buddha himself); works on

       discipline; and works on metaphysics:"—called sutra, vinaya, and

       abhidharma; in Chinese, king {.}, leuh {.}, and lun {.}, or texts,

       laws or rules, and discussions. Dr. Rhys Davids objects to the

       designation of "metaphysics" as used of the abhidharma works, saying

       that "they bear much more the relation to 'dharma' which 'by-law'

       bears to 'law' than that which 'metaphysics' bears to 'physics'"

       (Hibbert Lectures, p. 49). However this be, it was about the vinaya

       works that Fa-Hsien was chiefly concerned. He wanted a good code of

       the rules for the government of "the Order" in all its internal and

       external relations.

       (5) Lung embraced the western part of Shen-se and the eastern part

       of Kan-suh. The name remains in Lung Chow, in the extreme west of

       Shen-se.

       (6) K'een-kwei was the second king of "the Western Ts'in." His family

       was of northern or barbarous origin, from the tribe of the Seen-pe,

       with the surname of K'eih-fuh. The first king was Kwo-kin, and

       received his appointment from the sovereign of the chief Ts'in kingdom

       in 385. He was succeeded in 388 by his brother, the K'een-kwei of the

       text, who was very prosperous in 398, and took the title of king of

       Ts'in. Fa-Hsien would find him at his capital, somewhere in the present

       department of Lan-chow, Kan-suh.

       (7) Under varshas or vashavasana (Pali, vassa; Spence Hardy, vass),

       Eitel (p. 163) says:—"One of the most ancient institutions of

       Buddhist discipline, requiring all ecclesiastics to spend the rainy

       season in a monastery in devotional exercises. Chinese Buddhists

       naturally substituted the hot season for the rainy (from the 16th day

       of the 5th to the 15th of the 9th Chinese month)."

       (8) During the troubled period of the Tsin dynasty, there were five

       (usurping) Leang sovereignties in the western part of the empire ({.}

       {.}). The name Leang remains in the department of Leang-chow in the

       northern part of Kan-suh. The "southern Leang" arose in 397 under a

       Tuh-fah Wu-ku, who was succeeded in 399 by a brother, Le-luh-koo; and

       he again by his brother, the Now-t'an of the text, in 402, who was not

       yet king therefore when Fa-Hsien and his friends reached his capital.

       How he is represented as being so may be accounted for in various

       ways, of which it is not necessary to write.

       (9) Chang-yih is still the name of a district in Kan-chow department,

       Kan-suh. It is a long way north and west from Lan-chow, and not far

       from the Great Wall. Its king at this time was, probably, Twan-yeh of

       "the northern Leang."

       (10) Dana is the name for religious charity, the first of the six

       paramitas, or means of attaining to nirvana; and a danapati is "one

       who practises dana and thereby crosses {.} the sea of misery." It is

       given as "a title of honour to all who support the cause of

       Buddhism by acts of charity, especially to founders and patrons of

       monasteries;"—see Eitel, p. 29.

       (11) Of these pilgrims with their clerical names, the most

       distinguished was Pao-yun, who translated various Sanskrit works on

       his return from India, of which only one seems to be now existing. He

       died in 449. See Nanjio's Catalogue of the Tripitaka, col. 417.

       (12) This was the second summer since the pilgrims left Ch'ang-gan. We

       are now therefore, probably, in A.D. 400.

       (13) T'un-hwang (lat. 39d 40s N.; lon. 94d 50s E.) is still the name

       of one of the two districts constituting the department of Gan-se, the

       most western of the prefectures of Kan-suh; beyond the termination of

       the Great Wall.

       (14) Who this envoy was, and where he was going, we do not know. The

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