On Yuan Chwang's Travels In India

Front matter

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Contents

PREFACE 3) ce? See? ee 1S ae A a ae Oe THOMAS WATTERS .. . : sy fo ean . VII TRANSLITERATION OF THE PILGRIMS NAME nt & x XE CHAP. 1. TITLE AND TEXT .... #........ #21 » & THE INTRODUCTION .... . . . 28 » 3. FROM KAO CHANG TO THE THOUSAND aPRINGS . 44 » 4 TARAS TO KAPIB . 1... ee ee ee ee » §& GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF INDIA. ..... . 181 » 6 LAMPA TO GANDHARA .... a te . . 180 » 7 UDYANA TO KASHMIR ......... . . 285 » §& KASHMIR TO RAJAPUR ... . Sal ee Ay id cm ee OS » 9 CHEH-KA TO MATHURA. ..... ee HE » 10. STHANESVARA TO KAPITHA ........ « 815 » 1. KANYAKUBJA TO VISOKA ....... . . 340

» 12. SRAVASTI TO KUSINARA . : : tae ge A 8AT

PREFACH.

Chapter I. The Title And Text

THE Chinese treatise known as the Hsi-yii-chi (or Si-yiiki) is one of the classical Buddhist books of China, Korea, and Japan. It is preserved in the libraries attached to many of the large monasteries of these countries and it is occasionally found for sale in bookshops. The copies offered for sale are reprints of the: work as it exists in some monastery, and they are generally made to the order of patrons of learning or Buddhism. These reprints are more or less inaccurate or imperfect, and one of them gives as the complete work only two of the twelve chiian which constitute the treatise.

The full title of the book is Ta-T‘ang-Hsi-yit-chi (4 }& Ta 3% Bt), that -is, “Records of Western Lands of the Great T'ang period”. By the use of the qualifying term “Great Tang” the dynasty within which the treatise was composed is indicated and this particular work is distinguished from others bearing the same general name. In some native writings we find the treatise quoted or designated by the title Hsi-yil-chuan (f#{) which also means “Records of Western Lands”. But it does not appear that the work was ever published or circulated with this name. In its original state and as it exists at present the treatise is divided into twelve chiian, but we find mention of an edition brought out in the north of China in which there are only ten chiian.} t Hsiao-yueh-tsang-chih-chin (Jy BE] 3% 48 HE) ch. 4. A

2 TITLE AND TEXT.

On the title-page of the Hsi-yii-chi it is represented as having been “translated” by Yuan-chuang and “redacted” or “compiled” by Pien-chi (#¢ #%). But we are not to take the word for translate here in its literal sense, and all that it can be understood to convey is that the information given in the book was obtained by Yuan-chuang from foreign sources. One writer tells us that Yuan-chuang supplied the materials to Pien-chi who wrought these up into a literary treatise. Another states that Yuan-chuang communicated at intervals the facts to be recorded to Pien-chi who afterwards wove these into a connected narrative.

This Pien-chi was one of the learned Brethren appointed by T'ai Tsung to assist Yuan-chnang in the work of translating the Indian books which Yuan-chuang had brought with him. It was the special duty of Pien-chi to give literary form to the translations. He was a monk of the Hui-chang (# §) Monastery and apparently in favour at the court of the Emperer. But he became mixed up in an intrigue with one of T‘ai Tsung’s daughters and we cannot imagine a man of his bad character being on very intimate terms with the pilgrim. As to the Hsi-yii-chi we may doubt whether he really had rmauch to do with its formation, and perhaps the utmost that can be claimed for him is that he may have strung together Yuan-chuang’s descriptions into a connected narrative. The literary compositions of Yuan-chuang to be found in other places seem to justify us in regarding him as fully competent to write the treatise before us without any help from others. Moreover in an old catalogue of books we find the composition of a “‘Ta-T‘ang-Hsi-yii-chi” ascribed to Yuan-chuang and a “Hsi-yii-chi” ascribed to Pien-chi in similar terms.! Further in Buddhist books of the T‘ang and Sung periods we frequently find a statement to the effect that Yuan-chuang composed the Hsi-yii-chi, the word used being that which has been here rendered for the moment “redacted” or “compiled” (4.).2 It is possible that the text as we have it now

1 Teung-chih-liao, the Yi-wén-liao, ch. 4 (3% 7k BR the We At BE). 2 K‘ai-yuan-lu (No, 1485) ch. 8: Su-kao-séng-chuan (No. 1493), ch, 4, See also Y.’s Memorial to the Emperor in Ch. 6 of the Life

TITLE AND TEXT. 3 is for at least nine out of the twelve chiian practically that of the treatise drawn up by Yuan-chuang and presented to his sovereign. Some of the notes and comments may have been added by Pien-chi but several are evidently by a later hand. In some of the early editions these notes seem to have been incorporated in the text and there is reason for supposing that a few passages now in the text should be printed as interpolated comments.

The Hsi-yii-chi exists in several editions which present considerable variations both in the text and in the supplementary notes and explanations. For the purposes of the present Commentary copies of four editions have been used. The first of these editions is that known to scholars as the Han-shan (3€ \lj) Hsi-yii-chi, which was brought out at private expense. This is substantially a modern Soochow reprint of the copy in one of the collections of Buddhist books appointed and decreed for Buddhist monasteries in the time of the Ming dynasty. It agrees generally with the copy in the Japanese collection of Buddhist books in the Library of the India Office, and it or a similar Ming copy seems to be the only edition of the work hitherto known to western students. The second is the edition of which a copy is preserved in the library of a large Buddhist monastery near Foochow. This represents an older form of the work, perhaps that of the Sung collection made in A. D.1103, and it is in all respects superior to the common Ming text. The third is an old Japanese edition which has many typographical and other errors and also presents a text differing much from other editions. It is apparently a reprint of a Sung text, and-is interesting in several respects, but it seems to have many faults and it is badly printed. The fourth is the edition given in the critical reprint which was recently produced in the revised collection of Buddhist books brought out in Japan. This edition on the completion of the Records which does not contain any mention or hint of assistance. Instead of the B reading @ the other texts have #2 which is the correct form. :

A*

4 TITLE AND TEXT.

is based on the text recognized in Korea and it supplies the various readings of the Sung, Yuan, and Ming editions. Some of these variations are merely different ways of writing a character but many of them give valuable corrections for the Korean text which is often at fault.

THE TRANSLATORS.

In 1857 M. Julien published his long promised translation of the “Ta-T‘ang-Hsi-yii-chi” with the title “Mémoires sur les Contrées occidentales traduits du Sanscrit en Chinois, en l’an 648, par Hiouen-Thsang, et du Chinois en Francais.” This work was regarded by the learned translator as supplementary to his “Histoire de la Vie de Hiouen-Thsang et de ses voyages dans l’Inde, depuis l’an 629 jusqu’en 645” translated by him from the Chinese and published in 1853. He had already supplemented the latter treatise by an interesting series of “Documents Géographiques” on the countries of which the book makes mention. Julien’s “Mémoires sur les Contrées occidentales” is a work of great merit, and it shows a wonderful knowledge of the Chinese language. Much use has been made of it by students of the history, geography, antiquities, and religions of India and Central Asia and on all these subjects it has been regarded as an authority. And although it is not wise to accept with unquestioning faith all the renderings and identifications of the translator yet it is not without diffidence that onc dissents from or condemns his interpretation of a difficult phrase or passage either in the Life or the Records.

The only other translation of the “Hsi-yi-chi” into a western language is the English version by the late Rev? 8. Beal. This was published in 1884 with the title “Buddhist Records of the Western World, Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang (A. D. 629)”. The title is characteristic of the translator, and the reader may compare it with that given by Julien to his translation. Mr Beal’s work is a translation partly “from the Chinese” and partly from the French. In it many of the careless mistakes which dis-

THE TRANSLATORS. 5 figure Julien’s treatise are corrected and its notes supply the student with numerous references to old and recent western authorities.

Within the last few years the Preface to the Hsi-yii-chi attributed to Chang yueh, to be noticed presently, has attracted the attention of some western students of Chinese. In the “Muséon” for November 1894 there appeared an article by M. A. Gueluy entitled “A propos d’une Préface. Apercu critique sur le Bouddhisme e2 Chine an 7 siécle.” This article gives M. Gueluy’s criticism on Julien’s translation of the Preface and a new rendering by the critic. One can scarcely treat M. Gueluy’s production seriously, it is so full of fancies and fictions and shows such a slight acquaintance with Buddhism and the Chinese language.

Professor Schlegel, however, took the “A propos d’une Preface” seriously and has given us a criticism of it together with a new translation of this Préface to the Hsi-yii-chi. The Professor’s treatise, which shows much industry and ingenuity, is entitled ,,.a Loi du Parallélisme en style Chinois demontrée par la Préface du Si-yii-ki.” In this he defends some of Julien’s translations against the criticism of.M. Gueluy and shows how absurdly wrong is the latter’s version. M. Schlegel brings numerous quotations from Chinese books to support his own renderings of the difficult passages in the Preface. Many of these renderings are apparently correct and an improvement on those by Julien, but in several instances the learned Professor seems to have missed the author’s meaning. His criticisms on M. Gueluy’s “A propos d’une Préface” drew from M. Gueluy a reply which is not convincing: it is entitled “J /Tnsuffisance du Parallélisme prouvée sur la Préface du Si-iu-ki contre la traduction de M. G. Schlegel.”

THE PILGRIM.

The life of Yuan-chuang is narrated at length in the book entitled “Ta Tang Ta Tzii-én-sst San-tsang-fa-shih-chuan”, that is “Record of the Tripitaka Master of the Great Compassion Monastery”. It is this work of which Julien’s “Histoire de la Vie de Hiouen Thsang” is an abstract, and of which M* Beal has given us a similar abstract in English. It is also the work usually cited in the following pages by the short title “the Life’. From this and a few other Chinese treatises the following short summary of the ancestry and life of the pilgrim has been compiled.

The surname of the family to which he helonged' was Ch‘én (ff) and his personal name was J (j).1 But he seems never to have been known in history, literature, or religion, or among his contemporaries by any other name than that written Y (or jp) dt and read Hsiian (or Yuan)-chuang (or ts‘ang). In modern literature the character for Yuan is commonly used in writing the pilgrim’s name, and this is said to be due to the character for Hsiian entering into the personal name of the Emperor Kanghsi. But we find Yuan in the pilgrim’s name before the reign of Kanghsi and we find Hsiian in it during that reign and since. This interchange of the two characters is very common and is recognized. The personal name of the Chinese envoy Wang who went to India in Yuan-chuang’s time is given as Hsiian (and Yuan)-tsé (= or Jt #) and the name of another great contemporary of the pilgrim is written Fang Hsiian-ling and Fang Yuan-ling (j# ¥Y or Jt #3). The two characters at the T‘ang period may have had the same sound, something like Yun, and our pilgrim’s name was probably then pronounced Yun-ts‘ang.? This was his hui (3#) or “appellation”, called in the Life also his tzt (4). This word hui is often used to denote the Fa-hao or “name in religion” of a Buddhist monk, and it is sometimes replaced by tu(#¥)-hui or “ordination name”. It commonly means simply “the name of the deceased” that is, the name given to him when capped,

1 Su-kao-séng-chuan, 1. C.: Shén-séng-chuan (No. 1620) ch. 6.

2 The Japanese write the name Hstian-ts‘ang but call the pilgrim Gen-jo corresponding to the Chinese Yuan-is‘ang. In Tibetan books the name is given as Tang Ssen-tsang or T‘ang Sin (or Sang), and Ssen-ta‘ang is, I think, for Hsiian-ts‘ang and not for San-tsang.

HIS FAMILY. 7 and I do not know of any authority for Julien’s rendering “nom d’enfance”.

The family from which Yuan-chuang sprang is said to have been descended from the semi-mythical Huang-Ti through the great Emperor Shun, and to have originally borne the territorial designation of Shun, viz. Kued (4). In very early times the seat of the family was in the district now bearing the name Kuei-té(§# ()-foo in the east of Honan, and it was afterwards removed for a time to the neighbourhood of the present Ts‘ao-chou in Shantung. At the time of Wu Wang, the first king of the Chow dynasty, a man known as Hu-kung-kuei-man (4 ZS HE ih) was regarded as the lineal representative of the Shun family.

This man was the son of O-fu (BH 4) of Yu (2) who had served Wu Wang as his T’ao-chéng (fj JE), au officer variously explained as Director of Potteries and as Superintendent of Schools. The office was apparently hereditary and Wu-Wang rewarded Man by giving him his eldest daughter in marriage while at the same time he ennobled him as How or Marquis, and endowed him with the fief of Ch‘én (ffi) that he might be able to continue the services of worship to his ancestor Shun. These honours made Man one of the San-k‘é (= %) or “Three Reverends”, that is, three who were faithfully diligent in the discharge of their public duties. The other Kés were according to some accounts the representatives of the ancient emperors Huang Ti and Yao, and according to other accounts the representatives of the founders of the Hsia and Yin dynasties.1 Man’s fief comprised the modern prefecture of Ch‘én-chow in Honan together with the adjacent territory. It existed as a separate principality down to B. C. 478 when it was extinguished. The members of the reigning family were then dispersed but they retained Ch‘én as their surname.

1 Teung-chih-liao, the Li (jf§)-liao, ch, 3. These circumstances about Yuan-chuang’s reputed ancestors are mentioned here because they are alluded to in the Preface.

We have to come down to the end of the third century B. ©. before we find a Ch‘én of historical celebrity. We then meet with the famous Ch‘én Png (fi% 3¢) a native of Yang-wu (Bf jt) in the present Prefecture of K‘aiféng (By $}) of Honan. In the time of the Han dynasty this Prefecture bore the name Ch‘én-liu (ff #9) and this explains why Yuan-chuang is sometimes described as a Ch‘én-liu man. His ancestor P‘ing was an eccentric genius who, rising from extreme poverty to wealth and power, founded a great family and made himself immortal in history. His success in life and his posthumous fame were mainly due to his ready wit which never left him without an answer, and to his ingenuity in devising expedients in désperate circumstances. Of these expedients six were counted extraordinary and successful above the others, and hence came the saying in his time liu-ch‘u-cht-chi (Ff } # #) that is, “six times he brought out extraordinary plans”. These were all employed on behalf of Liu Pang, the Han Kao Tsu of history. They were stratagems or expedients devised to meet special occasions, they were kept very secret and were all successful.

In the second century of our era we have another great man claimed as an ancestor of Yuan-chuang. This is Ch‘én Shih (ff 2) better known by his other name Chung-Kung (ff), a native of Hsii (7) a district corresponding to the present Hsii-chow-foo in Honan. At the time of the Han dynasty Hsiti was in the political division called Yingch'uan (#4 JI[) and hence we find Yuan-chuang often described as a Ying-ch‘uan man. This man Ch‘én-Shih was called to office and served in the reign of Han Huan Ti (A. D. 147 to 167). As an official Shih was pure and upright. attentive to business and zealous for the welfare of his people. Gentle but firm and kind but strict he won the affection, confidence and esteem of the people. His fame is chiefly associated with his administration of T*a:-Chiu (k £), now the Yung-ch‘éng (#¢ #§) District in the Kuei-té Prefecture of Honan. Here his personal mifluence was great and he made the people ashamed to do wrong. The

HIS ANCESTORS. 9 effects of his just decisions and benevolent government spread over all the country, and people flocked to him from surrounding districts. Resigning office, however, after a few years he retired to his native place. He-was happy and successful also in his family, and sons and grandsons grew up before him to virtue and honour. His family was recognized to be a cluster of Té-shing (f& 32) Stars of virtuous merit, and Heaven took notice of the fact and visibly responded. In later life Chung-kung refused to return to office and died at home in the year A. D. 187 in the 84 year of his age.!

The next one that we have to notice in the line of descent is Ch‘én Ta (3) the sixth from Shih. Ta lived in the 4 century A.D. in the time of the Chin (%) dynasty. He also was a learned man and an official of some distinction. Being appdinted Magistrate of Ch‘angch‘éng (£2 #{) in the present Hu-chow (jf J) Foo of Chekiang he prophesied that his posterity wonld sit on the throne. This prediction was fulfilled in the year 556 when the tenth from Ta the illustrions Ch‘én Pa-hsien (g§ %) established the Ch‘én dynasty. This branch of the family was settled in Hu-chow for more than 200 years, and it was not from it, apparently, that the immediate ancestors of our pilgrim were derived.

We now come to Yuan-chuang’s great-grandfather whose name was Ch'in (2k). He was an official of the After Wei dynasty and served as Prefect of Shang-t‘ang (| ‘B&) in Shansi. The grand-father of our pilgrim, by name K‘ang (Be), being a man of distinguished learning in the Chi dynasty obtained the envied appointment of Professor in the National College at the capital. To this post were attached the revenues of the city of Chou-nan corresponding to the modern Lo-yang-hsien in Honan. The father of our pilgrim, by name Hui (#4), was a man of high character. He was a handsome tall man of stately manners, learned and intelligent, and a Confucianist of the strict

1 Hou Han-shu, ch. 62.

old-fashioned kind. True to his principles he took office at the proper time, and still true to. them he gave up office and withdrew into seclusion when anarchy supplanted order. He then retired to the village Ch‘én-pao-ku (FR 4 @) at a short distance south-east from the town of Kovw-shih (#% JE). This town was in the Lo-chow, now Ho-nan, Prefecture of Honan, and not far from the site of the modern Yen-shih ((§ ffi) Hsien. Yuan-chuang is sometimes called a Kou-shih man and it was probably in his father’s home near this town that he was born in the year 600.

The family of Ch‘én Hui was apparently a large one and Yuan-chuang was the youngest of four sons. Together with his brothers he received his early education from his father: not, of course, without the help of other teachers. We find Yuan-chuang described as a rather precocious child shewing cleverness and wisdom in his very early years. He became a boy of quick wit and good memory, a lover of learning with intelligence to make a practical use of his learning. It was noted that he cared little for the sports and galeties which had over-powering charms for other lads and that he liked to dwell much apart. As a Confucianist he learned the Classical work on Filial Piety and the other canonical treatises of the orthodox system.

But the second son of the family entered the Buddhist church and Yuan-chuang, smitten with the love of the strange religion, followed his brother to the various monasteries at which the latter sojourned. Then he resolved also to become a Buddhist monk, and proceeded to study the sacred books of the religion with all the fervour of a youthful proselyte. When he arrived at the age of twenty he was ordained, but he continued to wander about visiting various monasteries in different parts of the country. Under the guidance of the learned Doctors in Buddhism in these establishments he studied some of the great works of their religion, and soon became famous in China as a very learned and eloquent young monk. But he could not remain in China for he longed vehemently to visit the holy land of his religion, to see its far-famed shrines, and all the visible

HIS RETURN HOME. 11 evidences of the Buddha’s ministrations. He had learned, moreover, to be dissatisfied with the Chinese translations of the sacred books, and he was desirous to procure these books in their original language, and to learn the true meaning of their abstruse doctrines from orthodox pundits in India. After making enquiries and preparations he left the capital Ch‘ang-an (& #4), the modern Hsi-an (py %)- foo, in the year 629, and set out secretly on his long pilgrimage. The course of his wanderings and what he saw and heard and did are set forth in the Life and Records.

After sixteen year’s absence Yuan-chuang returned to China and arrived at Ch‘ang-an in the beginning of 645, the nineteenth year of the reign of Tang Tai Tsung. And never in the history of China did Buddhist monk receive such a joyous ovation as that with which our pilgrim was welcomed. The Emperor and his Court, the officials and merchants, and all the people made holiday. The streets were crowded with eager men and women who expressed their joy by gay banners and festive music. Nature, too, at least so it was fondly deemed, sympathised with her children that day and hade the pilgrim welcome. Not with thunders and lightnings did she greet him, but 4 solemn gladness filled the air and a happy flush was on the face of the sky. The pilgrim’s old pine tree also by nods and waves whispered its glad recognition. This tree, on which Yuan-chuang patted a sad adieu when setting out, had, obedient to his request, bent its head westward and kept it so while the pilgrim travelled in that direction. But when his face was turned to the east and the homeward journey was begun the old pine true to its friend also turned and bowed with all its weight of leaves and branches towards the east.1 This was at once the first sign of welcome and the first intimation of the pilgrim having set out on his journey home. Now he had arrived whole and well, and had become a many days’ wonder. He had been where no other had ever been, he had seen and heard what no other had ever seen and heard. Alone he had crossed trackless wastes tenanted only by fierce ghostdemons. Bravely he had climbed fabled mountains high beyond conjecture, rugged and barren, ever chilled by icy wind and cold with eternal snow. He had been to the edge of the world and had seen where all things end. Now he was safely back to his native land, and with so great a quantity of precious treasures. There were 657 sacred books of Buddhism, some of which were full of mystical charms able to put to flight the invisible powers of mischief. All these books were in strange Indian language and writing, and were made of trimmed leaves of palm or of birch-bark strung together in layers. Then there were lovely images of the Buddha and his saints in gold, and silver, and crystal, and sandalwood. There were also many curious pictures and, above all, 150 relics, true relics of the Buddha. All these relics were borne on twenty horses and escorted into tne city with great pomp and ceremony.

The Emperor T‘ai Tsung forgave the pilgrim for going abroad without permission, made his acquaintance and became his intimate friend. He received Yuan-chuang in an inner chamber of the palace, and there listened with unwearied interest from day to day to his stories about unknown lands and the wonders Buddha and his great disciples had wrought in them. The Emperor tried to persuade Yuan-chuang that it was his duty to give up the religious life and to take office. But the heart of the pilgrim was fixed, and as soon as he could he withdrew to a monastery and addressed himself to the work of translating into Chinese his Indian books. On his petition the Emperor appointed several distinguished lay scholars and several learned monks to assist in the labour of translating, editing, and copying. In the meantime at the request of his Sovereign Yuan-chuang “* gompiled the Records of his travels, the Hsi-yii-chi. The first draft of this work was presented to the Emperor in 646, but the book as we have it now was not actually completed until 648. It was apparently copied and circulated

HIS WORK AND CHARACTER. 13 in Ms in its early form during the author’s life and for some time after. When the Hsi-yii-chi was finished Yuan-chuang gave himself up to the task of translating, a task which was to him one of love and duty combined. In his intervals of leisure he gave advice and instruction to the young brethren and did various kinds of acts of merit, leading a life calm and peaceful but far from idle. In the year 664 on the 6" day of the second month he underwent the great change. He had known that the change was coming, » and had made ready for his departure. He had no fears and no regrets: content with the work of his life and joyous in the hope of hereafter he passed hence into Paradise. There he waits with Maitreya until in the fullness of time the latter comes into this world. With him Yuan-chuang hoped to come back to a new life here and to do again the Buddha’s work for the good of others. In personal appearance Yuan-chuang, like his father, was a tall handsome man with beautiful eyes and a good complexion. He had a serious but benevolent expression and a sedate and rather stately manner. His character as revealed to us in his Life and other books is interesting and attractive. He had a rare combination of moral and intellectual qualities and traits common to Chinese set off by a strongly marked individuality. We find him tender and affectionate to his parents and brothers, clinging to them in his youth and lovingly mindful of them in his old age. He was zealous and enthusiastic, painstaking and persevering, but without any sense of humour and without any inventive genius. His capacity for. work was very great and his craving for knowledge and love of learning were an absorbing passion. Too prone at times to follow authority and accept ready-made conclusions he was yet self possessed and independent. A Confucianist by inheritance and early training, far seen in native lore and possessing good abilities, he became an uncompromising Buddhist. Yet he never broke wholly with the native system which he learned from his father and early teachers. The splendours of India and the glories of its religion did not weaken or shake his love for China and his admiration for its old ways of domestic, social, and political life. When he was more than sixty years of age he wished to pay the duty of filial piety at his parents’ tombs. Unable to discover these he sought out his married sister M™ Chang, and by her help he found them. Then, distressed at the bad state in which the tombs were at the time, he obtained leaye from the Emperor to have the remains of his parents transferred to a happy ground and reinterred with honourable burial. Though the man had long ago become a devoted son of Sakyamuni he still owned a loving duty to his earthly parents.

As a Buddhist monk Yuan-chuang was very rigorous in keeping the rules of his order and strict in all the observances of his religion. But his creed was broad, his piety never became ascetic, and he was by nature tolerant. There were lengths, however, to which he could not go, and even his powerful friend the Emperor Tai Tsung could not induce him to translate Lao-tzi’s “Tao-Té-Ching” into Sanskrit or recognize Lao-tzi as in rank above the Buddha. Modest and self-denying for himself Yuan-chuang was always zealous for the dignity of his order and bold for the honour of its founder. He was brave to a marvel, and faced without fear.the unknown perils of the visible world and the unimagined terrors of unseen beings. Strong of will and resolute of purpose, confident in himself and the mission on which he was engaged, he also owned dependence on other and higher beings. He bowed in prayer and adoration to these and sued to them for help and protection in all times of déspair and distress. His faith was simple and almost unquestioning, and he had an aptitude for belief which has been called credulity. But his was not that credulity which lightly believes the impossible and accepts any statement merely because it is on record and suits the convictions or prejudices of the individual. Yuan-chuang always wanted to have his own personal testimony, the witness of his own senses or at least his personal experience. It is true his faith helped