o far, and the people of those border lands
to know our Law? We know of a truth that the opening of the way for such
a mysterious propagation is not the work of man; and so the dream of the
emperor Ming of Han had its proper cause."

[Footnote 1: Chang K'een, a minister of the emperor Woo of Han (B.C.
140-87), is celebrated as the first Chinese who "pierced the void," and
penetrated to "the regions of the west," corresponding very much to the
present Turkestan. Through him, by B.C. 115, a regular intercourse was
established between China and the thirty-six kingdoms or states of that
quarter.]

[Footnote 2: Less is known of Kan Ying than of Chang K'een. Being sent
in A.D. 88 by his patron Pan Chao on an embassy to the Roman empire, he
only got as far as the Caspian sea, and returned to China. He extended,
however, the knowledge of his countrymen with regard to the western
regions.]

[Footnote 3: "The precious Buddha," "the precious Law," and "the
precious Monkhood"; Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; the whole being
equivalent to Buddhism.]

CHAPTER VIII

~Woo-chang, or Udyana--Traces of Buddha~

After crossing the river, the travellers immediately came to the kingdom
of Woo-chang, which is indeed a part of North India. The people all use
the language of Central India, "Central India" being what we should call
the "Middle Kingdom." The food and clothes of the common people are the
same as in that Central Kingdom. The Law of Buddha is very flourishing
in Woo-chang. They call the places where the monks stay for a time or
reside permanently Sangharamas; and of these there are in all five
hundred, the monks being all students of the hinayana. When stranger
bhikshus [1] arrive at one of them, their wants are supplied for three
days, after which they are told to find a resting-place for themselves.

There is a tradition that when Buddha came to North India, he came at
once to this country, and that here he left a print of his foot, which
is long or short according to the ideas of the beholder on the subject.
It exists, and the same thing is true about it, at the present day. Here
also are still to be seen the rock on which he dried his clothes, and
the place where he converted the wicked dragon. The rock is fourteen
cubits high, and more than twenty broad, with one side of it smooth.

Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and Tao-ching went on ahead towards the place of
Buddha's shadow in the country of Nagara; but Fa-hien and the ot