P'ing-Yang, which is still the name of a large department in Shan-hsi.
He had three brothers older than himself; but when they all died
before shedding their first teeth, his father devoted him to the
service of the Buddhist society, and had him entered as a Sramanera,
still keeping him at home in the family. The little fellow fell
dangerously ill, and the father sent him to the monastery, where he
soon got well and refused to return to his parents.

When he was ten years old, his father died; and an uncle, considering
the widowed solitariness and helplessness of the mother, urged him to
renounce the monastic life, and return to her, but the boy replied,
"I did not quit the family in compliance with my father's wishes, but
because I wished to be far from the dust and vulgar ways of life. This
is why I chose monkhood." The uncle approved of his words and gave
over urging him. When his mother also died, it appeared how great had
been the affection for her of his fine nature; but after her burial he
returned to the monastery.

On one occasion he was cutting rice with a score or two of his
fellow-disciples, when some hungry thieves came upon them to take away
their grain by force. The other Sramaneras all fled, but our young
hero stood his ground, and said to the thieves, "If you must have the
grain, take what you please. But, Sirs, it was your former neglect of
charity which brought you to your present state of destitution; and
now, again, you wish to rob others. I am afraid that in the coming
ages you will have still greater poverty and distress;--I am sorry for
you beforehand." With these words he followed his companions into the
monastery, while the thieves left the grain and went away, all the
monks, of whom there were several hundred, doing homage to his conduct
and courage.

When he had finished his noviciate and taken on him the obligations of
the full Buddhist orders, his earnest courage, clear intelligence, and
strict regulation of his demeanour were conspicuous; and soon after,
he undertook his journey to India in search of complete copies of the
Vinaya-pitaka. What follows this is merely an account of his travels
in India and return to China by sea, condensed from his own narrative,
with the addition of some marvellous incidents that happened to him,
on his visit to the Vulture Peak near Rajagriha.

It is said in the end that after his return to China, he went to the
capital (evidently Nanking), and there,