ulate of
about 1500 le, (the pilgrims) reached the kingdom of Shen-shen,(1) a
country rugged and hilly, with a thin and barren soil. The clothes
of the common people are coarse, and like those worn in our land
of Han,(2) some wearing felt and others coarse serge or cloth
of hair;--this was the only difference seen among them. The king
professed (our) Law, and there might be in the country more than
four thousand monks,(3) who were all students of the hinayana.(4) The
common people of this and other kingdoms (in that region), as well
as the sramans,(5) all practise the rules of India,(6) only that
the latter do so more exactly, and the former more loosely. So (the
travellers) found it in all the kingdoms through which they went on
their way from this to the west, only that each had its own peculiar
barbarous speech.(7) (The monks), however, who had (given up the
worldly life) and quitted their families, were all students of Indian
books and the Indian language. Here they stayed for about a month,
and then proceeded on their journey, fifteen days walking to the
north-west bringing them to the country of Woo-e.(8) In this also
there were more than four thousand monks, all students of the
hinayana. They were very strict in their rules, so that sramans from
the territory of Ts'in(9) were all unprepared for their regulations.
Fa-Hsien, through the management of Foo Kung-sun, _maitre
d'hotellerie_,(10) was able to remain (with his company in the
monastery where they were received) for more than two months, and here
they were rejoined by Pao-yun and his friends.(11) (At the end of
that time) the people of Woo-e neglected the duties of propriety and
righteousness, and treated the strangers in so niggardly a manner that
Che-yen, Hwuy-keen, and Hwuy-wei went back towards Kao-ch'ang,(12)
hoping to obtain there the means of continuing their journey. Fa-Hsien
and the rest, however, through the liberality of Foo Kung-sun, managed
to go straight forward in a south-west direction. They found the
country uninhabited as they went along. The difficulties which they
encountered in crossing the streams and on their route, and the
sufferings which they endured, were unparalleled in human experience,
but in the course of a month and five days they succeeded in reaching
Yu-teen.(13)

NOTES

(1) An account is given of the kingdom of Shen-shen in the 96th of the
Books of the first Han dynasty, down to its becoming a dependency of