Art. VIII.—Account of the Foe Kúe Ki, or Travels of Fa Hian in India

Extract

To all those who take an interest in the early condition of India, and who are anxious to see that obscurity which hangs over the periods of its history prior to the Mohammedan invasion, dissipated, in however partial a degree, some most acceptable glimmerings of light have been presented in a recent continental publication. This work is derived from Chinese literature, and has been made accessible to European readers, by the talents and industry of some of the most eminent of those who have rendered Paris illustrious as a school for the cultivation of the language and literature of China. In the course of last year, a book, which was announced some years ago, but was suspended by the lamented death of its distinguished translator, the late M. Remusat, and again interrupted by the demise of another celebrated Orientalist, M. Klaproth, who had undertaken to continue it, was brought to a completion, and published by M. Landresse. It is entitled the “Foe Kúe Ki,” or “Relation des Royaumes Buddhiques,” and is an account given of his travels by Shi Fa Hian, a Buddhist priest and pilgrim, who went upon a pilgrimage to the chief seats of the Buddhist religion in India, at the close of the fourth century of our aera. Shi Fa Hian, or simply Fa Hian, a name which signifies, according to M. Remusat, “Manifestation de la Loi de Sakya,” or “Manifestation de la Loi,” quitted China with this purpose in the year of our Lord 399. He was six years on his route to Central India, including of course a residence, more or less protracted, at various places on the way; he spent six years in India, and was three years on his return, arriving in China a.d. 415. The accounts which he gives are such as might be expected from his religious character, and, to say the truth, are somewhat meagre, relating almost exclusively to the condition in which the religion of Buddha existed at the different places which he visited. Such as they are, however, they are exceedingly curious and instructive, even in this limited view, and exhibit a picture of the state of Buddhism in India, flourishing in some situations and declining in others, which, although we were not wholly unprepared to expect, yet we were hitherto without any accurate means of appreciating. Besides, however, their especial subservience to an authentic history of the religion of Buddha, the travels of Fa Hian are of great value, as offering living testimony of the geographical and political divisions of India at an early date, and one at which we have no other guide on whom we can rely. I have, therefore, thought that a summary review of the principal subjects which are described in the Chinese traveller's journal might not be unacceptable to the Society.