It is not
possible at this distance of time to explain, if it could be
explained, how Fa-hien came to say that Ke-hae was the second year of
the period. It seems most reasonable to suppose that he set out on his
pilgrimage in A.D. 399, the cycle name of which was Ke-hae, as {.},
the second year, instead of {.}, the first, might easily creep into
the text. In the "Memoirs of Eminent Monks" it is said that our author
started in the third year of the period Lung-gan of the eastern Tsin,
which was A.D. 399.
[3] These, like Fa-hien itself, are all what we might call "clerical"
names, appellations given to the parties as monks or sramanas.
[4] The Buddhist tripitaka or canon consists of three collections,
containing, according to Eitel (p. 150), "doctrinal aphorisms (or
statements, purporting to be from Buddha himself); works on
discipline; and works on metaphysics:" - called sutra, vinaya, and
abhidharma; in Chinese, king {.}, leuh {.}, and lun {.}, or texts,
laws or rules, and discussions. Dr. Rhys Davids objects to the
designation of "metaphysics" as used of the abhidharma works, saying
that "they bear much more the relation to 'dharma' which 'by-law'
bears to 'law' than that which 'metaphysics' bears to 'physics'"
(Hibbert Lectures, p. 49). However this be, it was about the vinaya
works that Fa-hien was chiefly concerned. He wanted a good code of the
rules for the government of "the Order" in all its internal and
external relations.
[5] Lung embraced the western part of Shen-se and the eastern part of
Kan-suh. The name remains in Lung Chow, in the extreme west of
Shen-se.
[6] K'een-kwei was the second king of "the Western Ts'in." His family
was of northern or barbarous origin, from the tribe of the Seen-pe,
with the surname of K'eih-fuh. The first king was Kwo-kin, and
received his appointment from the sovereign of the chief Ts'in kingdom
in 385. He was succeeded in 388 by his brother, the K'een-kwei of the
text, who was very prosperous in 398, and took the title of king of
Ts'in. Fa-hien would find him at his capital, somewhere in the present
department of Lan-chow, Kan-suh.
[7] Under varshas or vashavasana (Pali, vassa; Spence Hardy, vass),
Eitel (p. 163) says: - "One of the most ancient institutions of
Buddhist discipline, requiring all ecclesiastics to spend the rainy
season in a monastery in devotional exercises. Chinese Buddhists
naturally substituted the hot season for the rainy (from the 16th day
of the 5th to the 15th of the 9th Chinese month)."
[8] During the troubled period of the Tsin dynasty, there were five
(usurping) Leang sovereignties in the western part of the empire ({.}
{.}). The name Leang remains in the department of Leang-chow in the
northern part of Kan-suh.
![A Record Of Buddhistic Kingdoms - Being An Account By The Chinese Monk Fa-hien Of His Travels In India And Ceylon (a.d. 399-414) By James Legge
-
[2] The period Hwang-che embraced from A.D. 399 to 414, being the
greater portion of the reign of - Page 11](../images/travel.jpg)
