THROUGH THE TS'UNG OR "ONION" MOUNTAINS TO K'EEH-CH'A; - PROBABLY
SKARDO, OR SOME CITY MORE TO THE EAST IN LADAK
When the processions of images in the fourth month were over, Sang-
shao, by himself alone, followed a Tartar who was an earnest follower
of the Law,[1] and proceeded towards Kophene.[2] Fa-hien and the
others went forward to the kingdom of Tsze-hoh, which it took them
twenty-five days to reach.[3] Its king was a strenuous follower of our
Law,[4] and had (around him) more than a thousand monks, mostly
students of the mahayana. Here (the travellers) abode fifteen days,
and then went south for four days, when they found themselves among
the Ts'ung-ling mountains, and reached the country of Yu-hwuy,[5]
where they halted and kept their retreat.[6] When this was over, they
went on among the hills[7] for twenty-five days, and got to K'eeh-
ch'a,[8] there rejoining Hwuy-king[9] and his two companions.
NOTES
[1] This Tartar is called a {.} {.}, "a man of the Tao," or faith of
Buddha. It occurs several times in the sequel, and denotes the man who
is not a Buddhist outwardly only, but inwardly as well, whose faith is
always making itself manifest in his ways. The name may be used of
followers of other systems of faith besides Buddhism.
[2] See the account of the kingdom of Kophene, in the 96th Book of the
first Han Records, p. 78, where its capital is said to be 12,200 le
from Ch'ang-gan. It was the whole or part of the present Cabulistan.
The name of Cophene is connected with the river Kophes, supposed to be
the same as the present Cabul river, which falls into the Indus, from
the west, at Attock, after passing Peshawar. The city of Cabul, the
capital of Afghanistan, may be the Kophene of the text; but we do not
know that Sang-shao and his guide got so far west. The text only says
that they set out from Khoten "towards it."
[3] Tsze-hoh has not been identified. Beal thinks it was Yarkand,
which, however, was north-west from Khoten. Watters ("China Review,"
p. 135) rather approves the suggestion of "Tashkurgan in Sirikul" for
it. As it took Fa-hien twenty-five days to reach it, it must have been
at least 150 miles from Khoten.
[4] The king is described here by a Buddhistic phrase, denoting the
possession of viryabala, "the power of energy; persevering exertion -
one of the five moral powers" (E. H., p. 170).
[5] Nor has Yu-hwuy been clearly identified. Evidently it was directly
south from Tsze-hoh, and among the "Onion" mountains. Watters hazards
the conjecture that it was the Aktasch of our present maps.
[6] This was the retreat already twice mentioned as kept by the
pilgrims in the summer, the different phraseology, "quiet rest,"
without any mention of the season, indicating their approach to India,
E. H., p. 168.
