Leaving Chang'an and Crossing the Desert

Faxian, in the old days when he was at Chang'an, grieved that the Vinaya canon was broken and incomplete. So in the second year of Hongshi, the year jihai, he joined in one purpose with Huijing, Daozheng, Huiying, and Huiwei, and they resolved to go to India and seek out the rules of discipline.

He first set out from Chang'an, crossed Long, and reached the country of Qiangui, where he passed the summer retreat.

When the retreat was over he went forward and reached the country of Noutan.

He crossed Mount Yanglou and reached the garrison of Zhangye. Zhangye was in great disorder and the roads were not open, but the king of Zhangye pressed him earnestly to stay and became his patron. There he met Zhiyan, Huijian, Sengshao, Baoyun, and Sengjing, and rejoicing that they were of one mind, they kept the summer retreat together.

When the retreat was over they went on again and came to Dunhuang. There is a frontier fort there, about eighty li from east to west and forty li from north to south. They stayed together rather more than a month. Faxian and four others went ahead in the train of an envoy, and so parted from Baoyun and the rest again. Li Gao, the governor of Dunhuang, supplied them so that they could cross the river of sand.

In the river of sand there are many evil spirits and hot winds, and those who meet them all die, and not one comes through whole. Above there are no birds flying, below there are no beasts running. Look as far as the eye can reach on every side, and if you seek the place to cross there is nothing by which to judge. Only the dried bones of the dead serve as road signs.

After seventeen days, over a road they reckoned at some fifteen hundred li, they reached the country of Shanshan. Its land is rugged and barren. The dress of the common people is roughly the same as in the land of Han, except that they wear felt and coarse hair cloth. The king of that country upholds the Law. There may be more than four thousand monks, and all of them study the Lesser Vehicle. The lay people and the shramanas of all these countries follow the law of India, differing only in whether they keep it finely or coarsely. Going west from here, the countries they passed through were all much like this. Only the Hu speech (胡語) differs from country to country, yet those who have left the household life all learn the writing of India and the speech of India. They stayed here one month.

Going northwest again for fifteen days, they came to the country of Yanyi. In Yanyi too there are more than four thousand monks, all of them students of the Lesser Vehicle, and their rule is strict and orderly. When shramanas from the land of Qin reached that place, they were not admitted to the usage of its order of monks. Faxian gained the care of Fu Gongsun (苻公孫) and stayed rather more than two months, and there he joined Baoyun and the rest again.

Because the people of Yanyi did not cultivate propriety and treated guests very meanly, Zhiyan, Huijian, and Huiwei at last turned back toward Gaochang, meaning to seek funds for the journey.

Faxian and the others were supplied by Fu Gongsun, and so were able to go straight on. They traveled southwest. There were no people living along the road, and the going over the sand was hard and dangerous. The sufferings they passed through had no match in the affairs of men.