Crossing the Congling Mountains

Faxian and the rest went forward toward the country of Zihe, and after twenty-five days on the road they reached it. The king of the country was diligent in the Way. There are more than a thousand monks, most of them students of the Great Vehicle.

After staying here fifteen days they went south for four days, entered the Congling mountains, and reached the country of Yuhui, where they kept the retreat.

When the retreat was over they traveled twenty-five days and reached the country of Jiecha, where they joined Huijing and the others.

It happened that the king of that country was holding a panzheyueshi. Panzheyueshi in the speech of Han means the great assembly of the fifth year (五年大會). At the time of the assembly shramanas are invited from the four quarters, and they all gather like clouds. When they have gathered, the places where the monks are to sit are adorned, silk banners and canopies are hung, lotus flowers of gold and silver are made and set behind the silk seats, and clean mats are spread. The king and his ministers make offerings according to the Law for one month or two, or for three, and mostly in the spring. When the king has finished the assembly, he urges his ministers in turn to set out offerings, for one day, or two, or three, or five. When all the offerings are over, the king takes the horse he rides, with its saddle and bridle complete, and has one of the honored ministers of the kingdom mount it. Together with white cotton cloth and treasures of every kind and the things that shramanas need, he makes his vow and gives them all away, and his ministers with him. When he has given them away, he redeems them back from the monks.

That land is cold in the mountains, and no other grain grows there. Only wheat ripens. When the monks have taken the year (受歲), frost falls the next morning. So the king always entreats the monks to take the year only after the wheat has ripened.

In that country there is the Buddha's spittoon (唾壺), made of stone and of a color like the Buddha's begging bowl. There is also one of the Buddha's teeth, and the people of the country have raised a stupa for the Buddha's tooth. There are more than a thousand monks, all of them students of the Lesser Vehicle.

East of the mountains the dress of the common people is roughly like that of the land of Qin, differing again in their felt and coarse hair cloth. The observances of the shramanas grow better and better, more than can be set down in full. This country lies in the middle of the Congling range. From the Congling onward the plants and the trees and the fruits are all different. Only three things, bamboo and pomegranate and sugar cane, are the same as in the land of Han.

From here they went west toward the country of North India. After a month on the road they crossed the Congling range. On the Congling there is snow in winter and in summer alike. There are poison dragons too, and if their will is crossed they spit out poisonous winds, and rain and snow, and fly sand and gravel. Of those who meet this calamity not one in ten thousand comes through whole. The people of that land call this range the snowy mountains.

Once over the range, they were in North India. Just on entering its border there is a small country called Tuoli. Here too there are monks, all of them students of the Lesser Vehicle.

Long ago there was an arhat in this country who by the power of his spirit feet took a skilled craftsman up to the Tushita heaven to look at the height and the features of the bodhisattva Maitreya, and then came down and had him carve an image in wood. He went up to look three times in all, and only then was the image finished. The image is eight zhang long and its instep is eight chi, and on fast days it always gives out light, so that the kings of many countries vie in making offerings to it. It stands there to this day.

From here they followed the range southwest for fifteen days. The road is hard and steep and the cliffs are cut sheer away. The mountain is all stone, and the wall of it stands a thousand fathoms, so that to look down makes the eyes swim, and to go forward there is nowhere to set the foot. Below there is water, and it is called the Xintou river. Men of old cut through the rock to open a way and set ladders along the side, and one passes seven hundred of them in all. When the ladders are crossed, one treads a hanging rope to cross the river. The two banks of the river are less than eighty paces apart. This is a place beyond the reach of nine interpreters, and Zhang Qian and Gan Ying of the Han both failed to come so far.