Over the Little Snowy Mountains into Central India

They stayed here through the three months of winter, and then Faxian and two others crossed the Little Snowy Mountains to the south. On the Snowy Mountains the snow lies piled in winter and in summer alike. On the shaded north side of the range a cold wind rose all at once, and the men all shivered and could not speak. Huijing alone could go no further. White foam came from his mouth, and he said to Faxian, "I shall not live now. Go on at once, and do not let us all die together." Then he passed away. Faxian stroked him and cried out in grief, "My first purpose has not come to pass. It is fate. What is to be done!" Then he forced himself onward again and got over the pass.

To the south he reached the country of Luoyi. There are nearly three thousand monks nearby, and they study the Great Vehicle and the Lesser Vehicle together. He stayed here and passed the summer retreat.

When the retreat was over he went down south, and after ten days' travel he reached the country of Bana. Here too there are some three thousand monks, all of them students of the Lesser Vehicle.

Going east from here for three days he crossed the Xintou river again, and both its banks are flat ground. Beyond the river there is a country named Pitu. The Law of the Buddha flourishes there, and they study the Great Vehicle and the Lesser Vehicle together. When they saw men of the Way from the land of Qin coming, they pitied them greatly and spoke thus: "How can a man of the border lands know to leave the household life and follow the Way, and come this far to seek the Law of the Buddha?" They supplied them with all they needed and treated them according to the Law.

Going southeast from here a little less than eighty yojanas, the monasteries they passed through were very many, and the monks numbered ten thousand.

When they had passed all these places they came to a country named Matoulo. There is a river called the Yaobuna, and on either side of the river there are twenty sangharamas with some three thousand monks, and the Law of the Buddha grows ever stronger.

In all the countries of India west of the river of sand, the kings are firm believers in the Law of the Buddha. When they make their offerings to the monks they take off their crowns, and together with their kinsmen and their ministers they serve the food with their own hands. When the food has been served, they spread a rug on the ground and sit facing the elder of the order, and before the monks they do not dare to sit on a couch. This is the manner in which the kings made their offerings while the Buddha was alive, handed down to this day.

From here southward is called the Middle Country (中國). In the Middle Country the cold and the heat are temperate, and there is neither frost nor snow. The people are well off and happy. There are no registers of households and no officers of the law. Only those who till the king's land pay a share of what the land yields, and if a man wishes to go he goes, and if he wishes to stay he stays. The king governs without using punishments. Those who commit an offense are only fined money, according as the matter is light or heavy, and even for plotting rebellion a second time it goes no further than cutting off the right hand. The king's guards and his attendants all have their stipends. The people of the whole country kill no living thing, drink no liquor, and eat no onions or garlic, save only the Chandalas. Chandala means an evil man, and they live apart from others. When one enters a walled town or a market he strikes a piece of wood to make himself known, and the people recognize him and keep out of his way, so that they do not run against one another. Within the country they do not raise pigs or fowls and do not sell live creatures, and in the markets there are no butchers' shops and no wine shops. In buying and selling they use cowrie shells. Only the Chandalas and the hunters sell meat.

Since the Buddha entered nirvana, the kings and the elders and the householders of many countries have raised viharas for the monks and made offerings, and have given them fields and houses, gardens and orchards, people and cattle. It is recorded in documents cut in iron, and it is handed on from king to king, and none dares to do away with it, so that it has not been broken off to this day. The rooms where the monks live, their bedding, their food, and their clothing lack for nothing, and it is so everywhere. The monks make the doing of merit their constant work, and they recite the sutras and sit in meditation. When a visiting monk arrives, the monks already there go out to meet him, carry his robe and his bowl for him, give him water to wash his feet and oil to rub on them, and bring him drink outside the proper hours. When they have let him rest a while, they ask the number of his years in the order, and give him a room and bedding in his turn, and everything is done according to the Law. Where the monks live they raise a stupa for Shariputra, a stupa for Maudgalyayana, and a stupa for Ananda, and stupas for the Abhidharma, the Vinaya, and the sutras. For a month after the retreat, the households that seek blessings urge one another to make offerings to the monks and prepare drink for the hours outside the rule. The monks gather in a great assembly and preach the Law. When the preaching is done, they make their offerings at the stupa of Shariputra with flowers and incense of every kind, and lamps are kept burning all night. They have players act how Shariputra, when he was still a Brahmin, went to the Buddha and asked to leave the household life. For the great Maudgalyayana and the great Mahakashyapa they do the same. The nuns for the most part make their offerings at the stupa of Ananda, because Ananda asked the World-honored One to allow women to leave the household life. The novices for the most part make their offerings to Rahula. The masters of the Abhidharma make their offerings to the Abhidharma, and the masters of the Vinaya to the Vinaya. Once every year they make these offerings, and each has its own appointed day. Those who follow the Mahayana make their offerings to the Prajnaparamita, to Manjushri, to Avalokiteshvara, and the rest. When the monks have taken the year, the elders and the householders and the Brahmins each bring clothing of every kind and the things that shramanas need, and give them to the monks, and the monks give to one another as well. Since the Buddha entered nirvana, the bearing and the rules that the holy company (聖衆) have followed have been handed on in this way without a break.

From the crossing of the Xintou river to South India and on to the southern sea, forty or fifty thousand li, it is all flat, with no great mountains or streams, and only the water of rivers.