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The Country of Sayul謝䫻國

Wang Ocheonchukguk Jeon (Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India) 往五天竺國傳 · Hyecho · 727 (Silla, 26th year of King Seongdeok) · 1 passages · 149 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 min

Wang Ocheonchukguk Jeon (Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India) Complete in one volume The travel record of Hyecho, a monk of Silla, who at about twenty walked forty countries of India and the Western Regions and set down what he saw. It was lost for more than a thousand years and was found again in 1908 in the caves of Dunhuang, as a damaged scroll. Five poems in five-word lines, longing for home, are carried in it.

1A king who is not even under his uncle

又從此罽賓國西行至七日謝䫻國。彼自呼云社護羅薩他那。土人是胡。王及兵馬。即是突厥。其王即是罽賓王姪兒。自把部落兵馬住此於國。不屬餘國。亦不屬阿叔。此王及首領。雖是突厥。極敬三寶。足寺足僧。行大乘法。有一大突厥首領。名娑鐸幹。每年一迴。設金銀無數。多於彼王。衣著人風。土地所出。與罽賓王相似。言音各別

Again from this country of Gyebin I went west for seven days and reached the country of Sayul (謝䫻國). They call themselves Sahorasaltana (社護羅薩他那). The native people are Hu (胡), and the king and his troops are Turks. That king is the nephew of the king of Gyebin, and he holds the troops of his own tribe and lives in this country, and he is not under any other country, nor is he under his uncle.

Though this king and his chiefs are Turks, they revere the Three Jewels deeply, and there are many monasteries and many monks, and they practise the Law of the Great Vehicle. There is one great Turkish chief named Satakgan (娑鐸幹), and once every year he gives away gold and silver without number, more than that king gives.

The dress, the manners and what the land yields are like those of the king of Gyebin, but their speech is quite their own.

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