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The Turks突厥

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 · 121 Chinese characters · reading time 0.5 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.

1The land of the Turks

又從此胡國已北。北至北海。西至西海。東至漢國。已北總是突厥所住境界。此等突厥不識佛法。無寺無僧。衣著皮毬氈衫。以虫為食。亦無城郭住處。氈帳為屋。行住隨身。隨逐水草。男人並剪鬚髮。女人在頭。言音與諸國不同。國人愛殺。不識善惡。土地足駝騾羊馬之屬

Again, from these Hu countries northward, north as far as the northern sea, west as far as the western sea and east as far as the land of Han, all is the land where the Turks live.

These Turks do not know the Law of the Buddha, and there are no monasteries and no monks. They wear leather coats and felt shirts, and they take insects for their food. They have no walled towns and no dwelling places. They make felt tents their houses and carry them with them as they go and stay, moving after water and grass.

The men all cut their beards and hair, and the women let their hair grow. Their speech is not like that of the other countries. The people of the country love to kill, and they do not know good from evil. The land has camels, mules, sheep, horses and the like in plenty.

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