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The Country of Singnik識匿國

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 · 179 Chinese characters · reading time 0.7 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 country of nine kings

又胡蜜國北山裏。有九箇識匿國。九箇王各領兵馬而住。有一箇王。屬胡蜜王。自外各並自住。不屬餘國。近有兩窟王。來投於漢國使命安西。往來絕。唯王首領。衣著疊布皮裘。自餘百姓。唯是皮裘氈衫。土地極寒。為居雪山。不同餘國。亦有羊馬牛驢。言音各別。不同諸國。彼王常遣三二百人於大播蜜川。劫彼與胡及於使命。縱劫得絹。積在庫中。聽從壞爛。亦不解作衣著也。此識匿等國無有佛法也

Again, in the mountains north of the country of Homil there are nine countries of Singnik (識匿國). Nine kings each lead their own troops and dwell there. One king is under the king of Homil, and the rest each dwell apart and are not under any other country.

Of late the kings of two of them (窟) have given themselves over to Han and sent envoys to Anxi (安西), and the going and coming does not cease.

Only the king and the chiefs wear wool cloth and leather coats, and the rest of the people have nothing but leather coats and felt shirts. The land is very cold because they live on snowy mountains, and it is not like the other countries. There are sheep, horses, cattle and asses as well. Their speech is quite their own and is not like that of the other countries.

That king always sends two or three hundred men to the great river of Pamil (大播蜜川) to rob the Hu merchants who pass and the envoys as well. Though they rob and get plain silk, they pile it up in their storehouses and leave it to rot away, and they do not even know how to make clothes of it.

In these countries of Singnik and the rest there is no Law of the Buddha.

‹ The Congling GarrisonContentsThe Country of Homil ›Listen to this piece