Yetgeul › Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) › Book 3

The Country of Wulashi烏剌屍國

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) 大唐西域記 · Xuanzang · compiled by Bianji · 646 (Tang, 20th year of the Zhenguan era) · 3 passages · 145 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 min

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) Book 3 The record Xuanzang laid before Emperor Taizong of the Tang after seventeen years of walking through the Western Regions and India, a hundred and thirty-eight countries in all. It is the stuff from which Journey to the West was made, but what stands here is not monsters — it is the compass and the climate and the speech and the faith of one country after another. The road runs two hundred years after Faxian and eighty years before Hyecho.

烏剌屍國周二千餘里,山阜連接,田疇隘狹。國大都城周七八里。無大君長,役屬迦濕彌羅國。宜稼穡,少花果。氣序溫和,微有霜雪。俗無禮義,人性剛猛,多行詭詐,不信佛法。

The country of Wulashi is more than two thousand li around. Hills and mounds run one into another, and the fields are narrow and cramped. The great capital city of the country is seven or eight li around. There is no great ruler, and it is subject to the country of Jiashimiluo. The land suits sowing and reaping, and flowers and fruits are few. The climate is warm and mild, and a little frost and snow fall. In their customs there is no courtesy or right dealing. The nature of the people is hard and fierce, they practice much deceit, and they do not believe the Law of the Buddha.

2The Stupa of King Wuyou

大城西南四五里有窣堵波,高二百餘尺,無憂王所建也。傍有迦藍,僧徒寡少,並皆學大乘法教。

Four or five li southwest of the great city there is a stupa more than two hundred feet high, which King Wuyou built. Beside it there is a monastery with few monks, and all of them study the Law and teaching of the Greater Vehicle.

從此東南登山履險,度鐵橋,行千餘里,至迦濕彌羅國。

Going southeast from here, climbing the mountains and treading over dangerous places and crossing an iron bridge, after more than a thousand li one comes to the country of Jiashimiluo.

Interlinear notes 1

舊曰罽賓,訛也。北印度境。

In old days it was called Jibin. This is wrong. It lies within North India.