Yetgeul › Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) › Book 4

The Country of Qupishuangna瞿毗霜那國

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 · 187 Chinese characters · reading time 0.7 min

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) Book 4 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.

瞿毗霜那國周二千餘里,國大都城周十四五里。崇峻險固,居人殷盛。花林池沼,往往相間。氣序土宜,同秣底補羅。風俗淳質,勤學好福。多信外道,求現在樂。伽藍二所,僧眾百餘人,並皆習學小乘法教。天祠三十餘所,異道雜居。

The country of Qupishuangna is more than two thousand li around, and the great capital city of the country is fourteen or fifteen li around. It stands high and steep, hard and firm, and those who live there are many and prosperous. Groves of flowers and ponds lie here and there among one another. The climate and what the soil suits are the same as in Modibuluo. The customs are simple and plain, and the people study diligently and love merit. Many believe in the ways of others and seek the pleasure of the present. There are two monasteries and more than a hundred monks, and all of them study the Law and teaching of the Lesser Vehicle. There are more than thirty temples of the gods, and followers of other ways live mixed among them.

2The place where he spoke the Law for a month

大城側故伽藍中,有窣堵波,無憂王之所建也,高二百餘尺。如來在昔於此一月說諸法要。傍有過去四佛坐及經行遺跡之外。其側有如來髮、爪二窣堵波,各高一丈餘。

Beside the great city, within an old monastery, there is a stupa raised by King Wuyou, more than two hundred feet high. Long ago the Tathagata spoke here for one month on the essentials of the many teachings. Beside it are the traces where the four Buddhas of the past sat and walked. Next to that there are two stupas holding hair and nails of the Tathagata, each more than ten feet high.

自此東南行四百餘里,至堊醯掣呾邏國。

From here one goes southeast more than four hundred li and comes to the country of Exichedaluo.

Interlinear notes 1

中印度境。

It is in the border of Central India.