Yetgeul › Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) › Book 5

The Country of Ayemuqu阿耶穆佉國

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 · 230 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 min

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) Book 5 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.

阿耶穆佉國周二千四五百里。國大都城臨殑伽河,周二十餘里。其氣序土宜,同阿逾陁國。人淳俗質,勤學好福。伽藍五所,僧徒千餘人,習學小乘正量部法。天祠十餘所,異道雜居。

The country of Ayemuqu is two thousand four or five hundred li around. The great capital city of the country looks out over the Qingqie river and is more than twenty li around. Its climate and what the soil suits are the same as in the country of Ayoutuo. The people are simple and the customs plain, and they are diligent in study and love merit. There are five monasteries and more than a thousand monks, and they study the Law of the Zhengliang school of the Lesser Vehicle. There are more than ten temples of the gods, and followers of other ways live mixed among them.

2The place where the Da piposha lun was composed

城東南不遠,臨殑伽河岸,有窣堵波,無憂王之所建也,高二百餘尺,是如來昔於此處三月說法。其側則有過去四佛座有經行遺跡之所。復有如來髮爪青石窣堵波。其側伽藍,僧徒二百餘人,佛像莊飾,威嚴如在。臺閣宏麗,奇制郁起,是昔佛陀馱娑論師於此制說一切有部《大毗婆沙論》。

Not far southeast of the city, looking out over the bank of the Qingqie river, there is a stupa. It was raised by King Wuyou and is more than two hundred feet high. This is the place where the Tathagata long ago spoke the Law here for three months. Beside it is the place where the four Buddhas of the past left the traces where they sat and walked. There is also a stupa of blue stone that holds the hair and nails of the Tathagata. In the monastery beside it there are more than two hundred monks. The images of the Buddha are adorned with dignity, and their majesty is as though he were present. The terraces and towers are great and beautiful, and their strange workmanship rises thick and high. This is the place where long ago the master of treatises Fotuotuosuo composed here the Da piposha lun of the Sarvastivada school.

Interlinear notes 1

唐言覺使。

In the language of the Tang it is Jueshi.

從此東南行七百餘里,渡殑伽河南、閻牟那河北,至缽鑼耶伽國。

Going southeast from here more than seven hundred li, passing south of the Qingqie river and north of the Yanmouna river, one comes to the country of Boluoyeqie.

Interlinear notes 1

中印度境。

It is in the border of Central India.