Yetgeul › Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) › Book 11

The Country of Langjieluo狼揭羅國

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) · 2 passages · 189 Chinese characters · reading time 0.8 min

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) Book 11 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.

狼揭羅國東西南北各數千里,國大都城周三十餘里,號窣菟黎濕伐羅。土地沃潤,稼穡滋盛。氣序風俗,同阿點婆翅羅國。居人殷盛,多諸珍寶。臨大海濱,入西女國之路也。無大君長,據川自立,不相承命,役屬波剌斯國。文字大同印度,語言少異。邪正兼信。伽藍百餘所,僧徒六千餘人,大小二乘兼功習學。天祠數百所,塗灰外道,其徒極眾。城中有大自在天祠,莊嚴壯麗,塗灰外道之所宗事。

The country of Langjieluo is several thousand li from east to west and several thousand li from north to south. The great capital city of the country is more than thirty li around, and it is called Sutulishifaluo. The soil is rich and moist, and planting and harvest grow well and thrive. The seasons and the customs are the same as in the country of Adianposhiluo. The people who live there are many and thriving, and precious things of many kinds are plentiful. It lies on the shore of the great sea, and it is the road that leads into the country of the Western Women. It has no great ruler. Men hold the river valleys and set themselves up, and they take no orders from one another, and the country is subject to the country of Bolasi. Their writing is much the same as in India, and their speech differs a little. They believe in the false and the true together. There are more than a hundred monasteries and more than six thousand monks, and they work at both the Greater Vehicle and the Lesser Vehicle and study them through. There are several hundred temples of the gods, and the followers of other ways who smear themselves with ashes are very many in their company. Within the city there is a temple of the great god Zizai. Its adorning is grand and fair, and it is the place where the followers of other ways who smear themselves with ashes hold their highest worship.

自此西北至波剌斯國。

From here, going northwest, one reaches the country of Bolasi.

Interlinear notes 1

雖非印度之國,路次附見。舊曰波斯,略也。

Though it is not a country of India, it is set down here because it lies along the road. In old days it was called Bosi, which is the shortened name.