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

The Country of Bolasi波剌斯國

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) · 5 passages · 330 Chinese characters · reading time 1.3 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.

波剌斯國周數萬里,國大都城號蘇剌薩儻那,周四十餘里。川土既多,氣序亦異,大抵溫也。引水為田,人戶富饒。出金、銀、鍮石、頗胝、水精、奇珍異寶,工織大錦、細褐、氍毹之類,多善馬、橐駝。貨用大銀錢。人性躁暴,俗無禮義。文字、語言異於諸國,無學藝,多工技,凡諸造作,鄰境所重。婚姻雜亂,死多棄屍。其形偉大,齊髮露頭,衣皮褐,服錦氎。戶課賦稅,人四銀錢。天祠甚多,提那跋外道之徒為所宗也。伽藍二三,僧徒數百,並學小乘教說一切有部法。釋伽佛缽在此王宮。

The country of Bolasi is several tens of thousands of li around. The great capital city of the country is called Sulasadangna, and it is more than forty li around. Its rivers and lands are many and its seasons too are different, but on the whole it is warm. They draw water off to make their fields, and the households are rich and well supplied. It yields gold, silver, brass, poti stone, crystal, and rare and precious things. They are skilled at weaving great brocade, fine woolen cloth, rugs and the like, and fine horses and camels are many. For trade they use large silver coins. The nature of the people is hasty and fierce, and their customs have no rites and no sense of duty. Their writing and their speech differ from those of other countries. They have no learning and no arts, but they have many crafts, and all the things they make are prized in the lands about them. Their marriages are mixed and disordered, and when men die they mostly cast the bodies away. Their bodies are large and tall. They cut their hair even and go bareheaded. They wear leather and woolen cloth, and they put on brocade and fine cotton. Every household is taxed, at four silver coins for each person. The temples of the gods are very many, and they are where the company of the followers of other ways called Tinaba hold their highest worship. There are two or three monasteries and several hundred monks, and all of them study the Law of the Sarvastivada school, which is the teaching of the Lesser Vehicle. The bowl of the Buddha Sakyamuni is in the palace of this king.

2The city of Hemo

國東境有鶴秣城,內城不廣,外郭周六十餘里。居人眾,家產富。

On the eastern border of the country there is the city of Hemo. Its inner city is not wide, but the outer wall is more than sixty li around. The people who live there are many, and their households are rich.

3The country of Fulin

西北接拂懍國,境壤風俗,同波剌斯。形貌語言,稍有乖異,多珍寶,亦福饒也。

On the northwest it touches the country of Fulin. The land of its borders and its customs are the same as in Bolasi. In form and in speech there is a little difference. Precious things are many, and it too is blessed and rich.

4The country of the Western Women

拂懍國西南海島有西女國,皆是女人,略無男子。多諸珍寶貨,附拂懍國,故拂懍王歲遣丈夫配焉,其俗產男皆不舉也。

On an island in the sea southwest of the country of Fulin there is the country of the Western Women. All of them are women, and there are almost no men. Precious things and goods of many kinds are plentiful there, and the country is attached to the country of Fulin, and so the king of Fulin sends men there every year to be their mates. By their custom, when a boy is born they do not rear him.

自阿點婆翅羅國北行七百餘里,至臂多勢羅國。

Going north from the country of Adianposhiluo for more than seven hundred li, one reaches the country of Biduoshiluo.

Interlinear notes 1

西印度境。

It is the border of West India.