Yetgeul › Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) › Book 12

The Country of Fulishisadangna弗栗恃薩儻那國

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 · 230 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 min

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) Book 12 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.

弗栗恃薩儻那國東西二千餘里,南北千餘里。國大都城號護苾那,周二十餘里。土宜風俗,同漕矩咤國,語言有異。氣序勁寒,人性獷烈。王,突闕種也,深信三寶,尚學遵德。

The country of Fulishisadangna is more than two thousand li from east to west and more than a thousand li from north to south. The great capital city of the country is called Hubina, and it is more than twenty li around. What the soil suits and the customs are the same as in the country of Caojuzha, but there is a difference in speech. The seasons are bitterly cold, and the nature of the people is rough and harsh. The king is of the stock of the Turks. He believes deeply in the Three Jewels, he prizes learning, and he follows after virtue.

2The great ridge of Poluoxina, the pass that even the falcon cannot cross

從此國東北,逾山涉川,越迦畢試國邊城小邑,凡數十所,至大雪山婆羅犀那大嶺。嶺極崇峻,危隥㩻傾,蹊徑盤迂,巖岫回互。或入深谷,或上高崖,盛夏合凍,鑿冰而度。行經三日,方至嶺上。寒風淒烈,積雪彌谷,行旅經涉,莫能佇足。飛隼翺翔,不能越度,足趾步履,然後翻飛。下望諸山,若觀培塿。贍部洲中,斯嶺特高。其巔無樹,惟多石峰,攢立叢倚,森然若林。

From this country to the northeast, crossing mountains and wading rivers and passing the border cities and small towns of the country of Jiabishi, some tens of places in all, one comes to the great ridge of Poluoxina in the Great Snow Mountains. The ridge is utterly high and steep, and its dangerous stairways lean and tilt. The narrow paths wind and coil, and the crags and peaks fold in upon one another. Sometimes one goes down into deep valleys, sometimes one climbs high cliffs, and even in high summer the ice holds, so that men cut through the ice to cross. One travels three days before reaching the top of the ridge. The cold wind is bleak and harsh and the piled snow fills the valleys, and travelers passing over can nowhere stop their feet. The flying falcon soars but cannot cross over. It goes up on its own feet, and only then does it take wing again. To look down from there on the other mountains is to look at anthills. Of all the continent of Shanbu this ridge is the highest. There are no trees on its summit. There are only many peaks of stone, gathered and standing and leaning in clumps, thick as a forest.

又三日行,方得下嶺,至安呾羅縛國。

Three days more of travel, and only then does one come down from the ridge and reach the country of Andaluofu.