(3) The Japanese edition has a different reading here from the Chinese copies,—­one which Remusat (with true critical instinct) conjectured should take the place of the more difficult text with which alone he was acquainted.  The “Nine Interpreters” would be a general name for the official interpreters attached to the invading armies of Han in their attempts to penetrate and subdue the regions of the west.  The phrase occurs in the memoir of Chang K’een, referred to in the next note.

(4) Chang K’een, a minister of the emperor Woo of Han (B.C. 140-87), is celebrated as the first Chinese who “pierced the void,” and penetrated to “the regions of the west,” corresponding very much to the present Turkestan.  Through him, by B.C. 115, a regular intercourse was established between China and the thirty-six kingdoms or states of that quarter;—­see Mayers’ Chinese Reader’s Manual, p. 5.  The memoir of Chang K’een, translated by Mr. Wylie from the Books of the first Han dynasty, appears in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, referred to already.

(5) Less is known of Kan Ying than of Chang K’een.  Being sent in A.D. 88 by his patron Pan Chao on an embassy to the Roman empire, he only got as far as the Caspian sea, and returned to China.  He extended, however, the knowledge of his countrymen with regard to the western regions;—­see the memoir of Pan Chao in the Books of the second Han, and Mayers’ Manual, pp. 167, 168.

   (6) Where and when?  Probably at his first resting-place after crossing
   the Indus.

   (7) This may refer to Sakyamuni’s becoming Buddha on attaining to
   nirvana, or more probably to his pari-nirvana and death.

(8) As king P’ing’s reign lasted from B.C. 750 to 719, this would place the death of Buddha in the eleventh century B.C., whereas recent inquirers place it between B.C. 480 and 470, a year or two, or a few years, after that of Confucius, so that the two great “Masters” of the east were really contemporaries.  But if Rhys Davids be correct, as I think he is, in fixing the date of Buddha’s death within a few years of 412 B.C. (see Manual, p. 213), not to speak of Westergaard’s still lower date, then the Buddha was very considerably the junior of Confucius.

   (9) This confirms the words of Eitel, that Maitreya is already
   controlling the propagation of the faith.

   (10) The Chinese characters for this simply mean “the great scholar or
   officer;” but see Eitel’s Handbook, p. 99, on the term purusha.

   (11) “The precious Buddha,” “the precious Law,” and “the precious
   Monkhood;” Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; the whole being equivalent to
   Buddhism.

   (12) Fa-hien thus endorses the view that Buddhism was introduced into
   China in this reign, A.D. 58-75.  The emperor had his dream in A.D. 61.