A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 180 pages of information about A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms.

A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 180 pages of information about A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms.
Anagamins, and Arhats.  E. H., p. 14.
(11) This is the first time that Fa-hien employs the name Ho-shang {.} {.}, which is now popularly used in China for all Buddhist monks without distinction of rank or office.  It is the representative of the Sanskrit term Upadhyaya, “explained,” says Eitel (p. 155) by “a self-taught teacher,” or by “he who knows what is sinful and what is not sinful,” with the note, “In India the vernacular of this term is {.} {.} (? munshee (?  Bronze)); in Kustana and Kashgar they say {.} {.} (hwa-shay); and from the latter term are derived the Chinese synonyms, {.} {.} (ho-shay) and {.} {.} (ho-shang).”  The Indian term was originally a designation for those who teach only a part of the Vedas, the Vedangas.  Adopted by Buddhists of Central Asia, it was made to signify the priests of the older ritual, in distinction from the Lamas.  In China it has been used first as a synonym for {.} {.}, monks engaged in popular teaching (teachers of the Law), in distinction from {.} {.}, disciplinists, and {.} {.}, contemplative philosophers (meditationists); then it was used to designate the abbots of monasteries.  But it is now popularly applied to all Buddhist monks.  In the text there seems to be implied some distinction between the “teachers” and the “ho-shang;”—­probably, the Pali Akariya and Upagghaya; see Sacred Books of the East, vol. xiii, Vinaya Texts, pp. 178, 179.
(12) It might be added, “as depending on it,” in order to bring out the full meaning of the {.} in the text.  If I recollect aright, the help of the police had to be called in at Hong Kong in its early years, to keep the approaches to the Cathedral free from the number of beggars, who squatted down there during service, hoping that the hearers would come out with softened hearts, and disposed to be charitable.  I found the popular tutelary temples in Peking and other places, and the path up Mount T’ai in Shan-lung similarly frequented.

   (13) The wife of Anatha-pindika, and who became “mother superior” of
   many nunneries.  See her history in M. B., pp. 220-227.  I am surprised
   it does not end with the statement that she is to become a Buddha.

(14) See E. H., p. 136.  Hsuan-chwang does not give the name of this murderer; see in Julien’s “Vie et Voyages de Hiouen-thsang,” p. 125,—­“a heretical Brahman killed a woman and calumniated Buddha.”  See also the fuller account in Beal’s “Records of Western Countries,” pp. 7, 8, where the murder is committed by several Brahmacharins.  In this passage Beal makes Sundari to be the name of the murdered person (a harlot).  But the text cannot be so construed.

   (15) Eitel (p. 144) calls her Chancha; in Singhalese, Chinchi.  See the
   story about her, M. B., pp. 275-277.

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A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.