by Thomas Watters M.R.A.S.
Edited After his Death by T.W. Rhys Davids, F.B.A. and S.W. Bushell, M.D., C.M.G.
With Two Maps and an Itinerary by Vincent A. Smith
Royal Asiatic Society, London
1904
NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.
The Lumbini Pillar Inscription.
Whatever the event, in December 1896 Fuhrer met up at this Nepalese ‘Rummindei’ with the local Governor, Khadga Shamsher, ‘a man with intrigue in his bones’, who having assassinated one Prime Minister of Nepal and plotted against two others, eventually fled to British India and sanctuary.
The subsequent excavations around the pillar reportedly disclosed an Asokan inscription about a metre below ground, and level with the top of a surrounding brick enclosure.
The credit for the discovery of this inscription later prompted an official enquiry, since Fuhrer had supposedly left the site just before any excavations had begun, leaving the Governor and his ‘sappers’ to do the digging. In his official letter on the matter, Fuhrer stated that he had advised the Governor ‘that an inscription would be found if a search was made below the surface of the mound’ on which the pillar was situated. Since there was no previous historical reference to such an inscription, one wonders at Fuhrer’s remarkable prescience on this occasion. However, since this inscription provides the basis for the identification of this place with Lumbini, I propose to deal with it before passing on to other features at this site.
The appearance of this inscription in 1896 marked its first recorded appearance in history. The noted Chinese pilgrims, Fa-hsien and Yuan-chuang, make no mention of it in their accounts of the Lumbini site (though Yuan-chuang does give a detailed description of a pillar) and as Thomas Watters observed:‘We have no records of any other pilgrims visiting this place, or of any great Buddhists residing at it, or of any human life, except that mentioned by the two pilgrims, between the Buddha’s time and the present.
In Watters’ book ‘On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India’ (prepared from an unpublished manuscript after his death) the following statement is found with reference to the Lumbini site:‘Yuan-chuang, as we have seen, mentions a stone pillar, but he does not say anything about an inscription on it. The Fang-chih, however, tells us that the pillar recorded the circumstances of Buddha's birth’.
The Fang-chih -– a shortened version of Yuan-chuang’s account -- does nothing of the sort, since though it also refers to a stone pillar at Lumbini, no inscription ‘recording the circumstances of Buddha’s birth’ is mentioned in this text either. Watters, a great Sinologist, was referred to by V. A. [Vincent Arthur] Smith as ‘one of the most brilliant ornaments’ of Chinese Buddhist scholarship, and it is inconceivable that he would have made this critical mistake. Indeed, when Smith asserted that the Lumbini pillar inscription ‘set at rest all doubts as to the exact site of the traditional birthplace of Gautama Buddha’, Watters acidly retorted that ‘it would be more correct to say that the inscription, if genuine, tells us what was the spot indicated to Asoka as the birthplace of the Buddha’. Note that ‘if genuine’: this shows that Watters not only had his doubts about this inscription, but that he was also prepared to voice those doubts in public. Moreover, according to Smith, ‘Mr Watters writes in a very sceptical spirit, and apparently feels doubts as to the reality of the Sakya principality in the Tarai'. From all this, it will clearly be seen that this Fang-chih ‘mistake’ was totally at variance with Watters’ ‘very sceptical spirit’ regarding these supposed Nepalese discoveries (Lumbini included); and I shall therefore charge that it was a posthumous interpolation into Watters’ original text by its editors, Rhys Davids, Bushell, and Smith. If this charge is correct –- and I am quite sure that it is -- then the reasons behind this appalling deception can only be guessed at, I need hardly add.
-- Lumbini On Trial: The Untold Story. Lumbini Is An Astonishing Fraud Begun in 1896, by T. A. Phelps
Contents: [PDF HERE]
• Preface
• Thomas Watters
• Transliteration of the Pilgrim’s Name
• Chapter 1. Title and Text
• Chapter 2. The Introduction
• Chapter 3. From Kao Chang to the Thousand Springs
• Chapter 4. Taras to Kapis
• Chapter 5. General Description of India
• Chapter 6. Lampa to Gandhara
• Chapter 7. Udyana to Kashmir
• Chapter 8. Kashmir to Rajapur
• Chapter 9. Cheh-Ka to Mathura
• Chapter 10. Sthanesvara to Kapitha
• Chapter 11. Kanyakubja to Visoka
• Chapter 12. Sravasti to Kusinara
The Chinese treatise known as the Hsi-yu-chi (or Si-yu- ki) is one of the classical Buddhist books of China, Korea, and Japan....
On the title-page of the Hsi-yu-chi it is represented as having been "translated" by Yuan-chuang and "redacted" or "compiled" by Pien-chi ([x]). But we are not to take the word for translate here in its literal sense, and all that it can be understood to convey is that the information given in the book was obtained by Yuan-chuang from foreign sources. One writer tells us that Yuan-chuang supplied the materials to Pien-chi who wrought these up into a literary treatise. Another states that Yuan-chuang communicated at intervals the facts to be recorded to Pien-chi who afterwards wove these into a connected narrative.
This Pien-chi was one of the learned Brethren appointed by T'ai Tsung to assist Yuan-chung in the work of translating the Indian books which Yuan-chuang had brought with him. It was the special duty of Pien-chi to give literary form to the translations. He was a monk of the Hui-chang ([x]) Monastery and apparently in favour at the court of the Emperor. But he became mixed up in an intrigue with one of T'ai Tsung's daughters and we cannot imagine a man of his bad character being on very intimate terms with the pilgrim. As to the Hsi-yu-chi we may doubt whether he really had much to do with its formation, and perhaps the utmost that can be claimed for him is that he may have strung together Yuan-chuang's descriptions into a connected narrative. The literary compositions of Yuan-chuang to be found in other places seem to justify us in regarding him as fully competent to write the treatise before us without any help from others...Some of the notes and comments may have been added by Pien-chi but several are evidently by a later hand....
The Hsi-yu-chi exists in several editions which present considerable variations both in the text and in the supplementary notes and explanations....
Under the guidance of the learned Doctors in Buddhism in these establishments he studied some of the great works of their religion, and soon became famous in China as a very learned and eloquent young monk. But he could not remain in China for he longed vehemently to visit the holy land of his religion, to see its far-famed shrines, and all the visible evidences of the Buddha's ministrations. He had learned, moreover, to be dissatisfied with the Chinese translations of the sacred books, and he was desirous to procure these books in their original language, and to learn the true meaning of their abstruse doctrines from orthodox pundits in India. After making enquiries and preparations he left the capital Ch'ang-an ([x]), the modern Hsi-an ([x])-foo, in the year 629, and set out secretly on his long pilgrimage....
After sixteen year's absence Yuan-chuang returned to China and arrived at Ch'ang-an in the beginning of 645, the nineteenth year of the reign of T'ang T'ai Tsung....
Now he had arrived whole and well, and had become a many days' wonder. He had been where no other had ever been, he had seen and heard what no other had ever seen and heard. Alone he had crossed trackless wastes tenanted only by fierce ghost-demons. Bravely he had climbed fabled mountains high beyond conjecture, rugged and barren, ever chilled by icy wind and cold with eternal snow. He had been to the edge of the world and had seen where all things end. Now he was safely back to his native land, and with so great a quantity of precious treasures. There were 657 sacred books of Buddhism, some of which were full of mystical charms able to put to flight the invisible powers of mischief. All these books were in strange Indian language and writing, and were made of trimmed leaves of palm or of birch-bark strung together in layers. Then there were lovely images of the Buddha and his saints in gold, and silver, and crystal, and sandalwood. There were also many curious pictures and, above all, 150 relics, true relics of the Buddha. All these relics were borne on twenty horses and escorted into the city with great pomp and ceremony.
The Emperor T'ai Tsung forgave the pilgrim for going abroad without permission, made his acquaintance and became his intimate friend. He received Yuan-chuang in an inner chamber of the palace, and there listened with unwearied interest from day to day to his stories about unknown lands and the wonders Buddha and his great disciples had wrought in them...On his petition the Emperor appointed several distinguished lay scholars and several learned monks to assist in the labour of translating, editing, and copying. In the meantime at the request of his Sovereign Yuan-chuang compiled the Records of his travels, the Hsi-yu-chi. The first draft of this work was presented to the Emperor in 646, but the book as we have it now was not actually completed until 648. It was apparently copied and circulated in Ms in its early form during the author's life and for some time after. When the Hsi-yu-chi was finished Yuan-chuang gave himself up to the task of translating, a task which was to him one of love and duty combined.... In the year 664 on the 6th day of the second month he underwent the great change.... he passed hence into Paradise....
His character as revealed to us in his Life and other books is interesting and attractive....Too prone at times to follow authority and accept ready-made conclusions he was yet self possessed and independent....
There were lengths, however, to which he could not go, and even his powerful friend the Emperor T'ai Tsung could not induce him to translate Lao-tzu's "Tao-Te-Ching" into Sanskrit or recognize Lao-tzu as in rank above the Buddha....His faith was simple and almost unquestioning, and he had an aptitude for belief which has been called credulity. But his was not that credulity which lightly believes the impossible and accepts any statement merely because it is on record and suits the convictions or prejudices of the individual. Yuan-chuang always wanted to have his own personal testimony, the witness of his own senses or at least his personal experience. It is true his faith helped his unbelief, and it was too easy to convince him where a Buddhist miracle was concerned. A hole in the ground without any natural history, a stain on a rock without any explanation apparent, any object held sacred by the old religion of the fathers, and any marvel professing to be substantiated by the narrator, was generally sufficient to drive away his doubts and bring comforting belief. But partly because our pilgrim was thus too ready to believe, though partly also for other reasons, he did not make the best use of his opportunities. He was not a good observer, a careful investigator, or a satisfactory recorder, and consequently he left very much untold which he would have done well to tell....
After Yuan-chuang's death great and marvellous things were said of him. His body, it was believed, did not see corruption and he appeared to some of his disciples in visions of the night. In his lifetime he had been called a "Present Sakyamuni", and when he was gone his followers raised him to the rank of a founder of Schools or Sects in Buddhism. In one treatise we find the establishment of three of these schools ascribed to him, and in another work he is given as the founder in China of a fourth school. This last is said to have been originated in India at Nalanda by Silabhadra one of the great Buddhist monks there with whom Yuan-chuang studied....
THE PREFACES TO THE HSI-YU-CHI.
There is only one Preface in the A, B, and C editions of the "Hsi-yu-chi", but the D edition gives two Prefaces.... This latter was apparently unknown to native editors and it was unknown to the foreign translators. This Preface is the work of Ching Po ([x]), a scholar, author, and official of the reigns of T'ang Kao Tsu and T'ai Tsung.... It is plain from this Preface that its author was an intimate friend of Yuan-chuang whose name he does not think it necessary to mention. He seems to have known or regarded Yuan-chuang as the sole author of the "Hsi-yu-chi", writing of him thus: — "he thought it no toil to reduce to order the notes which he had written down"....
The second Preface, which is in all editions except the Corean, is generally represented as having been written by one Chang Yueh ([x]). It has been translated fairly well by Julien, who has added numerous notes to explain the text and justify his renderings. He must have studied the Preface with great care and spent very many hours in his attempt to elucidate its obscurities. Yet it does not seem to have occurred to him to learn who Chang Yueh was and when he lived.
Now the Chang Yueh who bore the titles found at the head of the Preface above the name was born in 667 and died in 730, thus living in the reigns of Kao Tsung, Chung Tsung, Jui Tsung, and Hsuan Tsung. He is known in Chinese literature and history as a scholar, author, and official of good character and abilities. His Poems and Essays, especially the latter, have always been regarded as models of style, but they are not well known at present. In 689 Chang Yueh became qualified for the public service, and soon afterwards he obtained an appointment at the court of the Empress Wu Hou. But he did not prove acceptable to that ambitious, cruel and vindictive sovereign, and in 703 he was sent away to the Ling-nan Tao (the modern Kuangtung). Soon afterwards, however, he was recalled and again appointed to office at the capital. He served Hsuan Huang (Ming Huang) with acceptance, rising to high position and being ennobled as Yen kuo kung ([x]).
Now if, bearing in mind the facts of Chang Yueh's birth and career, we read with attention the Preface which bears his name we cannot fail to see that it could not have been composed by that official....according to the Chinese authorities and their translators Julien and Professor G. Schlegel, it was a schoolboy who composed this wonderful Preface, this "piece that offers a good specimen characterized by these pompous and empty praises, and presents, therefore the greatest difficulties, not only has a translator from the West, but still has every letter Chinese who would only know the ideas and the language of the school of Confucius." We may pronounce this impossible as the piece is evidently the work of a ripe scholar well read not only in Confucianism but also in Buddhism. Moreover the writer was apparently not only a contemporary but also a very intimate friend of Yuan-chuang.
In the A and C editions and in the old texts Chang Yueh's name does not appear on the title-page to this Preface. It is said to have been added by the editors of the Ming period when revising the Canon. Formerly there stood at the head of the Preface only the titles and rank of its author. We must now find a man who bore these titles in the Kao Tsung period, 650 to 683, and who was at the same time a scholar and author of distinction and a friend of the pilgrim. And precisely such a man we find in Yu Chih-ning ([x]), one of the brilliant scholars and statesmen who shed a glory on the reigns of the early T'ang sovereigns. ... On the death of T'ai Tsung his son and successor Kao Tsung retained Yu in favour at Court and rewarded him with well-earned honours. In 656 the Emperor appointed Yu along with some other high officials to help in the redaction of the translations which Yuan-chuang was then making from the Sanskrit books. Now about this time Yu, as we know from a letter addressed to him by Hui-li and from other sources, bore the titles which appear at the head of the Preface. He was also an Immortal of the Academy, a Wen-kuan Hsuo-shi ([x]). He was one of the scholars who had been appointed to compile the "Sui Shu" or Records of the Sui dynasty and his miscellaneous writings from forty chuan. Yu was probably a fellow-labourer with Yuan-chuang until the year 660. At that date the concubine of many charms had become all-powerful in the palace and she was the unscrupulous foe of all who even seemed to block her progress. Among these was Yu, who, accordingly, was this year sent away into official exile and apparently never returned.
We need have little hesitation then in setting down Yu Chih-ning as the author of this Preface. It was undoubtedly written while Yuan-chuang was alive, and no one except an intimate friend of Yuan-chuang could have learned all the circumstances about him, his genealogy and his intimacy with the sovereign mentioned or alluded to in the Preface. We need not suppose that this elegant composition was designed by its author to serve as a Preface to the Hsi- yu-chi. It was probably written as an independent eulogy of Yuan-chuang setting forth his praises as a man of old family, a record-beating traveller, a zealous Buddhist monk of great learning and extraordinary abilities, and a propagator of Buddhism by translations from the Sanskrit.
This Preface, according to all the translators, tells us that the pilgrim acting under Imperial orders translated 657 Sanskrit books, that is, all the Sanskrit books which he had brought home with him from the Western Lands. No one seems to have pointed out that this was an utterly impossible feat, and that Yuan-chuang did not attempt to do anything of the kind. The number of Sanskrit texts which he translated was seventy four, and these seventy four treatises (pu) made in all 1335 chuan. To accomplish this within seventeen years was a very great work for a delicate man with various calls on his time.
The translations made by Yuan-chuang are generally represented on the title-page as having been made by Imperial order and the title-page of the Hsi-yu-chi has the same intimation. We know also from the Life that it was at the special request of the Emperor T'ai Tsung that Yuan-chuang composed the latter treatise. So we should probably understand the passage in the Preface with which we are now concerned as intended to convey the following information. The pilgrim received Imperial orders to translate the 657 Sanskrit treatises, and to make the Ta-T'ang-Hsi-yu-chi in twelve chuan, giving his personal observation of the strange manners and customs of remote and isolated regions, their products and social arrangements, and the places to which the Chinese Calendar and the civilising influences of China reached....
At the beginning of Chuan I of the Records we have a long passage which, following Julien, we may call the Introduction. In a note Julien tells us that according to the editors of Pien-i-tien, this Introduction was composed by Tschang-choue (i.e. Chang Tue), author of the preface to Si-yu-ki". Another native writer ascribes the composition of this Introduction to Pien-chi. But a careful reading of the text shews us that it could not have been written by either of these and that it must be regarded as the work of the pilgrim himself. This Introduction may possibly be the missing Preface written by Yuan-chuang according to a native authority....
What our author here states to his reader is to this effect...His Majesty ascended the throne" in accordance with Heaven, and taking advantage of the times it concentrated power to itself. [His Majesty] has made the six units of countries into one empire and this his glory fills; he is a fourth to the Three Huang and his light illumines the world. His subtle influence permeates widely and his auspicious example has a far-reaching stimulus....in founding an imperial inheritance for his posterity, in bringing order out of chaos and restoring settled government...and in raising men from mud and ashes, he had far transcended the achievements of the founders of the Chow and Han dynasties....
"In more than three-fifths of the places I traversed", all living creatures feel the genial influence [of H. Ms. reign] and every human being extols his merit. From Ch'ang-an to India the strange tribes of the sombre wastes, isolated lands and odd states, all accept the Chinese calendar and enjoy the benefits of H. Ms. fame and teaching. The praise of his great achievements in war is in everybody's mouth and the commendation of his abundant civil virtues has grown to be the highest theme... Were there not the facts here set forth I could not record the beneficial influences of His Majesty. The narrative which I have now composed is based on what I saw and heard."
This is an address well spiced with flattery in good oriental fashion.... The founder of the T'ang dynasty, it should be remembered, was neither a hero nor a man of extraordinary genius, and he came near being a prig and a hypocrite. His loyalty and honour were questioned in his lifetime, and history has given him several black marks. While sick of ambition, he was infirm of purpose, and wishing to do right he was easily swayed to do what was wrong.... But all his success in later life, and the fame of his reign were largely due to the son who succeeded him on the throne....
The splendour of T'ai Tsung's great achievements, the conspicuous merits of his administration, and the charm of his sociable affable manner made the people of his time forget his faults.... So it came that the historian, dazed by the spell and not seeing clearly, left untold some of the Emperor's misdeeds and told others without adding their due meed of blame. For this great ruler smutched his fair record by such crimes as murder and adultery. The shooting of his brothers was excusable and even justifiable, but his other murders admit of little palliation and cannot plead necessity. Though he yielded to his good impulses, again, in releasing thousands of women who had been forced into and kept in the harem of Sui Yang Ti, yet he also yielded to his bad impulses when he took his brother's widow and afterwards that maid of fourteen, Wu Chao, into his own harem. His love of wine and women in early life, his passion for war and his love of glory and empire, which possessed him to the end, were failings of which the eyes of contemporaries dazzled by the "fierce light" could not take notice....
It was during the reign of this sovereign, in the year 636, that Christianity was first introduced into China. The Nestorian missionaries, who brought it, were allowed to settle in peace and safety at the capital. This was the boon which called forth the gratitude of the Christian historian and enhanced in his view the merits of the heathen sovereign.
The author next proceeds to give a short summary of the Buddhistic teachings about this world and the system of which it forms a constituent. He begins —Now the Saha world, the Three Thousand Great Chiliocosm, is the sphere of the spiritual influence of one Buddha. It is in the four continents (lit. "Under heavens") now illuminated by one sun and moon and within the Three Thousand Great Chiliocosm that the Buddhas, the World-honoured ones, produce their spiritual effects, are visibly born and visible enter Nirrvana, teach the way to saint and sinner...
The author next proceeds to make a few summary observations...From the Black Range on this side (i.e. to China) all the people are Hu: and though Jungs are counted with these, yet the hordes and clans are distinct, and the boundaries of territories are defined....
"For the most part [these tribes] are settled peoples with walled cities, practising agriculture and rearing cattle. They prize the possession of property and slight humanity and public duty (lit. benevolence and righteousness). Their marriages are without ceremonies and there are no distinctions as to social position: the wife's word prevails and the husband has a subordinate position. They burn their corpses and have no fixed period of mourning. They flay (?) the face and cut off the ears: they clip their hair short and rend their garments. They slaughter the domestic animals and offer sacrifice to the manes of their dead. They wear white clothing on occasions of good luck and black clothing on unlucky occasions. This is a general summary of the manners and customs common to the tribes, but each state has its own political organization which will be described separately, and the manners and customs of India will be told in the subsequent Records."
This brief and terse account of the social characteristics common to the tribes and districts between China and India presents some rather puzzling difficulties. It is too summary, and is apparently to a large extent secondhand information obtained from rather superficial observers, not derived from the author's personal experience, and it does not quite agree with the accounts given by previous writers and travellers. Thus the pilgrim states that the tribes in question had no fixed period of mourning, that is, for deceased parents, but we learn that the people of Yenk'i observed a mourning of seven days for their parents. Nor was it the universal custom to burn the dead; for the T'ufan people, for example, buried their dead.
-- On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629-645 A.D., by Thomas Watters M.R.A.S.