Translation: When Faxian was in Chang'an before, he lamented that the Vinaya was incomplete, so in 399 AD, he went to Tianzhu with like-minded people such as Huijing, Daozheng, Huiying, Huiwei, etc. to seek the precepts.

Translation: Fa Xian When I was in Chang'an , I lamented the incompleteness of the Vinaya, so in 399 AD, together with like-minded people such as Huijing, Daozheng, Huiying, Huiwei, etc., I went to Tianzhu to seek the precepts.

Buddha Kingdom Record①

Original text: Fa Xian was in Chang'an②, and the law collection③ was incomplete, so he lived in Jihai in the first year of Hongshi④, and made the same agreement with Huijing, Daozheng, Huiying, and Huiwei⑤, and went to Tianzhu⑥ to seek the precepts⑦.

① Records of the Buddha's Kingdom: There are several different names for the records handed down from ancient times to Buddhist classics and historical records, such as "The Biography of the Eminent Monk Faxian", "The Records of the Buddha's Travels to Tianzhu", "The Records of His Travels to Tianzhu", etc. The name "Buddha Kingdom" was first recorded in Volume 33 of "Book of Sui Dynasties" in "Jingji Zhi·Geography Department". Faxian may have signed it as "Shamen Shi", "Eastern Jin Shamen", "Song Shi", "Taoist", etc. "Sui Shu·Jing Ji Zhi" wrote "Shamen Shi Fa Xian Biography".

② Chang'an: one of the ancient capitals of China. Western Han , Xin (Wang Mang), Eastern Han (the beginning of Emperor Xian), Western Jin ( Emperor Min), Former Zhao , Former Qin , Later Qin all had their capitals here. When Faxian set out from Chang'an, it was during the reign of Yao Xing of the Later Qin Dynasty (384-416 AD) (394-416 AD). Since then, the Western Wei , Northern Zhou , Sui and Tang Dynasties also had Chang'an as their capital. Chang'an was also the accompanying capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Three Kingdoms Wei, Five Dynasties Tang dynasties. Chang'an is not only the political and economic center, but also the translation and dissemination center of Buddhist classics. It is located in the northwest of Xi'an City, the capital of Shaanxi Province today.

③ Vinaya Piṭaka: the free translation of the Sanskrit Vinayapitaka Vinaya Piṭaka. The original meaning of "Tibetan" (Pitaka) refers to the bamboo box containing items, and Buddhism refers to all Buddhist scriptures. The Buddhist classics are collectively called the Tripitaka (Tri-pitaka), namely the Sutra, Vinaya and Abhidharma-pitaka. Law Collection refers to the classics on precepts.

④The first year of Hongshi: All books handed down today are called "the second year of Hongshi". Mr. Zhang Xun said: "Hongshi was the reign name of Yao Xing in the Later Qin Dynasty. The first year was the third year of Long'an in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the fourth year of Long'an in the second year. According to Volume 15 of "The Collection of Tripitaka", Volume 3 of "The Biography of Eminent Monks", and "Three Treasures of All Dynasties" Volume 7 of Chronicles, Volume 3 of Internal Code of the Tang Dynasty, Volume 2 of Ancient and Modern Translation of Classics, Volume 3 of Kaiyuan Buddhism Records, etc. all state that Faxian traveled west from Chang'an in the third year of Long'an in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The third year of Long'an was AD 399, which was the year of Jihai. Therefore, the error that "the second year of Hongshi" here should be "the first year of Hongshi" has been corrected. "This is corrected from the chapter. Volume 11 of "Biography of Eminent Monks" "Huiwei Biography" was also written in the third year of Long'an.

⑤ Tongqi: "Qi" means congeniality, and this "Tongqi" means congeniality. Volume 26 of "Yi Wen Lei Ju" Cao Zhi "Xuan Chang Fu": "The above agrees with Ji and Xuan, and the descendants agree with Yi and Wang."

⑥ Tianzhu: The name of the Indian peninsula in ancient my country. The name Tianzhu was first found in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Biography of the Western Regions", and "Book of Han Dynasty·Biography of the Western Regions" was written as "Tian Du". Du and Zhu have the same pronunciation. Previously, "Historical Records·Biographies of Dawan" and "Historical Records·Biographies of Southwest Yi" called the Indian peninsula " body poison ". The names of Tianzhu, Xiandou and India are all of late origin. It is believed that Shendu is an Indian name learned from the Da Yuezhi people, and Tianzhu and Xiandou are Indian names introduced by monks from Anxi and Kangju. Both names are transliterations of Hindu or Hinduka in Iranian language. India comes from Kucha language lndak (a) The above names all originate from the Sanskrit word Sindhu. The original meaning of this word is river, and later it specifically refers to the present-day Indus River. In the sixth century BC, the Iranian-speaking Persians invaded India from the northwest. When they first encountered this river, they named the place after the river Sindhu. Later, it became the name of the entire Indian subcontinent by people outside the subcontinent. Because Sanskrit and ancient Iranian belong to the same branch of the Indo-European language family, they exist in their pronunciation. The phenomenon of s-h replacement, and because there are no aspirated voiced consonants such as dh in ancient Iranian, the word Sanskrit Sindhu was pronounced as Hindu in Iranian. Later, the h of the word Hindu was weakened, and it became Indu. See Ji Xianlin and other collation notes Xuanzang , and Bianji's notes on Volume 2 of "The Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" ①.

⑦ precepts: free translation of Sanskrit Sila (Sila, commandment) and Vinaya (Vinaya, law). "Jie" means habitual behavior, and "law" means taming. Precepts generally refer to all the precepts that Buddhists should abide by. In terms of its content, the precepts can be divided into two categories: the precepts are strictly observed and the precepts are performed. The precepts to stop and observe include all precepts to stop non-evil and prevent evil, teaching people "not to do any evil", such as the five precepts, eight precepts , ten precepts , etc. And observing the precepts teaches people to "carry out all good deeds" and "since the evil has been eliminated, good things must be done."

In 399 AD, Faxian led four of his classmates from Chang'an City , crossed Hexi Corridor , crossed Tarim Basin , and then climbed over the snow-capped mountains and entered the ancient country of Tianzhu, completing a journey to the west to seek the Dharma called "Master Xian created a path to blaze a trail" in the history of Buddhism.

More than two hundred years later, Xuanzang, the Tang Monk we call , said, "Master Xuanzang is the king of the Middle Kingdom." This means that Master Xuanzang opened up a king's road from it, entering the Western Regions , entering ancient India, and entering the Eighty-Six Kingdoms of Tianzhu.

Chang'an is the starting point of the Silk Road. For thousands of years, countless predecessors have taken steps to pursue their dreams from here.

Xi'an, known as Chang'an in ancient times, is located in the middle of the Guanzhong Plain, bordered by the Weihe River to the north, the Qinling Mountains to the south, and surrounded by eight rivers. It is a "world historical city" designated by UNESCO and one of the important birthplaces of Chinese civilization and the Chinese nation. Historically, thirteen dynasties have established their capitals here, setting an example for China and leading the world. As the starting point of the Silk Road , ancient Chang'an now stands in the east of the world as an international metropolis with historical and cultural characteristics.

For a long period of time, the eastern capital of the world was Chang'an City, and the western capital was Rome. Between the two cities, a trade and logistics channel tens of thousands of kilometers long stretches across the vast Eurasian steppe. People call it the Silk Road.

What kind of geographical concept is Chang'an City? Let’s put it in the context of the world’s geographical landscape: over a period of more than a thousand years, the eastern capital of the world was Chang’an, and the western capital of the world was Rome. There is a vast plain area or grassland area of ​​more than 20,000 kilometers between the city of Rome and Chang'an. Geographers call it the Eurasian Steppe.

There is no obvious geographical boundary between Europe and Asia. It may be a river flowing through Constantinople, Turkey, or the Caspian Sea . On this vast Eurasian steppe, there are more than 200 ancient nomadic peoples living. In a cycle of eighty years, these ancient nomads either flocked to Chang'an, the eastern capital of the world, or to Rome, the western capital of the world, demanding living space from settled civilization, farming civilization , and city wall civilization. Why do they do this? Because during these eighty years there must have been a great plague, a drought, a locust plague, a war, or a famine. Therefore, in order to survive, these nomadic people crossed the Great Wall line to the east and then entered the agricultural and civilized areas. If they went to the west, they flocked to the city of Rome.

There is a French novelist named Gruset. In his book " Steppe Empire ", he wrote this: We stood on the plateau of Asia and saw hills on both sides, fluttering like small flags, one side flying to Asia and the other side flying to Europe. If we choose to think from the perspective of nomads, we will understand that whatever happens is what should happen. They ask for living space and a place where they can live. Human behavior has always been a product of the environment and cannot be anything else.

The ancients of China did not understand this truth. In the past few years, our vision was limited. We always felt that every few years, nomadic people would cross the Great Wall and roar towards us. We did not understand why they would invade the agricultural and civilized areas.We are looking at it from a relatively narrow region. If we can connect the entire Eastern history with Western history, we will understand that as Grusset said, these more than 200 nomads made the entire Eurasian steppe boil like water in a pot, demanding food from the wealthy areas on the left and right.

For all the nomadic peoples who came from the grasslands, we don’t know who they are, and we don’t bother to explore what ethnic groups they are. We only know that they have long beards and ride horses, passing by like the wind from our doorstep and through our crop fields. They come roaring, fierce and warlike. In Chinese history, they only have one, slightly derogatory name - "Xirong" - which is juxtaposed with "Eastern Yi, Southern Barbarians, and Beidi". We don't know much about their ethnicity, and later they were collectively called "Hu people".

In the long process of Chang'an City, thirteen dynasties including the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties established their capitals here. The history of Chang'an City is half of ancient Chinese history. Especially the Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Tang Dynasty which were very powerful in Chinese history. An important reason for their prosperity is the Silk Road. There was a steady flow of wealth transported to Chang'an through the Silk Road, making it the only largest city in the world at that time.