A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms

In 399 the Chinese monk Faxian set out from Chang'an on foot, crossed the Gobi — where, he notes, the only markers are the bones of those who went before — and the Pamirs, spent years in India copying the monastic rules that China lacked, went on to Ceylon, and came home by sea in 414 after a voyage that nearly killed him twice. This is his own account: the kingdoms he passed through, the state of the Buddhist communities in each, the relics and the festivals, the sites of the Buddha's life as pilgrims then knew them, and the practical business of travelling ten thousand miles to fetch a book.

Faxian's record is one of the earliest first-hand descriptions of India by a foreign visitor and a primary source for the period. This edition is James Legge's English translation, published in 1886 with his introduction and notes.

This Bibliomancer edition presents the complete text.