Gems of Chinese Literature/Fa Hsien-A storm at Sea

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Gems of Chinese Literature (1922)
translated by Herbert Allen Giles
A Storm at Sea by Faxian
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FA HSIEN.

4th and 5th Centuries a.d.

[The name in religion of a Chinese Buddhist priest who, in the year a.d. 399, walked from Central China to Central India, then on to Calcutta and Ceylon, and back by sea, finally landing near the modern Kiao-chow. His object was to secure Buddhist texts and images for the purpose of spreading the Law of Buddha in China, and in this he was completely successful. He started with quite a number of companions but came home alone, the others having either turned back or died. In his own words: “I spent six years in travelling from Ch‘ang-an to Central India. I stayed there six years, and took three more to reach Kiao-chow. The countries I passed through numbered rather fewer than thirty. Coming home across the sea, I encountered even more difficulties and dangers; but happily I was accorded the awful protection of our holy Trinity,[1] and was thus preserved in the hour of danger. Therefore I wrote down on bamboo slips and silk what I had done, desiring that worthy men should share this information.” The result was a small work, known as “Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms.”]

Faxian1523830Gems of Chinese Literature — A Storm at Sea1922Herbert Allen Giles
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I remained in Ceylon for two years, and after a prolonged search I obtained copies of several important sacred books, not to be found in China. When I had obtained these in the Pali original, I took passage on board a large merchant-vessel, on which there ​were over two hundred souls, and astern of which there was a small vessel in case of accident at sea and the destruction of the big vessel. Catching a fair wind, we proceeded east for two days when we encountered a heavy gale and the ship sprung a leak. The merchants wished to pass on to the small vessel, but the men there, afraid that too many would come, cut the tow-rope. The merchants were very frightened, for death was close at hand; and fearing that the ship would fill, they immediately took what bulky goods there were and threw them into the sea. I also took my pitcher and ewer with whatever else I could spare and threw them into the sea; but I was afraid that the merchants would throw over my books and images, and accordingly I fixed my whole thoughts on the Goddess of Mercy[2] and prayed to our Church in China, saying, “I have journeyed afar in search of the Law. Oh, that by your awful power you would turn back the flow of the leak that we might reach some resting-place!”[3]

  1. ↑ The doctrine of the Trinity was a Buddhist dogma long before it was adopted by the Christian Church. See Chu Hsi, “Taoism and Buddhism.”
  2. ↑ Kuan Yin.
  3. ↑ Which they shortly afterwards did.
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