and the King and Queen go back to their palace. Seven or eight li to the west of this city there is a monastery called the Wang-hsin Temple. It took eighty years to build, and the reigns of three Kings before it was completed.[1] It may be two hundred and fifty feet high, and is ornamentally carved and inlaid,[2] and covered with gold and silver. All kinds of jewels combine to complete (its magnificence). Behind the tower there is an oratory, decorated most splendidly. The beams, pillars, folding doors, and windows, are all gilt. Besides this there are apartments for the priests, also beautifully ornamented beyond all expression. All the kings of the six countries to the east of the hills make large offerings of whatsoever very valuable jewels they may have, using very few themselves.[3]
CHAPTER IV.
The processions of the fourth moon being over, one of the party, Sêng Shao, set out with a Tartar Buddhist[4]
- ↑ A simple enough specimen of Chinese grammer, but one which Mr. Beal has utterly misunderstood, and rendered, “During the last eighty years three kings have contributed towards its completion. The text has . Remusat's translation is correct.
- ↑ We fail to see how Mr. Beal gets “There are many inscribed plates of gold and silver within it" out of .
- ↑ Whatever these last four characters may mean, Mr. Beal's rendering “in such abundance that but few of them can be used” is quite out of the question. They seem to us simply to signify that jewels were not much used by the people of that country.
- ↑ .Rémusat :-"à la suite d'un prêtre barbare." Beal :-" in company with a fəllow-disciple belonging to the country of the Ouigours."
