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using the word Asos in its proper sense. Whether we were right or wrong in so doing, it is not necessary at this stage of the argument to inquire; the question is, whether the term Shin, which we have used for false and inferior deities, and not for God par excellence, can be considered as our appellative for God. Shin was undoubtedly the appellative for God in Morrison's version, for he used Shin in every place where dog occurred in the original; but it was not so used in the version executed by Mr. Gutzlaff and myself.

Perhaps it may serve to throw some light on the subject, to institute a comparison in this respect between our version and the Arabic. In that language, the appellative for God differs in some degree from the name of God par excellence; the one being Ilah, a god, and the other Allah, the God. In the Arabic version of the Scriptures, the first term is used in all places where any God is referred to, and the latter where God by way of eminence is meant, as in Deut. 4: 35, "The Lord he is the God (Allah), and there is no other god (Ilah) besides him;" where Ilah is the appellative for god in common, and Allah the designation of God, par excellence. The difference consists in the addition of the article. Ilah, therefore, may be considered as the appellative for god in Arabic. Had we followed this plan, and used shin for any god, and then employed the same term, with some distinctive adjunct, aspi shin, that Shin, or pi yih shin, that one Shin, for God by way of eminence, it might have been said that we used Shin as the appellative for God. But when we have employed a wholly different term for God in a special sense, and a term which has naturally no affinity with Shin, it can not be said that we have employed this latter as the appellative for God in our version. It may indeed be urged, that we have used Shin in an appellative sense by employing it for the class of pretended deities; but it can not be said that we have used it appellatively for God, because we have abstained from employing it especially for God. The propriety or impropriety of separating the two ideas is a distinct subject for consideration. The above remarks will be sufficient to show that Mr. Gutzlaff and myself, in the version referred to, have not used Shin as the appellative name of God in Chinese

(To be concluded in the next number.)

ART. II. Notices of Works upon the regions west and north of China, and Travels into India, written by Chinese authors, between the 5th and 18th centuries of our era. BY S. JULIEN. [Note. The following valuable notices compiled by M. Stanislas Julien, have been forwarded to one of his correspondents in China, with the request that they might appear in the Repository, in order to assist the search after the works mentioned therein by missionaries and other so situated that they could make investigations in libraries and convents where he supposes them to be hidden. The whole article is rather too long for insertion, while the object in view will not be impeded by the liberty we have taken in abridging it. The investigation of the writings and travels of the followers of Budha have a bearing upon the efforts made to Christianize the multitudes who profess that faith, by showing the grounds of their belief, and any assistance given in understanding their tenets will enable the advocates of Christianity the better to show their unsoundness. In reprinting it, the French orthography of the Chinese names has been slightly altered.]

From the 5th to the 18th century of our era, various Chineso authors have composed a considerable number of works, relating to the geography, the statistics, and the history of the Si Yih

an

expression designating the countries both to the west and north of China. Some were official writers, generals, or learned men delegated by the emperors to subject states, or to those which they were desirous of adding to their immense possessions; others, more worthy perhaps of our attention, on account of their self-denial and personal devotion, were Budhist pilgrims, who made it their business to describe the countries they had traversed before arriving in India (the voyage to which was the constant object of their pious curiosity), and those which they had passed through and studied even in India itself, whither they went to gather religious books, to gain instruction in the doctrine of Sakyamuni, and to contemplate the ancient monuments which recalled to them the venerable traces of past Budhas.

Some of the works of this nature formerly in existence in China, among them a few very extensive, seem not to have reached us. The recollection of these losses will impart a higher value to the little that remain, and perhaps also an accurate account of the original titles will stimulate the zeal of the sinologues and missionaries who reside in China, and aid them in making or ordering researches into the libraries of the great literary centres at Nanking, Súchau fú, and Peking, or elsewhere. What gratitude would they cause to be felt in Europe if they should succeed in discovering some of the vast descriptions of ancient India, and those lengthy accounts of voyages

into the Si Yih, which the silence of the Imperial library at Peking and of all Chinese bibliographies, lead us to fear are lost.

To give an idea of the resources afforded by the great libraries of China, to educated persons who have access to them, and who are able personally to make researches, or to direct the investigation of literary men, I will cite a kind of discovery due to the zeal of Mr. R. Thom, formerly English consul at Ningpo, whose early death will ever be regretted by all sinologues. I sent him a list of nine commentaries upon the writings of Láutsz', of which the principal have been wanting in Chinese libraries for more than a century, and for which my correspondents in China had long sought in vain. Through means of an officer at Ningpo, Mr. Thom applied to the director of the library at Nanking, who borrowed the editions mentioned, and caused them all to be copied, the whole making 232 volumes 4to.

Many French missionaries are now in the neighborhood of Nanking. If then, any of them, desirous of attaching their names to the discovery of literary treasures which we here bring to their notice, will cause them to be sought for in the rich library of that town, by educated and persevering scholars, they doubtless would find a certain number, and they may be assured beforehand that the expense of copying would be fully repaid by the precious documents with which the history and geography of Asia would be enriched.

The information here given is drawn from the encyclopædia Yuh Hai E, from the great catalogue of the emperor Kien. Jung, from the Encyclopædia of Má Twánlin, entitled Wan-hientung-káu, and from the imperial supplement to it. I first mention those now possessed by the Royal Library at Paris.

1. Fuh Kwoh Ki Memoir upon the Kingdoms of Budha, in one book. This work was composed under the Sung dy

nasty by the Shamanean Fah Hien 法顯. The Tsung-tien 通典 of Tú Yú (published under the Táng) mentions this account, but it gives the author the name of Fáh Ming. But as the emperor Chungtsung of that dynasty had the name of Hien the writers of the Tang dynasty (obliged to avoid its use) employed in its stead the synonymous word ming II. Sang Hwui-sang sz' Si Yih Ki

(brilliancy). EER

Memoir of the Shamanean Hwui-sang sent to the Si Yik.

In the year A. D. 518, the empress of the northern Wei dynasty

The work has already been noticed in Vol. XI, pp. 334-336, so that it

weed not be again described in this catalogue.

commissioned Hwui-sang (bhickshu, or mendicant monk), attached to the convent of Tsung-li, and Sung-yun, a native of Tun

hwáng, to go into the Sí Yih to seek Budhist books. They procured 170 different works, which all belonged to the profound doctrine of the Maha-yana (the Great Vehicle). This relation, which forms some thirty pages in the new edition of the collection entitled Hán-wei T'sung-shú, is also found in the collection Tsin-tái-pi-shú, in the Royal Library. It was published in 1833 in German by C. Fred. Neumann, in his memoir, entitled Pilgerfahrten buddhistischer Priester von China nach India. But the learned Bavarian made use of a very incorrect text, that of the Hán-wei Tsung-shut, which has led him into some serious errors. I propose to give a French translation in the "Journal Asiatique," and shall be satisfied with noting the readings and corrections supplied by the other edition.

III. Shih shi Si Yih Ki Memoir upon the Sí Yih, by a Budhist monk.

This work has not reached us entire. There are several fragments in the Shui King chú (in forty books), commented on by Lí Tau-yuen, who lived, as Hwui-sang did, under the later Wei. These fragments have been reünited in the geographical work of the celebrated Lin Tseh-sü.

IV. Tá-tháng Si Yil Kit D to Memoirs upon the Si Yih composed under the great Tang dynasty. In 12 books. This work, making 585 quarto pages, the most extensive and the most important of its class which has reached us, was compiled from Indian books in compliance with an imperial decree about the year 645, by Hiuen-tsánga Budhist monk, with the title of Sán-tsáng-fáhsz' Doctor skilled in the knowledge of the three collections (in Sanscrit Tripitakatcharya), and enlarged with his personal observations on the countries he had traversed. The work was afterwards put into more elegant Chinese by the Shamanean Pien-ki; and still again submitted to a new revision, because Hiuen-tsáng, having spoken only the different dialects of India for nineteen years, had lost the habit of writing his own tongue with the desirable accuracy and beauty.

The biography of Hiuen-tsáng is found in the Kiú T'áng shú 舊唐書 or first Annals of the Tang dynasty; the Budhist encyclopædia Fah-yuen-chu-lin (lib. 33, fol. 2, and lib.

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39) gives an itinerary a little different from that in his work; finally we may read in the Shuh-káu sang Chuen

# (lib. 4 and 5) a biography of this monk, and a sketch of his voyage. According to the Catalogue of the library of Kienlung (lib. 71, fol. 7), this traveler visited 183 kingdoms. This number is confirmed by the Yuh Hái, where another author judges that Hiuen-tsáng visited only 140 kingdoms, and speaks of 28 other countries according to the traditions or accounts of his contemporaries. He devoted the 8th and 9th books to the description of the kingdom of Magadha. In this work "he describes the manners and customs, the ceremonies, the dress, the extent of foreign countries, the products of the soil, the commerce, and the industry of the inhabitants, and enlarges especially upon historical facts, political and religious events, monuments and legends, the sects, and the works suited to make known Budhism and Brahiminism."

The different portions of the Tá-t'áng Si Yih Ki are distributed according to their geographical arrangement in the Pien-í-tien, only there is omitted the important dèscription of Kapilavastu. Happily we possess two different editions of this work where the geographical notices are arranged in the order which the author had adopted. A second copy of the imperial edition has been sent by me to China, in order to cut and print a text perfectly identical, with which I purpose accompanying the translation and commentary which I have been preparing for many years.

V. K'iú-fáh káu sang Chuen

#.

According to the Chin-i-tien (Description of the sacred books of Gandjour and Dandjour, lib. 10, fol. 43), this work, forming two books, was composed under the Tang dynasty, in the kingdom of Shih-li-fo-chih (Sribodja) washed by the south sea, by the Shamanean I'-tsing on his return from the kingdoms of the Si Yih. The author relates the life and travels of fifty-six Budhist monks from China, Cochinchina, and Siam, who, under the great T'áng dynasty, went into India to study the doctrines of Budha. Many of them fell sick during their painful voyage, and were unable to return to their country. Towards the end he gives a detailed account of the convent of Karandaka. Má Twánlin tells us (lib. 227, fol. 16) that the monk I'-tsing went to India under the emperor Chungtsung of the Tang dynasty (between A. D. 686 and 689). The greater part of the editions have the words, "compiled by imperial decree," which shows

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