A section from the journey
Faxian's Eyewitness India
Around 400 CE a Chinese Buddhist monk named Faxian made a long pilgrimage on foot, all the way to India, to seek the holy books of his faith. He stayed for years, and he kept a record of what he saw. He found a calm and prosperous land where, he wrote, the people were many and happy and the king ruled without harsh punishments. His diary is a precious window, and one we should read with both gratitude and care.
Imagine setting out on foot from a distant land, with no map you could trust, to cross burning deserts and freezing mountains, all for the love of a teaching. That is what a Chinese monk named did, around the year 400 CE.
He was a Buddhist, and he came to India as a pilgrim. He wished to walk where the Buddha had walked, whom we met some eras ago, and to gather the holy books of his faith in their own homeland. It was the work of many years and great hardship. Few of those who set out with him lived to return.
And here is the gift to us. Faxian, like a careful traveller, wrote down what he saw. His record came safely home and was kept, and long ago a scholar named James Legge turned it into clear English. So we may look at Gupta India through the eyes of a thoughtful visitor from far away. It is one more piece of solid, checkable ground beneath our story.
What did he find? A land at peace and at ease. He passed through busy cities and a settled countryside. People could travel freely, he noticed, without papers or permits, coming and going as they pleased. And he was struck by how mild the rule was, with none of the harsh and bloody punishments he might have feared. Listen to his own words.
"The people are numerous and happy... if they want to go, they go; if they want to stay on, they stay. The king governs without decapitation or (other) corporal punishments."
It is a warm picture, and a precious one. To have a foreign visitor, owing the Guptas no flattery, describe their land as numerous and happy and gently ruled, is a real and welcome witness to the order of the age.
And yet a careful teacher reads even a kind witness with care, just as we did with the bright phrase golden age. Two honest things to remember. First, a traveller sees what passes before him. Faxian moved among monks and merchants and the comfortable middle of society; he did not see, or did not write of, the hardest lives at the very bottom, where the age was far less kind. Second, he was a devout pilgrim, glad and grateful to find a land friendly to his faith, and a glad heart sees brightly.
So we hold his diary the way we held the word golden: as a true and rare window, treasured, and read with open eyes. A real and prosperous order is witnessed here by a visitor's own hand. That is a gift. And the parts he could not see are simply the parts we must seek elsewhere. Both things keep the picture whole.
Faxian's account is honest and yet partial, true to what he saw and silent on what he did not. Think of a time you described a place or an event truthfully, and yet someone standing somewhere else saw it quite differently. What does that teach you about trusting, and weighing, the witness of a single pair of eyes?
In the last era we learned a thrilling thing: that for the first time the story stands on dated, checkable ground. Here is that gift again. Around the year 400 CE, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Faxian set out on foot from his far homeland and walked, across deserts and over mountains, all the way to India. He came as a pilgrim, seeking the holy books and the sacred places of the Buddha, whom we met in an earlier era. He stayed in India for several years, and like a good traveller he kept a record of what he saw. That record still survives, and a scholar named James Legge put it into clear English long ago. So we can read, in a foreign visitor's own words, what Gupta India looked like to fresh eyes. He describes a calm and prosperous country, with busy cities and free movement, where the people seemed to him happy and the king ruled without cruel and bloody punishments. It is a warm and vivid picture. But a careful teacher reads even a kind eyewitness with care. Faxian saw mainly the comfortable middle of society and the world of monks and merchants; he did not see, or did not record, the hard lives at the bottom. And he was a devout pilgrim, glad to find a land friendly to his faith. So we treasure his diary as a true and rare window, and we remember that one traveller, however honest, sees only what passes before him.
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