GREAT QUINQUENNIAL ASSEMBLY OF MONKS. RELICS OF BUDDHA. PRODUCTIONS OF
THE COUNTRY.
It happened that the king of the country was then holding the pañcha
parishad, that is, in Chinese, the great quinquennial assembly.[1]
When this is to be held, the king requests the presence of the Śramans
from all quarters (of his kingdom). They come (as if) in clouds;
and when they are all assembled, their place of session is grandly
decorated. Silken streamers and canopies are hung out in, and
water-lilies in gold and silver are made and fixed up behind the
places where (the chief of them) are to sit. When clean mats have been
spread, and they are all seated, the king and his ministers present
their offerings according to rule and law. (The assembly takes place),
in the first, second, or third month, for the most part in the spring.
After the king has held the assembly, he further exhorts the ministers
to make other and special offerings. The doing of this extends over
one, two, three, five, or even seven days; and when all is finished,
he takes his own riding-horse, saddles, bridles, and waits on him
himself,[2] while he makes the noblest and most important minister
of the kingdom mount him. Then, taking fine white woollen cloth, all
sorts of precious things, and articles which the Śramans require, he
distributes them among them, uttering vows at the same time along
with all his ministers; and when this distribution has taken place, he
again redeems (whatever he wishes) from the monks.[3]
The country, being among the hills and cold, does not produce the
other cereals, and only the wheat gets ripe. After the monks have
received their annual (portion of this), the mornings suddenly show
the hoar-frost, and on this account the king always begs the monks to
make the wheat ripen[4] before they receive their portion. There is in
the country a spittoon which belonged to Buddha, made of stone, and in
colour like his alms-bowl. There is also a tooth of Buddha, for which
the people have reared a tope, connected with which there are more
than a thousand monks and their disciples,[5] all students of the
hînayâna. To the east of these hills the dress of the common people
is of coarse materials, as in our country of Tsʽin, but here also[6]
there were among them the differences of fine woollen cloth and of
serge or haircloth. The rules observed by the Śramans are remarkable,
and too numerous to be mentioned in detail. The country is in the
midst of the Onion range. As you go forward from these mountains, the
plants, trees, and fruits are all different from those of the land of
Han, excepting only the bamboo, pomegranate,[7] and sugar-cane.
NOTES
[1] See Eitel, p. 89. He describes the assembly as ‘an ecclesiastical
conference, first instituted by king Aśoka for general confession of
sins and inculcation of morality.’
[2] The text of this sentence is perplexing; and all translators,
including myself, have been puzzled by it.
[3] See what we are told of king Aśoka’s grant of all the Jambudvîpa
to the monks in chapter xxvii. There are several other instances of
similar gifts in the Mahâvaṉśa.
[4] Watters calls attention to this as showing that the monks of
Kʽeeh-chʽâ had the credit of possessing weather-controlling powers.
[5] The text here has 僧徒, not 僧 alone. I often found in
monasteries boys and lads who looked up to certain of the monks as
their preceptors.
[6] Compare what is said in chapter ii of the dress of the people of
Shen-shen.
[7] Giles thinks the fruit here was the guava, because the ordinary
name for ‘pomegranate’ is preceded by gan (安); but the pomegranate
was called at first Gan Shih-lâu, as having been introduced into
China from Gan-seih by Chang kʽeen, who is referred to in chapter vii.