"To Five Indic" Research

Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India往五天竺国传is a travel note, which described things what a Silla monk——Hui Chao——saw and heard on the way to India for seeking the Dharma and back to China in the early eighth century. The original book has been lost, and the only existing text is a Dunhuang manuscript which is incomplete. The contents about India, Central Asia and Northwest China’s physical geography, politics and military, social life and religion in this Dunhuang manuscript, are very rich, specific, rarely seen in other books, and they are precious documents on research the social history of Western Regions in that period. So, I think it is necessary to systematically research and expound this book especially the Dunhuang manuscript. This paper is divided into four chapters:The first chapter mainly researches and expounds Hui Chao’s life story and the produce situation of Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India往五天竺国传.On the basis of previous studies, the first part researches and expounds Hui Chao’s identity that he was a Silla people, the itinerary that he went to India, and the deeds that he learned buddha dharma and translated sutras after he came back from India. The second part researches and analyzes the produce background, title and produce time of this book.The second chapter which mainly researches, analyzes and summarizes the versions of this book, is the focus of this paper. The first part contrasts and analyzes the relevant contents of Hui Lin’s Yiqiejing Yinyi一切经音义and the contents of the Dunhuang manuscript, and summarizes the basic situation of the three-volume version of Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India往五天竺国传.The second part expounds the discovery and characteristic of this Dunhuang manuscript, then contrasts and assesses the copies of the existing collations.The third chapter discusses the style, contents and historical sources of this book. The first part compares the style of this book with the styles of Pilgrimage to the West in the Tang Dynasty大唐西域记and Fa Xian Zhuan法显传,and summarizes their similarities, then analyzes the feature of this book in style. The second part summarizes the main contents of this book. The third part analyzes the historical sources of this book, ana put them into two categories.The fourth chapter analyzes and discusses the historical value of this book. The first part overall assesses the historical value of this book on the basis of previous studies. The second part makes an analysis of the value of this book in research the history of the Western Regions from the three aspects of politics, religion and social life.