Message #29597

[Bianca]

Wild stories . . . but to judge the accounts, one must consider the history of the source document, the probability of such a journey, and another slice of Chinese history. How the priest’s story was written is particularly important because it explains why some of the descriptions of the land and peoples in China’s Far East are hard to understand or to believe.

The story of Hwui Shan was recorded in the Liang-shu, the Records of the Liang Dynasty, a part of the Nan-shih, or History of the South, compiled by Li Yen-shau who lived in the seventh century. The account was copied by Ma Twan-lin in his Antiquarian Researches, published in 1321. Both versions are copies of the earlier court records.

No one now knows Hwui Shan’s homeland. (29) He was known to have been a priest more or less crossing China, or to have been there only for a short time before his journey east. He may have come from present-day Afghanistan or Kashmir. His name is simply an epithet meaning “very intelligent,” similar to names taken by many another priest.

But by whatever name, the priest apparently made a successful return from a most interesting and almost unknown land far to the east. Yet, he had trouble telling his story. China was in disarray, embroiled in civil wars and split into northern and southern kingdoms. Ruling families and capital cities shifted like autumn leaves. Hwui Shan bided his time.