Among works specially deserving attention is Fan-wang-king. This book on the "Discipline" or Vinaya, is the Brahmajala, "Net of Brahma."

Mr. Gogerly, in the Ceylon Friend, published a brief translation of the work. See Beal in Second Congress of Orientalists, p. 134. It states the rules which guide the Bodhisattwa.

The Chinese Fo-pen-hing-tsi-king is in Sanscrit "Abhinishkramana Sutra." It has been translated by Beal, who thinks the narratives it contains will explain the "Sanchi topes," the inscriptions on which are hard to identify in any books. It is a life of Buddha, with many episodes, which may also illustrate the inscriptions at Bharhut, Amravati, &c.

Mr. Beal finds in the Chan-tsi-king the "Sama Jataka," which contains part of the story of Dasaratha and Rama, and refers to an allusion in the travels of Fa-hien, to a festival in Ceylon, which may have light thrown on it by this book.

Sama was Shakyamuni Buddha in a former life, living in a forest with his father and mother, who were blind. He fed them with fruits, fetched water for them, and was

beloved by the deer and other wild animals of the woods. At last the king came on a hunting expedition, shot an arrow into a large herd of (leer by the water side, and killed Sama with it, who happened to be in the middle of the herd. Sama died, and the king was most penitent, while the parents wept over their son. The gods seeing this sad spectacle--the parents lamenting over their son, and the sympathising Raja--came and restored him to life.

The work Pratimoksha is mentioned in the last instructions of Buddha. It contains the rules of discipline for the disciples of Buddha. He left this, when dying, in the hands of his followers, as their guide for holy conduct.

A translation of the first chapter of the Leng-yen-king and of a short Shastra here follow.

The Leng-yen-king is praised by Chu Hi and other Confucianists as the best worth reading of the Buddhist sacred books.

Footnotes

^277:1 Chi-yue-luh. "Biography of 'Kashiapa' (Kia-she)."

^277:2 Hardy's Eastern Monachism.

^277:3 Kanishka conquered the greater part of India. He was a second Ashoka in his patronage of Buddhism. He reigned B.C. 15 to A.D. 45, during the patriarchate of Vasumitra and others.

^278:1 Tsing-tu-sheng-hien-luh contains notices of (1) to (4).

^278:2 Eitel separates Vasubandu from Asengha by an interval of some centuries. My authority for making them brothers is the introduction to Ch'eng-wei-shi-lun. They were natives of Purusha in Gandhara (north end of the Punjab).

^278:3 For the names of several of his works and those of Asengha, see K'ai-yuen-shi-kiau-lu, a catalogue of Buddhist books published in the T'ang dynasty.

^285:1 A sort of vampires. Retinue of the Deva king Dhritarashtra.