Chinese and Indian Perceptions of Each Other between the First and Seventh Centuries

Author(s): Richard B. Mather

Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 112, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1992), pp. 1-8
Published by: American Oriental Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/604580
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 CHINESE AND INDIAN PERCEPTIONS OF EACH OTHER
BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SEVENTH CENTURIES*
RICHARD
B. MATHER
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

The earliest recorded perceptions of the Indian subcontinent in China are based on reports of trad-
ers, diplomats and generals. Though nothing substantive was reported about India's intellectual or
cultural achievements, the accounts generally described a pleasant tropical land with exotic birds
and animals, that produced colorful artifacts, and whose people were gentle and peace-loving. After
the introduction
of BuddhismintoChinaduringthe firstcenturyA.D., andespeciallyafterthe devel-
opment of an indigenous Taoist church toward the end of the second, tensions arising from the rival
claims of these two religions introduced some negative perceptions, not only concerning the incom-
patibility of Buddhism with China's own values, but also concerning the inferiority of Indian culture
and the savagery of her people. These initially negative perceptions were at least partially modified
by first-handcontact with Indian missionaries and by reports of Chinese pilgrims, as well as by the
cogent arguments of lay Buddhist apologists, whose treatises on the subject between the third and
sixth centuries have been preserved. Indian perceptions of China during the same period, as re-
corded by Chinese pilgrims, are marked for the most part by a naive ignorance, which their Chinese
informants were only too happy to dispel.

THE MUTUAL
PERCEPTIONS
of persons living in relative
isolation from each other, as in the case of the Indians
and Chinese during the first half-millennium of our era,
can vary from total absence of curiosity to wildly fan-
ciful misapprehension. With the beginnings of actual
contact, such as happened through trade, diplomatic
and military expeditions, and finally through mission-
aries and pilgrims, the initial misapprehensions gradu-
ally evolved along opposite lines: on the one hand
toward something approaching understanding, and on
the other toward hardened misunderstanding and even
hostility. The latter is especially likely if there are
groups in either society who may in some way feel
threatened by contact with the other. It is possible to
get a first-handglimpse into some aspects of this fasci-
nating subject, at least from the Chinese side, through
documents which have been preserved in two antholo-
gies which now form part of the Chinese Buddhist
Canon, namely, the Collection on Propagating [the
Way] and Illuminating [the Teaching] (Hung-ming chi
S 0 ), edited by the Buddhist monk Seng-yu ft1
(445-518), and its sequel, the Expanded Collection on
Propagating (etc.) (Kuang hung-ming chi F [L} *),
edited by the monk, Tao-hsiian it _ (596-667).' In
these documents, some polemic in nature, coming from
defenders of China's traditional values, especially as
understood by representatives of China's indigenous
religion of Taoism, and some apologetic, usually writ-
ten by lay Buddhist converts who shared the same val-
ues as their attackers, but accepted the new religion
from India as an enrichment rather than a destroyer of
that tradition, the underlying perceptions come dra-
matically to light. How the Indians, for their part, per-
ceived the Chinese during the same process would be
extremely helpful to know, but we can glean only a
faint impression of how they felt, and that almost en-
tirely through Chinese sources.
The earliest Chinese account of the Indian subconti-
nent that I know of may be found in the History of the
Han Dynasty (Han-shu 1 *), edited by Pan Ku tB
in the first century A.D. The Han ambassador to
the Kushans (Yiieh-chih A F), Chang Ch'ien 5#
(d. 114 B.C.), had traveled as far as Bactria (Ta-hsia
*CX), where he learned at second hand of the exis-
tence of a Kingdom of Shen-tu *4 (i.e., Sindh) in the
valley of the Indus River.2 In his brief monograph on

* This article is a slightly revised version of an address 1 Taisho shinsha

daizokyao Ci:E ir R A 2102 and 2103
;&c
originally presented to a plenary session of the Western (52:1-361).
Branch of the Society, meeting in Boulder, October, 1989. 2 Han-shu
~I[ 61.2689-90.

1
2 Journal of the American Oriental Society 112.1 (1992)
the Western Regions (Hsi-yii 1J A; Chinese Turkestan
and lands beyond) Pan Ku describes the Kingdom of
Chi-pin NIlE (Kashmir) in the following very prosaic
terms:
The land is level and the climate warm and mild.
There are plants like mu-su g ?t (alfalfa), various
grasses and exotic trees: sandalwood, huai IX (a fra-
grant tree similar to the mangrove), catalpa, bamboo,
and lacquer. They plant the five cereals, grapes and
various other fruits, and use night-soil for fertilization
in their gardens and paddies. Where the ground is low
and damp they grow rice, and in winter they eat fresh
vegetables. The people are skillful at carving and en-
graving, building stately buildings, weaving mats,
stitching patterned brocades, and they enjoy cooking.
They have gold, silver, bronze and tin utensils. Their
markets are lined with shops. They use gold and silver
coins for money, with equestrian figures on one side
and human faces on the other. They raise gnus and wa-
ter buffaloes, elephants, large work-dogs, monkeys,
and peacocks, and produce pearls, coral, amber and
vaidurya (beryl, or colored glass). . . 3
Later, in the History of the Later Han (Hou-Han shu
t i *), edited by Fan Yeh I * (398-445), we read:
The land of T'ien-chu ^ (the same as Pan Ku's
Shen-tu, but inclusive of all of north India) is located
several thousand li southeast of the Kushans, and they
cultivate the Way of the Buddha, neither taking life nor
committing aggression, which has become their cus-
tomary mode of behavior.... The land produces
elephants, rhinoceroses, tortoise-shell, gold, silver,
bronze, iron, lead, and tin.... Besides these there are
fine cotton textiles and excellent woolen rugs, various
perfumes, honey, pepper, ginger, and rock-salt.4
The accounts in the various Six Dynasties histories
are obviously based on the Han accounts and add noth-
ing that is strikingly new.5 In none of them is there any
indication of condescension, but only the sort of infor-
mation that might be picked up by traders.
A much more vivid, first-hand record has been left
by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, who were describing
their own experiences. The monk Fa-hsien t S (ac-
tive, 399-417) relates in his travelogue, Kao-seng Fa-
-
hsien chuan i tftfR , that when he reached the
3 Ibid., 96A.3885.
4 Hou-Han shu ^ i 88.2921.
5 See, e.g., Nan-shih J * 78.1961.
portion of T'ien-chu known as the Central Kingdom
(Chung-kuo rp B), he found:
The people are prosperous and happy, with no house-
hold registration or official regulations. It is only those
who cultivate the king's land who pay a tax on the profit
they make from it. Those who wish to departdepart, and
those who wish to stay stay. In ruling the king does not
use punishments or imprisonment. If there are any who
commit crimes, they are only fined in money, lightly or
heavily, according to what they did. Even when they re-
peat the crime, or plot evil or rebellion, they only have
their right hand cut off, nothing more. The king's coun-
sellors, bodyguards, and attendants are all paid wages.
The population as a whole refrains from killing living
beings and drinking liquor, and from eating onions or
garlic. The single exception is the candala caste. The
can.dalas are considered evil people and live apart from
the others. Whenever they enter the city or marketplace
they strike wooden clappers to identify themselves.
Other people then recognize and avoid them so as not to
come in contact. In the kingdom they do not raise pigs
or chickens and do not sell cattle. In the markets there
are no butcher stalls or wine shops. For money they use
cowrie shells. It is only the canddlas who fish and hunt
and sell meat ... 6 (The can.dalas were a mixed caste,
whose fathers were giidras, and whose mothers had
come from a higher caste.)
There is no doubt that Fa-hsien and all the pilgrims
who followed him had no desire to diminish the ideal-
ized Utopia they had always dreamed the country that
had given Buddha to the world would be, nor, for that
matter, did any of their informants in India wish to
disillusion them. Some two and a half centuries after
~ t (602-664)
Fa-hsien, the pilgrim Hsiian-tsang
traveled and lived in India for fourteen years, master-
ing Sanskrit as well as the local colloquial languages,
and studying Yogacara philosophy at Nalanda Univer-
sity in the very area where the Buddha had lived. He,
too, was inclined to stress what was favorable, but his
account is somewhat more objective. He wrote:
As for their customs, even though temperamentallythey
are timid and excitable, their real intentions are pure
and genuine. In matters involving material property
they acquire nothing improperly, and in the matter of
6
Kao-seng Fa-hsien chuan A x ff&ill (Taisho 51:859b;
Adachi Kiroku I 3- A/, Hokken den - S%t [Tokyo,
19361, 92; H. A. Giles, Travels of Fa-hsien [Cambridge,
1923], 20-21).
 MATHER: Chinese and Indian Perceptions
justice they are more than generous. Fearing the retribu-
tion of sins committed in former lives, they lighten the
karma accumulating in their present life. Treachery or
deceit they will not carry out; their covenants and oaths
are always trustworthy. In their government and educa-
tion they exalt honesty, and in their customs and every-
day dealings they exalt harmony. Violent and rapacious
elements are relatively few. If from time to time anyone
violates the state laws or plots to overthrow the ruler,
and the affair is exposed, they will always imprison the
offender, but will not administer corporal punishment.
From that time on, whether he is dead or alive, he is no
longer regarded as a human being. If anyone violates
propriety or the moral code, whether it is a breach of
loyalty or of filial piety, in such cases they will cut off
the offender's nose, or an ear, a hand, or a foot. Or they
may banish him from the kingdom, or exile him to an
uninhabitedarea. For other offenses one may be fined or
made to pay a ransom.7
Just as modern Chinese are sometimes awed by what
they deem to be the obsessive cleanliness of their Japa-
nese neighbors, Hsiian-tsang was clearly impressed by
the sanitary habits he witnessed among the brahmin
and ksatriya families. He wrote:
They are for the most part pure and untainted, living
in simplicity and frugality. But the clothing of the king
and his ministers is entirely different. Floral topknots
and jewelled tiaras are worn as head ornaments; rings,
bracelets and necklaces dangle from their bodies. In
the case of wealthy merchants or big traders a single
bracelet may be the only ornament. Nearly everyone
walks barefoot; very few have anything on their feet.
They stain their teeth red or black, cut their hair even,
and bore their ears. Their facial features are character-
ized by long noses and large eyes.
When it comes to cleanliness in their personal up-
keep, they do not do it merely out of affectation or ex-
ternal compulsion. Whenever they eat they must
always first wash their hands. Uneaten fragments, or
anything left overnight, they will not eat, nor do they
share eating utensils. Utensils made from pottery or
wood are discarded after use. Those made of gold, sil-
ver, bronze, or iron are always refurbished before reus-
ing. After a meal is finished they chew on a willow
twig to clean their teeth, and without first completing
their ablutions they will not touch each other. Every
time they urinate they always take care to wash up
afterwards. They annoint their bodies with various fra-
7
Ta-rang hsi-yii chi * 2 (Taisho 51:877b).
of Each Other 3
grances, such as candana (sandalwood) or yii-chin
Wi (turmeric). Whenever the king is about to take a
bath, they perform music with drums, stringed instru-
ments, and singing, and make offerings and prostra-
tions to accompany the bathing and handwashing.8
This generally favorable perception of India, which
continued in most quarters of China, was, however, se-
verely challenged after the rise of ecclesiastical Tao-
ism, an indigenous movement which, though clearly
influenced by the rival alien faith, was also threatened
by it. A popular myth, building on accounts of the phi-
losopher Lao-tzu's disappearance beyond the western
frontier, which had found expression in Ssu-ma
Ch'ien's account in the Shih-chi -t as early as the
first century B.C., went on to claim that Lao-tzu then
proceeded to India and was reborn as Prince Sid-
dhartha, who became the Buddha. The myth was crys-
tallized in a pseudo-canonical work, known as the
Scripture of Lao-tzu Converting the Barbarians (Lao-
tzu hua-Hu ching : :t fft i s), now surviving only in
quoted fragments, attributed to a certain Wang Fu
_I j (active ca. 300). In this pseudo-scripture the
claim is made that for his Chinese incarnation Lao-tzu
had sought to bring out the inherent goodness of hu-
man nature by stressing "soft" virtues like "natural-
ness" (tzu-jan ? p) and "non-aggressive action" (wu-
wei ,4j). In his Indian incarnation, to borrow the
words of a long-discredited nineteenth-century mis-
sionary hymn which applied them to neighboring Cey-
lon, he looked out on a beautiful land "where every
prospect pleases, and only man is vile." In India he re-
alized that he must take a radically different approach,
so he formulated the monastic rules, in order to curb
the rampant poisons of lust, hatred, and ignorance.
There is even a hint that his hidden agenda in the call
to celibacy was genocide of the entire Indian race. The
ugly head of this Hua-Hu myth rears its head in many
of the anti-Buddhist attacks recorded in the two anthol-
ogies I have mentioned. Though it had very little rele-
vance to the real issues separating the Chinese and
Indian world-views, the unfortunate result of such
overheated rhetoric, where actual contact between the
peoples of the two areas was slight, was a skewed per-
ception among some Chinese intellectuals that Indians
must have been a race of violent and uncouth barbari-
ans. I will cite only a few conspicuous examples of this
perception.9
8 Ibid., 876b.
9 See E. Zurcher, The Buddhist
Conquest of China, 2 vols.
(Leiden, 1959), 1:290-320, for a full accountof this controversy.
4 Journal of the American Oriental Society 112.1 (1992)
In the late fifth century an anonymous writer, hiding
under the name of the poet Chang Jung k 6 , produced
a "Discourse on the Triple Destruction" (San-p'o lun
5- VM). By "triple destruction" he meant: (1) de-
struction of the state through extravagant temple con-
struction and costly religious festivals, (2) destruction
of the family through cutting off the family line by cel-
ibate monks, and (3) destruction of the bodies of indi-
viduals by mutilation (e.g., shaving the head and
burning the scalp). The San-p'o lun states:
The Hu-barbarianshave no humanity (jen C). Un-
yielding and violent, they are without manners and are
no different from birds or animals. They do not believe
in humility or deference (hsii-wu S,S). When Lao-tzu
entered the Pass [into Central Asia and India] he inten-
tionally created a doctrine of images and idols to con-
vert them (perhaps on the assumption they could not
handle abstract concepts?) .... The Hu-barbarians are
crude and unrefined. Desiring to terminate their evil
seed, he therefore laid down rules that men should not
take wives or women husbands. If the whole kingdom
were to submit to his teaching, the population would
disappear of its own accord.10
The same notion is reflected in a letter written by the
Liu-Sung minister, Ho Ch'eng-t'ien flJ i* (370-447),
to his friend, the Buddhist painter Tsung Ping Vl
(375-447). Tsung Ping had expressed outrage over
another anti-Buddhist tract called "A Dialogue Be-
tween Mr. White (a Chinese literatus) and Mr. Black (a
Buddhist monk)" (Pai-hei lun b X*), also known as
the "Discourse on Equalizing the Good Points [of the
Buddha and the Chinese Sages]" (Chun-shan lun
? 1 ).11 The tract had been written by a renegade
Buddhist monk named Hui-lin X J# (active, 424-
453), and had been circulating in Chien-k'ang at the
time. Ho Ch'eng-t'ien, responding to Tsung Ping's
complaint, wrote:
10 Quoted in Liu Hsieh PJ] (d. 518), "Discourse on Extin-
guishing Delusions" (Mieh-huo lun i N*i), Hung-ming chi
*LOJ 8 (Taisho 52:50c). See also Kenneth Ch'en, "Anti-
Buddhist Propaganda During the Nan-ch'ao," Harvard Jour-
nal of Asiatic Studies 15 (1952): 172-73.
1 Hui-lin's treatise appears in the section on "I and Man
Barbarians (I-Man chuan a ll) of the Sung-shu *
(97.2388-91); see also K. Ch'en, op. cit., 175-76. The corre-
spondence between Tsung Ping and Ho Ch'eng-t'ien is found
in Hung-ming chi 3 (Taisho 52:17c-21c).
The Chinese and the Western Barbarians naturally
have their differences. What are they? The people of
China are by natural temperament pure and agreeable.
They are endowed with humanity (jen {t) and em-
brace morality (i ). It's for this reason that the Duke
of Chou and Confucius illuminated a doctrine of [natu-
rally good] human nature and behavior. People of for-
eign countries, on the other hand, possess natures that
are unyielding and violent, greedy and lustful, full of
anger and cruelty. For this reason Sakyamuni laid
down the strict code of the Five Commandments
(paica-gila).12
The classic expression of this unflattering stereotype
was Ku Huan's (d. after 483) "Discourse on Barbarians
and Chinese" (I-Hsia lun a IX[), which has been
preserved through quotations from it by indignant Bud-
dhist laymen seeking to refute it. Ku begins his attack
with the disarming and unmistakably Chinese premise
that ultimately all religions and ideologies are the
same. It's only in their outward manifestations that
they differ from each other, because of different envi-
ronments or other circumstances. Ku wrote:
What the scriptures of the two traditions say are like
the two halves of a tally. Tao is the Buddha; the Bud-
dha is Tao. In their ideal of sageliness (sheng ?) they
are identical; only in their outward manifestations (chi
3) are they at odds. One is the "tempered light" (ho-
kuang ;i) see Lao-tzu 4) that illuminates what is
near; the other is the "radiant spirit" (yao-ling f 1)
[of the sun] revealing what is distant. The Tao sustains
all under heaven; there is no quarter where it does not
penetrate. [Buddha-] wisdom pervades all creation; no
being is unaffected. But since their entrances have not
been the same, their effects are also bound to differ. In
each tradition [the adherents] fulfill their own natures
(hsing 1t) and thus do not alter the things they do (shih
$). Ceremonial caps and robes and tablets of office
tucked in their sashes is the fashion of Chinese
[officials]; shaved heads and loose garments is the habit
of barbarian[monks]. Kneeling reverently and bowing
from the waist are expressions of respect within the
[Chinese] royal domain; crouching like foxes and
squatting like dogs are deemed to be dignified postures
in the wilderness. To be buried in a double coffin is the
rule in China; to be incinerated on a funeral pyre or
submerged under water is the custom among the West-
ern Barbarians. To preserve one's body whole and ob-
serve the proper rituals is the teaching that aims at
12 Taisho 52:19c.
 MATHER: Chinese and Indian Perceptions of Each Other
perpetuating goodness; to disfigure one's appearance
and alter one's nature is the study that seeks to termi-
nate evil. Through endless generations sages have
arisen one after another. Some have expounded the
Five Classics (wu-tien fA); others have propagated
the Three Vehicles (san-sheng _ a). Among birds
[the sages] have chirped like birds, and among beasts
they have roared like beasts. When instructing the Chi-
nese they have spoken Chinese; when converting bar-
barians they have spoken barbarian, that's all ... At
present [some misguided people] are trying to make the
nature of the Chinese conform to the doctrines of the
Western Barbarians.These two peoples are, on the one
hand, not entirely the same; nor, on the other, are they
entirely different. [The Indians] abandon their wives
and children, and have done away with ancestral sac-
rifices. On the other hand, things to which they are at-
tached and which they desire are promoted by their
rituals; it is only the canons of filial piety and reverence
that are suppressed by their doctrines.... Buddhism is
a formula for destroying evil; Taoism is a technique for
encouraging goodness. To encourage goodness, natu-
ralness (tzu-jan 1 ,) is paramount; to destroy evil,
courageous zeal is valued. The outward manifestations
of Buddhism are brilliant and massive, suitable for con-
verting living beings. The outward manifestations of
Taoism, on the other hand, are secret and subtle,
beneficial for use in self-development. The superiority
or inferiority of one in relation to the other lies, for the
most part, in this distinction.13
Happily, not all the comparisons that were being
made were generated under such adversarial circum-
stances. A more penetrating analysis, I feel, of the per-
ceived differences between Chinese and Indian modes
of thought may be found in the friendly, and generally
constructive, discussion which took place around
A.D. 430 on the estate in Shih-ning M S (Chekiang) of
the poet Hsieh Ling-yun Vi3g (385-433), among
two Chinese laymen and six monks, on the question of
"sudden" vs. "gradual" enlightenment (tun-wu/chien-
wu 'f f/jtft). This symposium was written up in ele-
gant parallel prose by Hsieh himself under the title,
"Discussion on Distinguishing What Is Essential"
(Pien-tsung lun ~ a 1), and is preserved in the
Kuang hung-ming chi. Hsieh was the sole protagonist
for the "subitist" viewpoint. But on the question of
differences between Indians and Chinese, this is what
he had to say:
13 Nan-Ch'i shu * 54.931-32; see also K. Ch'en,
il
op. cit., 168-71.
5
The differences between [Buddhism and Confucian-
ism] are essentially the differences that have grown out
of the different localities and environments [of India
and China]. To make a large overall comparison, they
reflect the people [of these two lands]. Chinese people
find it easy to perceive Truth intuitively (chien-li
X ), but difficult to undergo instruction (shou-chiao
5 |). Therefore they have closed the door to accu-
mulated bits of learning (lei-hsiieh i *), but have
opened it to grasping Ultimate Truth whole (i-chi
- ). The Indians, on the other hand, find it easy to
undergo instruction, but difficult to perceive Truth intu-
itively. Therefore they have closed the door to sudden,
total comprehension (tun-liao I T), but open it to
gradual (i.e., incremental) enlightenment (chien-wu
l ti ). Although gradual enlightenment is attainable, it
obscures the realization of sudden, total comprehen-
sion. And although grasping Ultimate Truth whole is
known to be the goal, it cuts short the hope of accumu-
lated learning. Precisely because Chinese people gain
insight (wu it) into Truth without gradations, they
falsely claim that the Tao is perceived without study.
The Indians, for their part, who gain insight through
learning, falsely claim that perceiving the Tao has gra-
dations. Thus, even though Provisional Truth (ch'iian
= sarhvrti-satya) and Absolute Truth (shih * =
paramartha-satya) are ultimately the same (i.e., Chi-
nese and Indians attain the same Truth-the former ab-
solutely and whole, and the latter provisionally and by
increments), their methods of attainment (yung m) are
different from each other . 14
What Hsieh Ling-yiin seems to be saying is that the
Indian pandits, at least, are great scholiasts and logi-
cians. They can make hair-splitting distinctions and en-
numerate endless categories and gradations, such as the
six sense-organs with their respective faculties and ob-
jects (collectively known as the Eighteen Dhatu), the
Ten Stages (bhumi) of a bodhisattva's progress, etc.
But when it comes to perceiving the goal of the whole
process, which is, as it were, to "grasp the sorry
scheme of things entire," leave it to the Chinese, who
have always been suspicious of nit-picking details.
When Hsieh made this generalization, he must have
been thinking of someone like Yu Ai J&/ (261-311),
one of the "Eight Free Spirits" (pa-ta Ait) of the
early fourth century, who once started to read the great
Taoist philosophical text, Chuang-tzu. After rapidly
14
Kuang hung-ming chi .L aJ * 18 (Taisho 52:225ab);
Fung Yu-lan, History of Chinese Philosophy, 2 vols., tr.
D. Bodde (Princeton, 1953), 2:276-77.
6 Journal of the American Oriental Society 112.1 (1992)
skimming the first foot or so of the first scroll on "The
Free and Easy Excursion" (Hsiao-yao yu fi ijt), he
laid it down and announced triumphantly, "It's not the
least bit different from what I have thought all
along!"15
One might say that Hsieh Ling-ytin's attitude, though
a great improvement over that of the I-Hsia lun, was
really only a more refined form of xenophobia, offering
grudging, but still patronizing, recognition of Indian
superiority in certain mechanical skills, while still
claiming to hold superiority in what really matters.
However that may be, we still have not come to grips
with what the contemporary Indians thought of the
Chinese.
All I have been able to come up with on this score
are snatches of statements made by Indians and other
"Western Barbarians" as they are found in Chinese
sources. Under the circumstances they should probably
be taken with several grains of salt, since they were
relevant to particularsituations, and probably tempered
by diplomatic considerations as well. One of the great-
est of all missionary translators in early medieval
China was Kumarajiva (ca. 350-ca. 413). Perhaps I
should not call him a "missionary," since he was actu-
ally taken to China by force as a booty of war when a
general of one of the western states subdued the oasis
trading center of Kucha on the Silk Road. Kumarajiva's
father was Indian, but his mother had been a Kuchean
princess. After his capture in 385 he spent nearly thirty
years in northwest China. What he personally thought
about Chinese culture or the nature of the people he
seems to have kept pretty well to himself, but he did
have some pointed words about the language. In a con-
versation with the Chinese monk, Seng Jui Mti, he is
reported to have said:
It is customary in India to hold literary composition in
very high regard. As for the musical intonation (kung-
shang 'i j%) and formal consonance (t'i-yiin ft[") of
a text, we consider musicality, or the possibility of be-
ing set to music (ju-hsien A .), of supreme impor-
tance. Every time the king holds court there will
always be odes sung in praise of his virtue, and when
people attend a religious ceremony, it is the songs and
chants that are held in highest honor. The gathas (chi-
sung Ai')), or poetic recapitulations, which occur in
the sutras all have their special forms. But in the pro-
cess of translating a Sanskrit text into Chinese it loses
15 Shih-shuo hsin-yii tl94ti IV, 15; R. Mather, trans.,
Shih-shuo hsin-yu: A New Account of Tales of the World
(Minneapolis, 1976), 99.
all its nuances. Even if the reader may still get the gen-
eral meaning, he is definitely prevented from savoring
the literary style. It's something like chewing cooked
rice and then feeding it to another person. Not only has
it lost its flavor; it will also make him want to throw
up.16
Though Kumarajivaand other foreign translatorsun-
doubtedly knew a great deal about the Chinese lan-
guage before they were through, there were apparently
some missionaries who made a point of not doing so.
One of these was the Central Asian specialist in Bud-
dhist chant, Srimitra (fl. 310-340), who is best known
by his posthumous title, "The Monk of the Lofty Seat"
(Kao-tso tao-jen -i Iit A ). Though not himself from
India, he may have typified many foreigners who for
one reason or another refused to learn Chinese. Such a
refusal did not, of course, imply condescension, or
even displeasure at any presumed lack of nuance or
musicality in the inflexible monosyllables that seemed
to offend Kumirajiva a century later. Srimitra's self-
advertised inability to use Chinese was, if we can be-
lieve the Eastern Chin prince of K'uai-chi, Ssu-ma Yti
A, -_ (320-372), who later became emperor (Chien-
wen ti, r. 371-372), "simply to save himself the nui-
sance of answering questions."17
Whether or not this was true, however, one does get
the distinct impression that in the minds of most Indi-
ans of the fourth and fifth centuries, China, if people
thought about it at all, was the same sort of uncivilized
hinterland that the "Western Regions" (hsi-yu fi ),
which included India, were to most Chinese. When the
pilgrim Shih Chih-yen OtN1 (active ca. 417), a na-
tive of Western Liang (401-421) in Kansu, was study-
ing meditation in a monastery in Kashmir under the
master Buddhasena (? % k t), the native monks, ob-
serving the special deference shown him by their
teacher, exclaimed with evident wonder, "So! Even in
the land of Ch'in X there are monks seeking the
Way!" The narrative goes on to report that "thereafter
they no longer despised the Chinese and their ilk
(Ch'in-lei Xi#), but received distant visitors with
respect."18
In the year 520 when the pilgrim Sung Yun 5^-
and his companions were passing through the kingdom
of Udyana (,. J*) on the Swat River north of Gan-
dhfara,the king asked him through an interpreter,
16
Kao-seng chuan A i1 f4 2 (Taisho 50:332b).
17 Shih-shuo hsin-yii II, 39; Mather, Shih-shuo, 50.
8
Kao-seng chuan 3 (Taisho-50:339b).
 MATHER: Chinese and Indian Perceptions of Each Other
"Are you from the land where the sun rises?" Sung re-
plied, "Yes. On the eastern border of my country there
is a great ocean from whose midst the sun rises, just as
you have described it." The king then asked, "Has that
country ever produced any sages?" Sung Yiin took the
occasion to educate him about the virtues of the Duke of
Chou and Confucius, [the Taoist philosophers] Lao-tzu
and Chuang-tzu, the lore about the silver belvederes and
golden halls [of the transcendent island] Mt. P'eng-lai
X3V, the skillful diviner Kuan Lu
: 14
(third century),
the physician Hua T'o * r1 (third century), the magi-
cian Tso Tz'u AE,1 (second century).19 [When he had
finished] the king remarked,"If things are as you say, it
is indeed a Buddha-realm (buddha-ksetra) [i.e., a para-
dise like Amitabha's Sukhavati]. When my present life
ends, I would like to be reborn in that country."20
Still later, in 645, as the pilgrim Hsiian-tsang was
preparing to return to China after his long sojourn, his
Indian fellow-students at Nalanda University, whom
one might expect to have been more sophisticated than
the king of Udyana, nevertheless tried to dissuade him.
"India [said they] is the land where Buddha was born.
Even though the Great Sage has left the world, his leg-
acy and physical traces are still here. Traveling about,
participatingin various religious ceremonies, should be
enough to occupy you for the rest of your life. Would
you have come this far only to forsake it again? Fur-
thermore, China (2ES) is a land of the mleccha (i.e.,
unbelievers), who ridicule human beings and despise
the Dharma. This is why no Buddhas have ever been
born there. The ambition of the people is narrow and
their contamination profound. No sages or worthies
have ever gone there from here. Besides, the climate is
cold and the terrain precipitous. How could you even
think of going back?" 21
19 For the lives of these three technical
experts (fang-shih
Jg?:), whom Sung Yii does not hesitate to place with Con-
fucius and Lao-tzu among China's sages, see Kenneth De-
Woskin, Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians of Ancient China:
Biographies of Fang-shih (New York, 1983), 91-134, 140-
52, 83-86. For the latter two, see also, in greater detail, Ngo
Van Xuyet, Divination, magie et politique dans la Chine anci-
enne (Paris, 1976), 118-26, 139-39.
20 Lo-yang ch'ieh-lan chi IMRi
fli-i- (written, A.D. 457),
Taisho 51:1020a; Y. T. Wang, trans., A Record of Buddhist
Monasteries in Lo-yang (Princeton, 1984), 229-30.
21 Ta Tz'u-en-ssu San-tsang fa-shih chuan t :
,*-,
i& liF 5 (Taisho 50:246a).
7
Once more, the naivete of the Nalanda students pro-
vided another perfect springboard for a lecture on the
glories of T'ang civilization. Even here, however, one
may sense a trace of defensiveness in Hsiian-tsang's re-
sponse in the presence of India's conspicuous achieve-
ments in the sciences. This is what he said:
"The Dharmaraja(i.e., the Buddha) established the
Teaching here [in India] and morality prevails in this
land. But how can I have my own heart moistened by
the favor [of this religion], and still neglect those who
are not yet enlightened? Furthermore, in my country
the officials in their caps and robes are arrayed in state-
liness, and the laws and regulations are to be respected.
The ruler is a sage, the ministers are loyal and the chil-
dren filial. They value humaneness and morality and
exalt the aged and worthy. They also understand and
have penetrated the arcane and the subtle. Their wis-
dom tallies with Heaven, and they embody Heaven in
making their laws. As for the Seven Luminaries (sun,
moon, and planets), they are not in the dark about their
configurations. They have set up instruments to divide
time.... Ever since the Dharma has spread eastward,
everyone there has honored the Mahayana (ta-sheng
It P). The waters of samadhi-concentration are clear
and bright; the perfume of the monastic rules is sweet
and fragrant.... It cannot be known when our ears
will ever again hear the wondrous preaching [of a Bud-
dha], or our eyes behold his golden visage, as together
we travel down the long road. But how can anyone
claim that no Buddhas have ever gone [to China], and
for that reason consider the land contemptible?"
[The students responded], " . .. Today we are living
here with you in Jambudvipa. It was here that the Bud-
dha was born; he never went there. That's why we con-
sider it a frontier-an evil place. Since the land has no
merit, we are urging you not to go back."
Hsiian-tsang said, "Vimalakirti once asked, 'Why
does the sun travel across Jambudvipa?'[Sariputra]an-
swered, 'To drive away its darkness.' Well, the reason
I'm thinking of going back is to honor this principle,
that's all."22
When the students perceived that he would not fol-
low their advice, they consulted together and went in a
body to see their teacher, Silabhadra (J ]), who
asked Hsiian-tsang, "What are your thoughts on the
matter?" Hsiian-tsang replied:
22 Ibid., 246ab. For the
quotation from the Vimalakirti-
nirdesa, see Shuo Wu-kou-ch'eng ching . : ~ 12
(Taisho 14:584c).
8 Journal of the American Oriental Society 112.1 (1992)
"This land is the Buddha's birthplace. It's not that I
don't love or enjoy it. It's only that my ambition has
been to seek the great Dharma and to benefit living be-
ings as widely as possible. Ever since I've come here
I've listened to my teachers lecturing on the Yogacar-
yabhumi-sdstra (* 0F1 fNlA * ), resolving its web of
doubts. I have reverently viewed the sacred traces and
listened to the most profound meaning of the scrip-
tures. My own heart has found comfort and I have been
blessed. I definitely have not traveled here in vain. But
I would like to take what I have heard back with me
and translate it, so that those disciples who have the
right karmic conditions may be able to share what I
have heard and seen, and thus I may repay my teachers'
kindness. These are the reasons I do not wish to linger
here any longer."
Delighted, Silabhadra exclaimed, "These are the
thoughts of a true bodhisattva!"23
The unmistakable conclusion to be drawn from these
fragmentary vignettes is that before the rivalry created
by the rise of ecclesiastical Taoism in the late second
century, whatever reports about the subcontinent were
in existence in China were relatively objective, and
23 Ta Tz'u-en-ssu
San-tsang fa-shih chuan 5 (Taisho
50:246b).
certainly not hostile. After the circulation of the myth
about Lao-tzu converting the barbarians, which began
during the third century, but became virulent after the
publication of the pseudo-scripture bearing that title
around A.D. 300, anti-Buddhist polemicists began pop-
ularizing a negative perception which depicted Indians
as uncouth and morally depraved barbarians.It is to the
credit of Chinese Buddhist apologists that they worked
assiduously to debunk some of the more egregious
claims of their rivals, and some writers like Hsieh
Ling-yiin in the fifth century seemed actually to have
gained an inkling of the real temperamentaldifferences
between the two peoples. But the greatest contribution
toward mutual understanding came from the Indian
missionaries in China and from Chinese pilgrims like
Fa-hsien, Sung Ytin, and Hstian-tsang who had person-
ally lived and studied in India.
As for the Indian perceptions of China, these seem
not to have mattered as much to either the Indians or
the Chinese. It was, after all, China which had received
the greater impact. What little we do learn from Chi-
nese reports of Indian views on the subject are strongly
colored by the cultural pride of the reporters, who were
not only eager to record any favorable impressions, but
were equally happy to fill any vacuum they perceived
in their Indian inquirers with a glowing account of the
splendor of their own civilization.