A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms
Also called: Foguoji, Faxian's Foguoji, A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms · Topic: Gupta Empire and the Classical Age · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 7 "The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity"
Meaning
A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms is the travel account of Faxian, a Chinese Buddhist monk. Its Chinese name is Foguoji. Faxian left China in c. 399 CE and returned in c. 414 CE. He came to India to visit holy Buddhist places, meet scholars and collect Buddhist manuscripts (handwritten books) to take back to China. His book is one of the few foreign eyewitness accounts of India under the Guptas. James Legge translated it into English in 1886.
Example
Faxian visited India in the early 5th century CE, during the reign of Chandragupta II. He wrote that the people were "numerous and happy". He also said there was no household registration, and that farmers on royal land paid a share of their grain as tax. He described charity houses run by Vaishyas, where poor and sick people got free care and medicines. He also recorded that chandalas were treated harshly as outcastes and had to live outside the cities. All of this is one traveller's view, so historians check it against other sources.
Don't confuse with
- Xuanzang's account: written by another Chinese monk, who visited in the 7th century CE, in Harsha's time. Faxian came in the Gupta period.