continental south asia and the islands 77It cannot be determined how the missions travelled from India to
China. The one in 658 went by ship. That may have been the case
with all missions coming from the sourthern part of the subcontinent.
But missions from Northern India could well have travelled through
the Khyber Pass, across the Pamir Mountains, and then continued
on one of the Silk Routes. That was a way well-known to the Bud-
dhist monks.
Chu-lien
This country had so far had no relations with China (Wen-hsien t’ung-
k’ao 332:19a). The first recorded mission of 52 envoys from the king
of Chu-lien was received at the Sung court on Oct.17, 1015. They
had travelled by sea via “rivijaya and claimed that the voyage to
Canton had taken 1,150 days. The envoys brought a letter and gifts
which they spread out in front of the imperial throne. The king’s
letter supposedly stated that there had been no storms for ten years,
which according to an obscure text, called the Ku lao chuan, meant
that there was a sage in China. Therefore he had sent the envoys.^177
They said through interpreters that they wished to evince the respect
of their distant nation for China. The king’s offerings were one robe
and one cap adorned with real pearls, 21,000 ounces of real pearls,
60 elephant tusks, 60 catties of frankincense, jade, glass, and cotton
fabrics. The envoys presented on their own 6,600 ounces of pearls
and 3,300 catties of aromatic drugs. They were invited to participate
in the festivities of Emperor Chen-tsung’s birthday on Jan.14, 1016,
that the Brahman and Persian heretic were, in fact, Malabar Christians.
In the 8th month (Aug./Sep.) of 985, a Buddhist priest from India arrived with
sacred objects ( (Sung shih 490:4a).
On Oct.23, 1024, Buddhist priests from Western India presented Pali sutras.
Each was given a purple robe and silk (Sung shih 490:4b; Hsü Tzu-chih t’ung-chien
ch’ang-pien p.909).
In the 2nd month (Mar./Apr.) of 1027, a Buddhist priest and others, five men,
came with Pali Texts. Each was bestowed a purple robe (Sung shih 490:4b; Wen-hsien
t’ung-k’ao 338:51a).
In 1036, a Buddhist monk and others, nine men, presented to the court Pali
sutras, a bone of the Buddha, and the image of a Bodhisatva. They were given silk
(Sung shih 490:2b).
(^177) This is the “memorial” which Ma Tuan-lin admits to have been a Chinese
composition. Cf. supra p. 6, note 1.