Good Works Translation from Volume 2

This Good Works Translation renders selected western river and Central Asian geography passages from Li Daoyuan's Shui Jing Zhu from Classical Chinese into English.

For the Scythian shelf, this is late antique geographic memory and route commentary. It preserves traditions on Jibin, the Yuezhi, Anxi, Tiaozhi, Khotan, Shule, Dawan, Kangju, Qinghai, and the Lesser Yuezhi.

The Classical Chinese source text is printed below the translation.

Translation

Guo Yigong's Guangzhi says: "The state of Xiuxun lives in the Onion Range; its mountains have many large onions." The river also passes north of the state of Nandou. To the north it connects with Xiuxun; to the southwest it is 340 li from Jibin. The river water again passes west by the north of Jibin.

At the time of the Yuezhi collapse, the Sai king went south and ruled Jibin, governing from Xunxian city. The land is level and mild and lacks nothing. It has gold, silver, precious things, strange livestock, and unusual objects. Judged against central China, it is a great state. The mountains are dangerous, with Great Headache and Little Headache mountains, red-earth and body-heat slopes; men and livestock suffer them alike.

The river water again passes west by the south of the Yuezhi state, whose seat is Jianshi city. Its customs are the same as those of Anxi. Maodun shanyu of the Xiongnu broke the Yuezhi and killed their king, using his head as a drinking vessel. The state then divided. Those who passed far beyond Dawan and lived west in Daxia became the Great Yuezhi. The remaining small multitude, unable to leave, together held the Southern Mountains among the Qiang and were called the Lesser Yuezhi. Therefore there are the names Great Yuezhi and Lesser Yuezhi.

Farther west the river passes south of Anxi. Its city faces the Gui water. Its land is several thousand li square and it is a very great state. It has merchants, carts, and boats moving among neighboring states, and it uses painted leather turned sideways as records. The river water and the Niluo Qidi water together pour into the Leizhu Sea.

Faxian's record says: "The state has the Buddha's bowl. The Yuezhi king raised a great mass of troops and came to attack this state, wishing to carry the bowl away. He placed the bowl on an elephant, but the elephant could not move forward. He then made a four-wheeled cart to carry the bowl, and eight elephants drew it together, but again it would not move. The king knew that the bowl's condition had not arrived. He then raised a stupa, left the bowl there, and made offerings to it.

"The bowl holds two dou. It is of mixed color, mostly black; its four edges are clear, its thickness about two fen, and it is very glossy. If a poor man throws in a few flowers, it is immediately full. If a rich man offers many flowers, even hundreds, thousands, or ten thousands of hu, in the end it is still not full."

Fotudiao says: "The Buddha's bowl is blue jade and holds about three dou. That state treasures it. At the time of offering, if one wishes incense and flowers not to fill it all day, it is as said; if one wishes a single handful to fill it, then it is also as said." Again, according to what the monk Zhu Fawei said, the Buddha's bowl is in the Great Yuezhi state. A stupa was raised there, thirty zhang high, with seven levels. The bowl is on the second level, suspended by golden interlaced chains. The bowl is blue stone. Some say it hangs in empty space. Subhuti placed the bowl on a golden stand. One footprint of the Buddha and the bowl are in the same place. The king, ministers, and people of the state all make offerings of Brahman incense, the seven treasures, jade disks, and jade. The stupa traces, the Buddha's tooth, robe, crown-mark relic, all are in the state of Purusapura.

The Buddhist Western Regions record says: "Northwest of the royal city of Gandhara is the city of Baturayue, the royal city of the Buddha's robe. East of it is a monastery. Searching again along the river, ten li northwest is the dragon pool of Hebuluo, where the Buddha came above the pool and washed his robe; the washing stone still remains. Its water reaches Anxi and enters the Leizhu Sea." It also says: "West of Gandhara, in the western sea, is the state of Anxi."

Zhu Zhi's Funan ji says: "The state of Anxi is twenty thousand li from the state of Sihatao. Its land faces the sea; this is the Tianzhu-Anxi state of Han Shu. It has nearly one million households and is a very great state." The Han Shu Western Regions treatise also says: "Lijian and Tiaozhi face the western sea." The elders' tradition says that Tiaozhi has Weak Water, and the Queen Mother of the West also has never been seen. From Tiaozhi, riding water westward for perhaps more than one hundred days, one nears the place where the sun enters. Perhaps the river water communicates with the western sea.

The Buddhist Western Regions record says: "The southern river runs from Khotan eastward and northward three thousand li, reaches Shanshan, and enters the Loulan Sea. The northern river branches east from Qisha and divides from the southern river; this is what the Buddhist Western Regions record calls the two branches flowing north, passing Kucha, Wuyi, and Shanshan, and entering the Loulan Sea. The northern river again flows northeast and divides into two waters, from which a branch stream issues."

The northern river, from Shule, flows east north of the southern river. The Han Shu Western Regions treatise says: "East of the Onion Range there are mountains to north and south, separated by more than one thousand li; east to west they extend six thousand li, and the river issues from within them." Reaching south of Wensu, on the left it joins the branch water. The branch water receives the northern river east of Shule, flows northwest, and passes south of Shule. It again turns northeast and joins the water of the northern mountains of Shule. That water issues from a northern valley, flows southeast below Shule city, and lies 560 li south from Shache. There is a market row there, and to the west it faces the road to the Great Yuezhi, Dawan, and Kangju.

The Record of the Thirteen Provinces says: "The city is 310 li west of Linqiang New County. Wang Mang accepted the offering of Xiling and made it Xihai commandery, governing from this city." The Huang water again passes southeast by the north of the Beihe Qiang Sea, where there is a salt pool. Kan Yin says: "West of the county is what is called the Beihe Qiang Sea." In the world it is called Qinghai. Eastward it is 250 li from Xiping. The Huang water flows east and passes north of Huangzhong city, the old land of the Lesser Yuezhi.

The Record of the Thirteen Provinces says: "Between Xiping and Zhangye is a separate branch of the Great Yuezhi, the state of the Lesser Yuezhi."

Fan Ye's Hou Han Shu says: "The Yuezhi Hu of Huangzhong: their king was killed by the Xiongnu, and the remaining stock divided and scattered. Those who crossed west over the Onion Range were weak; those who entered the mountains to the south lived with the Qiang. Therefore they received the name Lesser Yuezhi."

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was made from selected Classical Chinese passages in Shui Jing Zhu volume 2, preserved in the local Scythian expansion source base.

The translation is complete for the selected source body printed below. It preserves the source's layered citation form, because Li Daoyuan's value here lies in the way older river commentary, Buddhist travel memory, Han geography, and Yuezhi traditions are gathered into one route.

Compiled for the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Classical Chinese

### Jibin, Yuezhi, Anxi, and the Western Sea

郭義恭《廣志》曰：休循國居蔥嶺，其山多大蔥。又逕難兜國北，北接休循，西南去罽賓國三百四十里，河水又西逕罽賓國北。月氏之破，塞王南君罽賓，治循鮮城。土地平和，無所不有，金銀珍寶，異畜奇物，論于中夏，大國也。山險，有大頭痛、小頭痛之山，赤土、身熱之阪，人畜同然。河水又西逕月氏國南，治監氏城，其俗與安息同。匈奴冒頓單于破月氏，殺其王，以頭為飲器。國遂分，遠過大宛，西居大夏，為大月氏；其餘小衆不能去者，共保南山羌中，號小月氏。故有大月氏、小月氏之名也。又西逕安息國南，城臨嬀水，地方數千里，最大國也。有商賈、車船行旁國，畫革旁行為書記也。河水與蜺羅跂禘水同注雷翥海。

### The Buddha Bowl and the Yuezhi

《法顯傳》曰：國有佛鉢，月氏王大興兵衆，來伐此國，欲持鉢去，置鉢象上，象不能進；更作四輪車載鉢，八象共牽，復不進，王知鉢緣未至，于是起塔留鉢供養。鉢容二斗，雜色而黑多，四際分明，厚可二分，甚光澤。貧人以少花投中便滿，富人以多花供養，正復百千萬斛，終亦不滿。佛圖調曰：佛鉢，青玉也，受三斗許，彼國寶之。供養時，願終日香花不滿，則如言；願一把滿，則亦便如言。又按道人竺法維所說，佛鉢在大月支國，起浮圖，高三十丈，七層，鉢處第二層，金絡絡鎖縣鉢，鉢是青石。或云懸鉢虛空。須菩提置鉢在金机上，佛一足跡與鉢共在一處，國王、臣民悉持梵香、七寶、璧玉供養。塔跡、佛牙、袈裟、頂相舍利，悉在弗樓沙國。

### Gandhara, Anxi, and the Western Sea

釋氏《西域記》曰：揵陀越王城西北有鉢吐羅越城，佛袈裟王城也。東有寺。重復尋川水，西北十里有河步羅龍淵，佛到淵上浣衣處，浣石尚存。其水至安息，注雷翥海。又曰：犍陀越西，西海中有安息國。

### Anxi, Lijian, Tiaozhi, and the Western Sea

竺枝《扶南記》曰：安息國去私訶條國二萬里，國土臨海上，即《漢書》天竺安息國也。戶近百萬，最大國也。《漢書·西域傳》又云：棃靬、條支臨西海。長老傳聞，條支有弱水，西王母亦未嘗見。自條支乘水西行，可百餘日，近日所入也。或河水所通西海矣。

### Khotan, Shule, and the Roads to Yuezhi, Dawan, and Kangju

釋氏《西域記》曰：南河自于闐東于北三千里，至鄯善入牢蘭海者也。北河自岐沙東分南河，即釋氏《西域記》所謂二支北流，逕屈茨、烏夷、禪善，入牢蘭海者也。北河又東北流，分為二水，枝流出焉。北河自疏勒逕流南河之北，《漢書·西域傳》曰：蔥嶺以東，南北有山，相距千餘里，東西六千里，河出其中。暨于溫宿之南，左合枝水，枝水上承北河于疏勒之東，西北流逕疏勒國南，又東北與疏勒北山水合；水出北溪，東南流逕疏勒城下，南去莎車五百六十里，有市列，西當大月氏、大宛、康居道。

### Qinghai and the Land of the Little Yuezhi

《十三州志》曰：城在臨羌新縣西三百一十里。王莽納西零之獻，以為西海郡，治此城。湟水又東南逕卑禾羌海北，有鹽池。闞駰曰：縣西有卑禾羌海者也。世謂之青海。東去西平二百五十里。湟水東流逕湟中城北，故小月氏之地也。

### Between Xiping and Zhangye

《十三州志》曰：西平、張掖之間大月氏之別，小月氏之國。

### The Hou Han Shu Notice on the Yuezhi of Huangzhong

范曄《後漢書》曰：湟中月氏胡者，其王為匈奴所殺，餘種分散，西踰蔥嶺，其弱者南入山，從羌居止，故受小月氏之名也。

Source Colophon

The Classical Chinese source body was extracted from the local source-text page Good Works Library Ready/Scythian/Expansion Bench 2026-05-11/Shui Jing Zhu -- Western Rivers and Central Asian Geography -- Classical Chinese Source Text.md and copied for this translation pass at Tulku/Tools/scythian/sources/expansion_bench_2026-05-11/shui_jing_zhu_western_rivers_chinese_source_manual102.txt.

The local source page identifies its inspection route as Chinese Text Project, Shui Jing Zhu, volume 2, node 568150.

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