南海寄归内法传

《南海寄归内法传》是中国唐朝人义净所撰的著作，武后永昌元年（689年）七月，义净从室利佛逝（苏门答腊岛上的古国）返抵广州，到光孝寺访求法侣协助译经，后与贞固等于十一月重返室利佛逝译经，并写成《南海寄归内法传》四卷及《大唐西域求法高僧传》二卷等书。武周天授二年（691年）五月义净遣大津返唐，携回两传。是书着重介绍印度的僧伽制度和具体的戒条，显示义净对律部的关心。义净于书内对所到之处记述甚详，对于南海各国不论地名、地理环境等都能详尽交代，故是书亦有助研究当时南海诸国历史地理。

A Record of Buddhist Practices Sent Home from the Southern Sea, also known as the Nanhai Jigui Neifa Zhuan and by other translations, is a Buddhist travelogue by the Tang Chinese monk Yijing detailing his twenty five-year stay in India and Srivijaya between the years 671 and 695 CE.

Name

The Chinese name Nánhǎi Jìguī Nèifǎ Zhuàn literally means "An Account of the Inner Law Sent Home from the Southern Sea", in reference to Buddhism's idea of dharma as a cosmic law and the Chinese name for the South China Sea. The work has appeared in English under various translations of varying literalness, from Accounts of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Sea to Takakusu's Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago to Record of Buddhist Practices.

Content

The book records Yijing's stay at Nalanda, a Buddhist Mahāvihāra in North-eastern India, and describes the life and practices of the monks therein. It also provides geographical and religious information on countries in the South Sea area, of which there were more than ten, during the Tang dynasty. It recorded that, for example, Buddhism flourished in the countries of the South Sea, and most of these countries practiced Theravada Buddhism, but Buddhism in Funan had been eliminated after it was conquered .

The book is divided into forty sections. Unlike his predecessor Xuanzang's travelogue, which gives descriptions of the area he visited, Yijing prefers to restrict itself to descriptions of the customs, rules, and regulations of Buddhism as it was practised in its homeland. His detailed account of monastic rules and practices is valuable for the study of Buddhism and Buddhist literature of the period as many of the sources he cited are now lost.

Editions

The first English translation was produced by Junjiro Takakusu in 1896.