Digital Edition of Samuel Beal's Translation of the Datang xiyu ji 大唐西域記

This version correctly cited as:
Samuel Beal: "Si-yu-ki. Buddhist Records of the Western World - Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsang (AD 629)." (Digital Edition (Version 2.0))

This digitization project was jointly sponsored by National Taiwan University and the Chung-hwa Institute for Buddhist Studies. Samuel Beal's translation of the Datang xiyu ji 大唐西域記 (T.2087) was digitized, marked-up in TEI, and published online first in 2001-2002. The digital edition was slightly revised in 2005. It contains references to the Taishō edition of the 大唐西域記, and a (gentle) normalizations of Beal's transliteration of Indian and Chinese names. Details are in the TEI header. The zip archive below contains a no-frills HTML version, the TEI (P4) source, and a DTD. The data was made available under the GNU General Public License 2.0.

Follow this link to download the zip archive of Beal's Xiyuji. Or go to the HTML version directly.

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In case you wonder whether you should read this text, consider the following passages:

vol1p81: If, on the contrary, one of the members breaks down in his argument, or uses poor and inelegant phrases, or if he violates a rule in logic and adapts his words accordingly, they proceed to disfigure his face with red and white, and cover his body with dirt and dust, and then carry him off to some deserted spot or leave him in a ditch. Thus they distinguish between the meritorious and the worthless, between the wise and the foolish.

vol1p86-87: The old and infirm who come near to death, and those entangled in a severe sickness, who fear to linger to the end of their days, and through disgust wish to escape the troubles of life, or those who desire release from the trifling affairs of the world and its concerns (the concerns of life), these, after receiving a farewell meal at the hands of their relatives or friends, they place, amid the sounds of music, on a boat which they propel into the midst of the Ganges, where such persons drown themselves. They think thus to secure a birth among the Devas. Rarely one of these may be seen not yet dead on the borders (of the river).

vol1p88: Onions and garlic are little grown; and few persons eat them; if anyone uses them for food, they are expelled beyond the walls of the town.

vol1p146: Without asking whether we believe the tale or not, it is a piteous one.

vol1p175n: I am satisfied the reading, as it is, is corrupt.

vol1p217: He forbade the slaughter of any living thing or flesh as food throughout the Five Indies on pain of death without pardon.