399.
(3) These, like Fa-Hsien itself, are all what we might call "clerical" names, appellations given to the parties as monks or sramanas.
(4) The Buddhist tripitaka or canon consists of three collections, containing, according to Eitel (p.

150), "doctrinal aphorisms (or statements, purporting to be from Buddha himself); works on discipline; and works on metaphysics:"-- called sutra, vinaya, and abhidharma; in Chinese, king {.}, leuh {.}, and lun {.}, or texts, laws or rules, and discussions.

Dr.Rhys Davids objects to the designation of "metaphysics" as used of the abhidharma works, saying that "they bear much more the relation to 'dharma' which 'by-law' bears to 'law' than that which 'metaphysics' bears to 'physics'" (Hibbert Lectures, p.

49).

However this be, it was about the vinaya works that Fa-Hsien was chiefly concerned.