“ From the Ganges delta Fa-Hien sailed with a merchant ship, in fourteen days, to Ceylon, where he transcribed all the sacred books, as yet unknown in China, which he could find; witnessed the festival of the exhibition of Buddha’s tooth; and remarked the trade of Arab merchants to the island, two centuries before Mahomet. He returned by sea to the mouth of the Yangtse-Kiang, changing vessels at Java, and narrowly escaping shipwreck or the fate of Jonah. ”

“ His record is careful and accurate, and most of his positions can be identified; his devotion is so strong that it leads him to depreciate China as a “border-land,” India the home of Buddha being the true “middle kingdom” of his creed.
See James Legge, Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, being an account by the Chinese Monk Fâ-hien of his travels in India and Ceylon; translated and edited, with map, &c. (Oxford, 1886) ; S. Beal, Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist pilgrims from China to India, 400 and 518 A.D., translated, with map, &c. (1869) ”