从《佛国记》的断句和航海病辨法显“航渡美洲”

摘要

法显《佛国记》中的一句应断成“如是九、十日许，乃到一国，名耶婆提”，而非“如是九十日许……”。慧皎《高僧传·法显传》说的“十余日”可为旁证。在这么短的时间内是不可能驾木帆船横渡太平洋到达美洲的。还有，如果航期长达九十来天，在当时船员势必患航海病一坏血病并死人。但法显一行健康无恙，这也可佐证他们没航行这么久没去美洲。%A sentence in Fa Xian's A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms (Foguoji) tuated as follows, "like this for nine or ten days, we arrived in a kingdo should be punc- m named Yepoti (maybe Yava- dvIpa)," instead of "like this for ninety days about ". A collateral evidence is the record of "ten - odd days" in Biography of Eminent Monk: Fa Xian (Gaosengzhuan: Faxianzhuan) by Hui Jiao. It is impossible to sail to America across the Pacific in such a short time. Besides, if the voyage lasted for about ninety days, the crew must have suffered from scurvy and some would have died. But Fa Xian's crew were in good health, which indicates that they did not travel for such long time and did not arrive in America.