This paper is primarily an investigation of Faxian’s 法顯 Records of the Buddhist Kingdoms 佛國記, China’s first travelogue of a monk journeying to India in search of Buddhist scriptures. More specifically, it addresses how his descriptions of the opposing concepts of “going/coming” and “border regions/the Middle Kingdom” and his views of space resulted in a new form of “travel narrative.” A comparison will also be made with other relevant Buddhists travelogues at the time, such as The Travels of Songyun 宋雲行記. That is to say, the author attempts to explore in his narrative the following aspects: 1）Strategies of representation: What is shown? What is kept hidden? What are his strategies for expressing these? 2）Self-orientation: Is his self orientation fixed or mobile? What is he trying to show us by this? What is he trying not to show us? 3）Viewpoints and outlook: Who exactly is doing the looking? What do different viewpoints and outlooks reveal? What do they conceal? This will be done by looking at his historical context.
