Silk Road Transmission of Buddhism

4/23/2018 Silk Road transmission of Buddhism - Wikipedia
Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

Buddhism entered Han China via the Silk Road, beginning in
the 1st or 2nd century CE.[4][5] The first documented
translation efforts by Buddhist monks in China (all
foreigners) were in the 2nd century CE under the influence of
the expansion of the Kushan Empire into the Chinese
territory of the Tarim Basin under Kanishka.[6][7] These
contacts brought Gandharan Buddhist culture into territories
adjacent to China proper.
Direct contact between Central Asian and Chinese Buddhism

continued throughout the 3rd to 7th century, well into the
Tang period. From the 4th century onward, with Faxian's
pilgrimage to India (395–414), and later Xuanzang (629–
644), Chinese pilgrims started to travel by themselves to
northern India, their source of Buddhism, in order to get
improved access to original scriptures. Much of the land route Buddhist adoption in Asia, Mahayana Buddhism first
connecting northern India (mainly Gandhara) with China at entered China through Silk Road.
that time was ruled by the Kushan Empire, and later the
Hephthalite Empire.
The Indian form of Buddhist tantra (Vajrayana) reached China in the 7th century. Tibetan Buddhism was likewise
established as a branch of Vajrayana, in the 8th century. But from about this time, the Silk Road transmission of
Buddhism began to decline with the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana, resulting in the Uyghur Khaganate by the 740s.[8]
By this time, Indian Buddhism itself was in decline, due to the resurgence of Hinduism on one hand and due to the
Muslim expansion on the other, while Tang-era Chinese Buddhism was repressed in the 9th century, but not before in its
turn giving rise to Korean and Japanese traditions.
Contents
The transmission of Buddhism
First contacts
Central Asian missionaries
Early translations
Chinese pilgrims to India
Merchants
Decline
Artistic influences
Buddhism in the Book of Later Han
The Book of Han
Maritime or overland transmission
Origins of Buddhism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_transmission_of_Buddhism 1/11
Buddhism in apocryphal traditions

Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE)
Han Dynasty
The dream of Emperor Ming
Emperor Wu and The Golden Man
See also
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
The transmission of Buddhism

Blue-eyed Central Asian monk
teaching East-Asian monk. A fresco
First contacts
from the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha
Buddhism was brought to China via the Silk Road. Buddhist monks travelled Caves, dated to the 9th century;
with merchant caravans on the Silk Road, to preach their new religion. The although Albert von Le Coq (1913)
lucrative Chinese silk trade along this trade route began during the Han assumed the blue-eyed, red-haired
monk was a Tocharian,[1] modern
Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) with the establishment by Alexander the Great of
scholarship has identified similar
a system of Hellenistic kingdoms (323 BC - 63 BC) and trade networks
Caucasian figures of the same cave
extending from the Mediterranean to modern Afghanistan and Tajikistan on temple (No. 9) as ethnic
the borders of China. The powerful Greco-Bactrian Kingdoms (250 BC-125 BC) Sogdians,[2] an Eastern Iranian
in Afghanistan and the later Indo-Greek Kingdoms (180 BC - 10 CE) practiced people who inhabited Turfan as an
Greco-Buddhism and formed the first stop on the Silk Road, after China, for ethnic minority community during
nearly 300 years. See Dayuan (Ta-yuan; Chinese: 大宛 ; literarily "Great the phases of Tang Chinese (7th-8th
century) and Uyghur rule (9th-13th
Ionians").
century).[3]
The transmission of Buddhism to China via the Silk Road started in the 1st
century CE with a semi-legendary account of an embassy sent to
the West by the Chinese Emperor Ming (58–75 CE):
It may be assumed that travelers or pilgrims

brought Buddhism along the Silk Roads, but
whether this first occurred from the earliest period
when those roads were open, ca. 100 BC, must
remain open to question. The earliest direct
references to Buddhism concern the 1st century Kingdoms in the Tarim Basin during the 3rd
AD, but they include hagiographical elements and century, connecting the territory of China with that
are not necessarily reliable or accurate.[9] of the Kushan Empire: Kashgar, Kucha, Khotan,
Karasahr, Shanshan, Turfan.
Extensive contacts however started in the 2nd century CE,

probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Greco-Buddhist Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory of the Tarim
Basin, with the missionary efforts of a great number of Central Asian Buddhist monks to Chinese lands. The first
missionaries and translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were either Parthian, Kushan, Sogdian or Kuchean.[10]
Central Asian missionaries

In the middle of the 2nd century, the Kushan empire under king Kaniṣka from its
capital at Purushapura (modern Peshawar), India expanded into Central Asia and went
beyond the regions of Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkand, in the Tarim Basin, modern
Xinjiang. As a consequence, cultural exchanges greatly increased, and Central Asian
Buddhist missionaries became active shortly after in the Chinese capital cities of
Loyang and sometimes Nanjing, where they particularly distinguished themselves by
their translation work. They promoted both Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna scriptures.
Thirty-seven of these early translators of Buddhist texts are known.
An Shigao, a Parthian prince who made the first known translations of Hīnayāna
Buddhist texts into Chinese (148–170)
Lokakṣema, a Kushan and the first to translate Mahāyāna scriptures into Chinese
(167–186)
Peoples of the Silk Road.
An Xuan, a Parthian merchant who became a monk in China in 181 Mogao Caves, Dunhuang,
Zhi Yao (c. 185), a Kushan monk in the second generation of translators after China, 9th century
Lokakṣema.
Kang Meng-hsiang (194–207), the first translator from Kangju
Zhi Qian (220–252), a Kushan monk whose grandfather had settled in
China during 168–190
Zhi Yueh (c.230), a Kushan monk who worked at Nanjing
Kang Senghui (247–280), born in Jiaozhi (or Chiao-chih) close to modern
Hanoi in what was then the extreme south of the Chinese empire, and a
son of a Sogdian merchant[11]
Tan-ti (c.254), a Parthian monk
Po Yen (c.259), a Kuchean prince
Dharmarakṣa (265–313), a Kushan whose family had lived for generations
at Dunhuang Bodhisattva mural. Chinese work
An Fachiin (281–306), a monk of Parthian origins showing Central Asian influence.
Po Srimitra (317–322), a Kuchean prince Mogao Caves, China.
Kumārajīva (c. 401), a Kuchean monk and one of the most important
translators
Fotudeng (4th century), a Central Asian monk who became a counselor to
the Chinese court
Bodhidharma (440–528), the founder of the Chan (Zen) school of
Buddhism, and the legendary originator of the physical training of the
Shaolin monks that led to the creation of Shaolin kung fu. According to the
earliest reference to him, by Yang Xuanzhi, he was a monk of Central
Asian origin whom Yang Xuanshi met around 520 at Loyang.[12]
Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-
tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian. He is referred to
as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" (碧眼胡:Bìyǎn hú) in Chinese Chan
texts.[13]
Five monks from Gandhāra who traveled in 485 CE to the country of
Fusang ("the country of the extreme east" beyond the sea, probably Sogdian donors to the Buddha
Japan), where they introduced Buddhism. [a] (fresco, with detail), Bezeklik,
Jñānagupta (561–592), a monk and translator from Gandhāra eastern Tarim Basin, China, 8th
Śikṣānanda (652–710 CE), a monk and translator from Udyāna, Gandhāra century
Prajñā (c. 810), a monk and translator from Kabul who educated the
Japanese Kūkai in Sanskrit texts
Early translations
The first documented translation of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese occurs in

148 CE with the arrival of the Parthian prince-turned-monk, An Shigao (Ch. 安
世高). He worked to establish Buddhist temples in Loyang and organized the
translation of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese, testifying to the beginning of a
wave of Central Asian Buddhist proselytism that was to last several centuries.
An Shigao translated Buddhist texts on basic doctrines, meditation and
abhidharma. An Xuan (Ch. 安玄), a Parthian layman who worked alongside An Eastern Han inscriptions on lead
ingot, using barbarous Greek
Shigao, also translated an early Mahāyāna Buddhist text on the bodhisattva
alphabet in the style of the Kushans,
path.
excavated in Shaanxi, China, 1st-
2nd century CE.[14]
Mahāyāna Buddhism was first widely propagated in China by the Kushan
monk Lokakṣema (Ch. 支婁迦讖, active ca. 164–186 CE), who came from the
ancient Buddhist kingdom of Gandhāra. Lokakṣema translated important Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Aṣṭasāhasrikā
Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, as well as rare, early Mahāyāna sūtras on topics such as samādhi and meditation on the buddha
Akṣobhya. These translations from Lokakṣema continue to give insight into the early period of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
Chinese pilgrims to India

From the 4th century onward, Chinese pilgrims also started to travel on the Silk Road to India, the origin of Buddhism, by
themselves in order to get improved access to the original scriptures. According to Chinese sources, the first Chinese to be
ordained was Zhu Zixing, after he went to Central Asia in 260 to seek out Buddhism.
It is only from the 4th century CE that Chinese Buddhist monks started to travel to India to discover Buddhism first-hand.
Faxian's pilgrimage to India (395–414) is said to have been the first significant one. He left along the Silk Road, stayed six
years in India, and then returned by the sea route. Xuanzang (629–644) and Hyecho traveled from Korea to India.[15]
The most famous of the Chinese pilgrims is Xuanzang (629–644), whose large and precise translation work defines a "new
translation period", in contrast with older Central Asian works. He also left a detailed account of his travels in Central Asia
and India. The legendary accounts of the holy priest Xuanzang were described in the famous novel Journey to the West,
which envisaged trials of the journey with demons but with the help of various disciples.
Merchants
During the fifth and sixth centuries C.E., Merchants played a large role in the spread of religion, in particular Buddhism.
Merchants found the moral and ethical teachings of Buddhism to be an appealing alternative to previous religions. As a
result, Merchants supported Buddhist Monasteries along the Silk Roads and in return the Buddhists gave the Merchants
somewhere to stay as they traveled from city to city. As a result, Merchants spread Buddhism to foreign encounters as they
traveled.[16] Merchants also helped to establish diaspora within the communities they encountered and overtime their
cultures became based on Buddhism. Because of this, these communities became centers of literacy and culture with well
organized marketplaces, lodging, and storage.[17] The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism essentially ended around the
7th century with the rise of Islam in Central Asia.
Decline
Buddhism in Central Asia began to decline in the 7th century in the course of the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana. A
turning point was the Battle of Talas of 751. This development also resulted in the extinction of the local Tocharian
Buddhist culture in the Tarim Basin during the 8th century.
The Silk Road transmission between Eastern and Indian Buddhism thus came to an end in the 8th century, on one hand
because Islam in Central Asia repressed Buddhism along the Silk Road itself, but also because Buddhism in both India and
China were in decline by that time.
From the 9th century onward, therefore, the various schools of Buddhism which survived began to evolve independently
of one another. The vigorous Chinese culture progressively absorbed Buddhist teachings until a strongly Chinese
particularism developed. In the eastern Tarim Basin, Central Asian Buddhism survived into the later medieval period as
the religion of the Uyghur Kara-Khoja Kingdom (see also Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves), and Buddhism became one
of the religions in the Mongol Empire and the Chagatai Khanate, and via the Oirats eventually the religion of the Kalmyks,
who settled at the Caspian in the 17th century. Otherwise, Central Asian Buddhism survived mostly in Tibet and in
Mongolia.
Artistic influences
Central Asian missionary efforts along the Silk Road were accompanied by a
flux of artistic influences, visible in the development of Serindian art from the
2nd to the 11th century CE in the Tarim Basin, modern Xinjiang.
Serindian art often derives from the Greco-Buddhist art of the Gandhāra
district of what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan, combining Indian and Greek
influences.
Highly sinicized forms of this syncretism can also be found on the eastern
portions of the Tarim Basin, such as in Dunhuang.
"Heroic gesture of the Bodhisattva",

Silk Road artistic influences can be found as far as Japan to this day, in
6th–7th century terracotta, Tumshuq
architectural motifs or representations of Japanese gods (see Greco-Buddhist
(Xinjiang)
art).
Buddhism in the Book of Later Han

The (5th century) Book of the Later Han, compiled by Fan Ye (398-446 CE), documented early Chinese Buddhism. This
history records that around 65 CE, Buddhism was practiced in the courts of both Emperor Ming of Han (r. 58-75 CE) at
Luoyang (modern Henan) and, his half-brother, King Ying (r. 41-70 CE) of Chu at Pengcheng (modern Jiangsu).
The Book of Han has given rise to discussions on the maritime or overland transmission of Buddhism, and the origins of
Buddhism in India or China.
The Book of Han

First, the Book of the Later Han biography of Liu Ying, the King of Chu, gives the oldest reference to Buddhism in Chinese
historical literature. It says Ying was both deeply interested in Huang-Lao 黄老 (from Yellow Emperor and Laozi) Daoism
and "observed fasting and performed sacrifices to the Buddha."[18] Huang-Lao or Huanglaozi 黄老子 is the deification of
Laozi, and was associated with fangshi "technician; magician; alchemist" methods and xian "transcendent; immortal"
techniques. "To Liu Ying and the Chinese devotees at his court the "Buddhist" ceremonies of fasting and sacrifices were
probably no more than a variation of existing Daoist practices; this peculiar mixture of Buddhist and Daoist elements
remains characteristic of Han Buddhism as a whole."[19]
In 65 CE, Emperor Ming decreed that anyone suspected of capital crimes would be given an opportunity for redemption,
and King Ying sent thirty rolls of silk. The biography quotes Ming's edict praising his younger brother:
The king of Chu recites the subtle words of Huanglao, and respectfully performs the gentle sacrifices to the
Buddha. After three months of purification and fasting, he has made a solemn covenant (or: a vow 誓) with
the spirits. What dislike or suspicion (from Our part) could there be, that he must repent (of his sins)? Let
(the silk which he sent for) redemption be sent back, in order thereby to contribute to the lavish
entertainment of the upāsakas (yipusai 伊蒲塞) and śramaṇa (sangmen 桑門).[20][b]
In 70 CE, King Ying was implicated in rebellion and sentenced to death, but Ming instead exiled him and his courtiers
south to Danyang (Anhui), where Ying committed suicide in 71 CE. The Buddhist community at Pencheng survived, and
around 193 CE, the warlord Zhai Rong built a huge Buddhist temple, "which could contain more than three thousand
people, who all studied and read Buddhist scriptures."[22]
Second, Fan Ye's Book of Later Han quotes a "current" (5th-century) tradition that Emperor Ming prophetically dreamed
about a "golden man" Buddha. While "The Kingdom of Tianzhu" section (above) recorded his famous dream, the "Annals
of Emperor Ming" history did not. Apocryphal texts give divergent accounts about the imperial envoys sent to India, their
return with two Buddhist monks, Sanskrit sutras (including Sutra of Forty-two Chapters) carried by white horses, and
establishing the White Horse Temple.
Maritime or overland transmission

Since the Book of Later Han present two accounts of how Buddhism entered Han China, generations of scholars have
debated whether monks first arrived via the maritime or overland routes of the Silk Road.
The maritime route hypothesis, favored by Liang Qichao and Paul Pelliot, proposed that Buddhism was originally
introduced in southern China, the Yangtze River and Huai River region, where King Ying of Chu was worshipping Laozi
and Buddha c. 65 CE. The overland route hypothesis, favored by Tang Yongtong, proposed that Buddhism disseminated
eastward through Yuezhi and was originally practiced in western China, at the Han capital Luoyang where Emperor Ming
established the White Horse Temple c. 68 CE.
The historian Rong Xinjiang reexamined the overland and maritime hypotheses through a multi-disciplinary review of
recent discoveries and research, including the Gandhāran Buddhist Texts, and concluded:
The view that Buddhism was transmitted to China by the sea route comparatively lacks convincing and
supporting materials, and some arguments are not sufficiently rigorous [...] the most plausible theory is that
Buddhism started from the Greater Yuezhi of northwest India (present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan) and
took the land roads to reach Han China. After entering into China, Buddhism blended with early Daoism
and Chinese traditional esoteric arts and its iconography received blind worship.[23]
Origins of Buddhism
Fan Ye's Commentary noted that neither of the Former Han histories – the (109-91 BCE) Records or the Grand Historian
(which records Zhang Qian visiting Central Asia) and (111 CE) Book of Han (compiled by Ban Yong) – described
Buddhism originating in India:[24]
Zhang Qian noted only that: 'this country is hot and humid. The people ride elephants into battle.' Although
Ban Yong explained that they revere the Buddha, and neither kill nor fight, he has recording nothing about
the excellent texts, virtuous Law, and meritorious teachings and guidance. As for myself, here is what I have
heard: This kingdom is even more flourishing than China. The seasons are in harmony. Saintly beings
descend and congregate there. Great Worthies arise there. Strange and extraordinary marvels occur such
that human reason is suspended. By examining and exposing the emotions, one can reach beyond the
highest heavens.[25]
In the Book of Later Han, "The Kingdom of Tianzhu" (天竺, Northwest India) section of "The Chronicle of the Western
Regions" summarizes the origins of Buddhism in China. After noting Tianzhu envoys coming by sea through Rinan (日南,
Central Vietnam) and presenting tribute to Emperor He of Han (r. 89-105 CE) and Emperor Huan of Han (r. 147-167 CE),
it summarizes the first "hard evidence" about Prince Ying and "official" story about Emperor Ming:[26]
There is a current tradition that Emperor Ming dreamed that he saw a tall golden man the top of whose head
was glowing. He questioned his group of advisors and one of them said: "In the West there is a god called
Buddha. His body is sixteen chi high (3.7 metres or 12 feet), and is the colour of true gold." The Emperor, to
discover the true doctrine, sent an envoy to Tianzhu (Northwestern India) to inquire about the Buddha's
doctrine, after which paintings and statues [of the Buddha] appeared in the Middle Kingdom.
Then Ying, the king of Chu [a dependent kingdom which he ruled 41-71 CE], began to believe in this
Practice, following which quite a few people in the Middle Kingdom began following this Path. Later on,
Emperor Huan [147-167 CE] devoted himself to sacred things and often made sacrifices to the Buddha and
Laozi. People gradually began to accept [Buddhism] and, later, they became numerous.[27]
Buddhism in apocryphal traditions

Despite secular Chinese histories dating the introduction of Buddhism in the 1st
century, some apocryphal Buddhist texts and traditions claim earlier dates in the Qin
Dynasty (221-206 BCE) or Former Han Dynasty (208 BCE-9 CE).
Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE)

One apocryphal story, first appearing in the (597 CE) Lidai sanbao ji 歷代三寶紀 ,
concerns a group of Buddhist priests who supposedly arrived in 217 BCE at the capital
of Qin Shi Huang in Xianyang (near Xi'an). The monks, led by the shramana Shilifang
室李防, presented sutras to the First Emperor, who had them put in jail:
But at night the prison was broken open by a Golden Man, sixteen feet Mogao Caves 8th-century
high, who released them. Moved by this miracle, the emperor bowed his mural depicting the
head to the ground and excused himself.[28] pseudohistorical legend of
Emperor Wu of Han
worshipping "golden man"
The (668 CE) Fayuan Zhulin Buddhist encyclopedia elaborates this legend with Buddha statues.
Mauryan emperor Ashoka the Great sending Shilifang to China.[29] With the exception
of Liang Qichao, most modern sinologists dismiss this Shilifang story. Some western
historians believe Emperor Ashoka sent Buddhist missionaries to China, citing the (ca. 265) 13th Rock Edict that records
missions to Greece, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.[30] Others disagree, "As far as we can gather from the inscriptions he [Ashoka]
was ignorant of the very existence of China."[31]
Han Dynasty
There is a Chinese tradition that in 2 BCE, a Yuezhi envoy to the court of Emperor Ai of Han transmitted one or more
Buddhist sutras to a Chinese scholar. The earliest version derives from the lost (mid-3rd century) Weilüe, quoted in Pei
Songzhi's commentary to the (429 CE) Records of Three Kingdoms: "the student at the imperial academy Jing Lu 景盧
received from Yicun 伊存, the envoy of the king of the Great Yuezhi oral instruction in (a) Buddhist sutra(s)."[32] Since Han
histories do not mention Emperor Ai having contacts with the Yuezhi, scholars disagree whether this tradition "deserves
serious consideration",[33] or can be "reliable material for historical research".[34]
The dream of Emperor Ming

Many apocryphal sources recount the "pious legend" of Emperor Ming dreaming about Buddha, sending envoys to Yuezhi
(on a date variously given as 60, 61, 64 or 68 CE), and their return (3 or 11 years later) with sacred texts and the first
Buddhist missionaries, Kāśyapa Mātanga (Shemoteng 攝摩騰 or Jiashemoteng 迦葉摩騰) and Dharmaratna (Zhu Falan 竺
法蘭). They translated the "Sutra in Forty-two Sections" into Chinese, traditionally dated 67 CE but probably later than
100,[35] the emperor built the White Horse Temple (Baimasi 白馬寺 ) in their honor, and Chinese Buddhism began. All
accounts of Emperor Ming's dream and Yuezhi embassy derive from the anonymous (middle 3rd-century) introduction to
the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters.[36] For example, the (late 3rd to early 5th-century) Mouzi Lihuolun says,[37]
In olden days emperor Ming saw in a dream a god whose body had the brilliance of the sun and who flew
before his palace; and he rejoiced exceedingly at this. The next day he asked his officials: "What god is this?"
the scholar Fu Yi said: "Your subject has heard it said that in India there is somebody who has attained the
Tao and who is called Buddha; he flies in the air, his body had the brilliance of the sun; this must be that
god.[38]
Academics disagree over the historicity of Emperor Ming's dream; Tang Yongtong sees a possible nucleus of fact behind
the tradition, and Henri Maspero rejects it as propagandistic fiction.
Emperor Wu and The Golden Man

Exemplifying how traditional accounts of Chinese Buddhism sometimes combined history and legend, the Book of Han
records that in 121 BCE, Emperor Wu of Han sent general Huo Qubing to attack the Xiongnu. Huo defeated the people of
prince Xiutu 休屠 (in modern-day Gansu) and "captured a golden (or gilded) man used by the King of Hsiu-t'u to worship
Heaven."[39] Xiutu's son was taken prisoner, but eventually became a favorite retainer of Emperor Wu and was granted the
name Jin Midi, with his surname Jin 金 "gold" supposedly referring to the "golden man."[40] The golden statue was later
moved to the Yunyang 雲陽 Temple, near the royal summer palace Ganquan 甘泉 (modern Xianyang, Shaanxi).[41]
The (c. 6th century) A New Account of the Tales of the World claims this golden man was more than ten feet high, and
Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141-87 BCE) sacrificed to it in the Ganquan 甘泉 palace, which "is how Buddhism gradually spread
into (China)."[42][c]
See also
Greco-Buddhism
Kushan Empire
Notes
a. "In former times, the people of Fusang knew nothing of the Buddhist religion, but in the second year of Da Ming of the
Song dynasty (485 CE), five monks from Kipin (Kabul region of Gandhara) traveled by ship to that country. They
propagated Buddhist doctrine, circulated scriptures and drawings, and advised the people to relinquish worldly
attachments. As a results the customs of Fusang changed." Ch: "其俗舊無佛法,宋大明二年,罽賓國嘗有比丘五人游行
至其國,流通佛法,經像,教令出家,風俗遂改.", Liang Shu "History of the Liang Dynasty, 7th century CE)
b. "These two Sanskrit terms, given in the Chinese text in phonetic transcription, refer to lay adepts and to Buddhist
monks, respectively";[21] and show detailed knowledge of Buddhist terminology.
c. The (8th century) fresco discovered in the Mogao caves (near Dunhuang in the Tarim Basin) that depicts Emperor Wu
worshipping two Buddhist statues, "identified as 'golden men' obtained in 120 BCE by a great Han general during his
campaigns against the nomads". Although Emperor Wu did establish the Dunhuang commandery, "he never
worshipped the Buddha."[43]
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California Press, ISBN 0-520-21972-4. pp. 54-55.
13. Soothill, William Edward; Hodous, Lewis (1995), A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, London: RoutledgeCurzon
https://web.archive.org/web/20140303182232/http://buddhistinformatics.ddbc.edu.tw/glossaries/files/soothill-
hodous.ddbc.pdf
14. Joe Cribb, 1974, "Chinese lead ingots with barbarous Greek inscriptions in Coin Hoards" pp.76-8 [1] (https://www.aca
demia.edu/33859218/Chinese_lead_ingots_with_barbarous_Greek_inscriptions_in_Coin_Hoards_vol.IV_London_19
78_pp.76-8?auto=download)
15. Ancient Silk Road Travellers (http://www.silk-road.com/artl/srtravelmain.shtml)
16. Jerry H. Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1993), 43-44.
17. Jerry H. Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1993), 48.
18. Zürcher (1972), p. 26.
19. Zürcher (1972), p. 27. Compare Maspero (1981), p. 405.
20. Tr. by Zürcher (1972), p. 27.
21. Demiéville (1986), p. 821.
22. Zürcher (1972), p. 28.
23. Rong Xinjiang, 2004, Land Route or Sea Route? Commentary on the Study of the Paths of Transmission and Areas
in which Buddhism Was Disseminated during the Han Period (http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp144_han_dyn
asty_buddhism.pdf), tr. by Xiuqin Zhou, Sino-Platonic Papers 144, pp. 26–27.
24. Zürcher (1972), p. 26.
25. Tr. by Hill (2009), pp. 56–57.
26. Zürcher (1990), p. 159.
27. Hill (2009), p. 31. Compare the account in Yang Xuanzhi's (6th-century) Luoyang qielan ji 洛陽伽藍記 (http://www.chin
aknowledge.de/Literature/Religion/luoyangqielanji.html), tr. by Ulrich Theobald.
28. Zürcher (2007), p. 20.
29. Saunders (1923), p. 158.
30. Draper (1995).
31. Williams (2005), p. 57.
32. Tr. by Zürcher (2007), p. 24.
33. Draft translation of the Weilüe by John E. Hill (2004) The Peoples of the West (http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/te
xts/weilue/notes4_6.html#6_10).
34. Zürcher (2007), p. 25.
35. Demieville (1986), p. 824.
36. Zürcher (2007), p. 22.
37. Zürcher (2007), p. 14.
38. Tr. by Henri Maspero, 1981, Taoism and Chinese Religion, tr. by Frank A. Kierman Jr., University of Massachusetts
Press, p. 402.
39. Tr. Dubs (1937), 4-5.
40. Dubs (1937), 4-5.
41. Dubs (1937), 5-6.
42. Zürcher (2007), p. 21.
43. Whitfield et al (2000), p. 19.
Sources
Demieville, Paul (1986). "Philosophy and Religion from Han to Sui", in The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the
Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC. – AD. 220. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge University
Press. Pp. 808–873.
Draper, Gerald (1995). The contribution of the Emperor Asoka Maurya to the development of the humanitarian ideal in
warfare (http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/57jmf2.htm). International Review of the Red Cross, No.
305.
Dubs, Homer H. (1937). The "Golden Man" of Former Han Times (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4527117). T'oung Pao
33.1: 1-14.
Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to
2nd Centuries CE. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.
Michael C. Howard (23 February 2012). Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies: The Role of Cross-
Border Trade and Travel (https://books.google.com/books?id=6QPWXrCCzBIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge
_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-9033-2.
Loewe, Michael (1986). "The Religious and Intellectual Background", in The Cambridge History of China: Volume I:
the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC. – AD. 220, 649–725. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge
University Press.
Richard H. Robinson; Sandra Ann Wawrytko; Ṭhānissaro (Bhikkhu.) (1996). The Buddhist Religion: A Historical
Introduction (https://books.google.com/books?id=LhUSAQAAIAAJ&q=774+787+srivijaya&dq=774+787+srivijaya&hl=
en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiyxPC198vOAhVHDsAKHWoNB6I4KBDoAQhEMAY). Wadsworth Publishing Company.
ISBN 978-0-534-20718-2.
Saunders, Kenneth J. (1923). "Buddhism in China: A Historical Sketch", The Journal of Religion, Vol. 3.2, pp. 157–
169; Vol. 3.3, pp. 256–275.
Tansen Sen (January 2003). Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600-1400
(https://books.google.com/books?id=blBTHAY_A4wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=774+787+srivijaya&hl=en&sa=X&ved
=0ahUKEwiyxPC198vOAhVHDsAKHWoNB6I4KBDoAQhLMAc#v=onepage&q&f=false). University of Hawaii Press.
ISBN 978-0-8248-2593-5.
Whitfield, Roderick, Whitfield, Susan, and Agnew, Neville (2000). Cave temples of Mogao: art and history on the silk
road (https://books.google.com/books?id=vYPNqlAMZWAC). Getty Publications.
Williams, Paul (2005). Buddhism: Buddhist origins and the early history of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=g5wEgIvqQq8C). Taylor & Francis.
Zürcher, Erik (2007). The Buddhist Conquest of China (https://web.archive.org/web/20120323141311/http://wxy.seu.e
du.cn/humanities/sociology/htmledit/uploadfile/system/20100823/20100823130907854.pdf), 3rd ed. Leiden. E. J. Brill.
1st ed. 1959, 2nd ed. 1972.
Zürcher, E. (1990). "Han Buddhism and the Western Region", in Thought and Law in Qin and Han China: Studies
Dedicated to Anthony Hulsewe on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, ed by W.L. Idema and E. Zurcher, Brill,
pp. 158–182.
Further reading
Christoph Baumer, China's Holy Mountain: An Illustrated Journey into the Heart of Buddhism. I.B.Tauris, London
2011. ISBN 978-1-84885-700-1
Richard Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road, Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edition, 2010, ISBN 978-0-230-62125-1
Sally Hovey Wriggins, The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang, Westview Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8133-6599-6
JIBIN, JI BIN ROUTE AND CHINA (http://www.icomos.org/xian2005/papers/4-26.pdf)
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4/23/2018 Silk Road transmission of Buddhism - Wikipedia

Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

Direct contact between Central Asian and Chinese Buddhism

Buddhism in apocryphal traditions

The transmission of Buddhism

It may be assumed that travelers or pilgrims

Extensive contacts however started in the 2nd century CE,

Central Asian missionaries

The first documented translation of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese occurs in

Chinese pilgrims to India

"Heroic gesture of the Bodhisattva",

Buddhism in the Book of Later Han

The Book of Han

Maritime or overland transmission

Buddhism in apocryphal traditions

Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE)

The dream of Emperor Ming

Emperor Wu and The Golden Man

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Silk_Road_transmission_of_Buddhism&oldid=836126505"

This page was last edited on 12 April 2018, at 20:32.

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