佛祖統紀 35.15

35.15

述曰。蘇由對昭王。扈多對穆。孔子答商太宰。皆言西方聖人。而不明言為佛。霍去病獲金人亦不知為佛。化人勸穆王造迦葉佛像。由余對秦繆公。則曰佛神。室利房齎佛經化始皇。劉向校書天祿見有佛經。景憲使月氏得浮圖經。此則已言佛而未行其教。皆在漢明帝感夢求佛之前。天下答南山。蘇由扈多傅毅。皆佛所使也。至言劉向見有佛經者。意張騫使大夏。去病獲金人必有佛經與之俱至。特時人弗行。國史弗錄耳。不然則不應天祿有其書也。

The commentary states: Su You replied to King Zhao; Hu Duo replied to King Mu; Confucius answered the Grand Chancellor of Shang: they all spoke of a 'Sage in the West' without explicitly calling him the Buddha. When Huo Qubing obtained the golden human statue, he also did not know it was the Buddha. The transformed man urged King Mu to make an image of Kāśyapa Buddha. You Yu, answering Duke Mu of Qin, called him the 'Spirit of the Buddha'. Śrībandhu carried Buddhist scriptures to convert the First Emperor of Qin. Liu Xiang catalogued books in the Tianlu Pavilion and saw Buddhist scriptures there. Jing Xian went on an embassy to the Yuezhi and obtained the Futu jing. These already named the Buddha, yet his teachings were not yet practiced; all occurred before Emperor Ming of the Han was moved by his dream to seek the Buddha. When the gods answered Nanshan [Daoxuan], they said that Su You, Hu Duo, and Fu Yi were all sent by the Buddha. As for the statement that Liu Xiang saw Buddhist sūtras, it is likely that when Zhang Qian went on an embassy to Daxia, and Huo Qubing obtained the golden human statue, Buddhist sūtras must have arrived along with them; it was merely that the people of the time did not practice them, and the national histories did not record them. Otherwise, those books should not have been present in the Tianlu Pavilion.