佛祖統紀 35.27

35.27

Earlier, the Emperor heard that there was a spirit in the Western Regions whose name was the Buddha. He thereupon sent envoys to Tianzhu to seek his way, obtaining his books and bringing back śramaṇas. His books generally take emptiness and non-being as their principle and value compassion and not killing. They hold that when a person dies the spirit is not annihilated, but subsequently assumes another physical form; the good and evil deeds performed during life all have their retribution. Therefore, what they value is cultivating and refining the spirit to become a Buddha. They excel at grand, broad, and magnanimous words to persuade and guide the ignorant masses. Those skilled in this way are called śramaṇas. Thereupon this teaching began to be transmitted and his image painted in China; among kings, dukes, and nobles, Liu Ying, Prince of Chu, was the very first to take pleasure in it (The Zizhi tongjian cites the "Treatise on the Western Regions" and the note to the "Biography of Liu Ying, Prince of Chu"). Fan Ye's commentary in the "Treatise on the Western Regions" states: "The spiritual transformation of the Buddhist way arose in Shendu, yet the geographical records of the Western Han did not mention it (The Book of Rites says: 'The governance of King Wen and King Wu is laid out on the wooden tablets and bamboo slips'; the commentary says that fāng means wooden tablets, cè means bamboo slips. In the Han, Zhang Cang was an Imperial Censor, in charge of the fāng-writings beneath the pillars; it also says: 'respectfully attach the matter to the left fāng'; both are wood, hence now called fāngzhì, recorded upon wooden tablets). Zhang Qian only noted that the land was humid and hot, and that they rode elephants into battle; Ban Chao only listed their honoring the Futu and not killing, yet the efficacy of their refined writings and good Dharma in guiding people to happiness was not transmitted. What I have heard later describes that country as more prosperous than the Central Lands, where the harmonious qi of the jade balance causes divine spirits to descend and congregate, and where the worthy and fine are born. Its miraculous traces are strange and extraordinary, so their principle transcends the human realm; its resonant verifications are clear and manifest, so their affairs emerge beyond heaven. Yet Qian and Chao had heard nothing of them—was it not that the Way was closed in past eras, and destiny unfolded only in later times?" (and so forth).