高僧傳 1.5

1.5

漢永平中，明皇帝夜夢金人飛空而至，乃大集群臣，以占所夢。通人傅毅奉答：「臣聞西域有神，其名曰『佛』。陛下所夢將必是乎。」帝以為然，即遣郎中蔡愔、博士弟子秦景等。使往天竺，尋訪佛法。愔等於彼遇見摩騰，乃要還漢地。騰誓志弘通，不憚疲苦，冒涉流沙，至乎雒邑，明帝甚加賞接，於城西門外立精舍以處之，漢地有沙門之始也。但大法初傳，未有歸信，故蘊其深解，無所宣述。後少時卒於雒陽。有記云：騰譯《四十二章經》一卷。初緘在蘭臺石室第十四間中。騰所住處，今雒陽城西雍門外白馬寺是也。相傳云：外國國王嘗毀破諸寺，唯招提寺未及毀壞。夜有一白馬繞塔悲鳴，即以啟王，王即停壞諸寺。因改招提以為「白馬」。故諸寺立名多取則焉。

During the Yongping era of the Han, Emperor Ming dreamed at night of a golden man flying down through the air, whereupon he gathered the assembly of ministers to divine the dream. The broadly learned Fu Yi respectfully replied: 'Your servant has heard that in the Western Regions there is a divine being whose name is "Buddha". Could what Your Majesty dreamed perhaps be this?' The emperor considered it to be so, and immediately dispatched the Court Gentleman Cai Yin, the Academician's disciple Qin Jing, and others on an embassy to Tianzhu to seek out the Buddhadharma. Yin and his companions met Mātaṅga there and invited him to return to the land of Han. Mātaṅga vowed to propagate [the Dharma] far and wide; undaunted by toil and hardship, he braved the shifting sands and arrived at Luoyi. Emperor Ming rewarded and received him with great esteem, erecting a vihāra outside the west gate of the city to lodge him. This was the beginning of the presence of śramaṇas in the land of Han. However, as the great Dharma had just been introduced and there was as yet no faith and devotion, he kept his profound understanding concealed and had nothing to proclaim. A short while later, he died in Luoyang. There is a record that says: Mātaṅga translated one fascicle of the Sūtra of Forty-two Sections, which was originally sealed in the fourteenth compartment of the Stone Chamber of the Orchid Pavilion. The place where Mātaṅga resided is today's Baima Temple outside the Yongmen gate in the west of Luoyang city. Tradition has it that a king of a foreign state once demolished various monasteries, leaving only the Cāturdiśa Monastery not yet destroyed. At night, a white horse circled the stūpa, neighing sorrowfully. When this was reported to the king, the king immediately stopped destroying the monasteries. Thereupon, he changed the name of the Cāturdiśa Monastery to 'White Horse' (Baima). For this reason, the naming of many monasteries often followed this model.