高僧傳 1.5

1.5

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.