釋迦方志 2.79

2.79

一謂。前漢武帝。遣博望侯張騫。尋黃河之源。從北道入大宛至大夏。見笻竹杖蜀布。國人云之身毒。身毒即天竺之訛語也。後漢書云。其國殷平和氣。靈智所降賢懿挺生。神迹詭怪理絕人區。感驗明顯事出天外。而騫超無聞者。豈其道閉往運數開叔葉乎。

The first: Emperor Wu of the Former Han dispatched Zhang Qian, the Marquis of Bowang, to trace the source of the Yellow River. Entering Dayuan from the Northern Route, he arrived at Daxia, where he saw bamboo walking-sticks from Qiong and cloth from Shu. The people of the kingdom called it Shendu; Shendu is a corrupted pronunciation of Tianzhu. The Book of the Later Han states that this kingdom is prosperous and peaceful, where spiritual wisdom descends and virtuous sages exceptionally arise; its divine traces are wondrous and strange, transcending the human sphere, and its resonant proofs are manifest, its events surpassing the world. But as for why Qian heard nothing of this—could it be that its Way was concealed in past eras, and its destiny was to open only in later generations?