弘明集 1.30

1.30

問曰。漢地始聞佛道。其所從出耶。牟子曰。昔孝明皇帝。夢見神人。身有日光飛在殿前。欣然悅之。明日博問群臣。此為何神。有通人傅毅曰。臣聞天竺有得道者號曰佛。飛行虛空。身有日光。殆將其神也。於是上寤。遣中郎蔡愔羽林郎中秦景博士弟子王遵等十八人。於大月支。寫佛經四十二章。藏在蘭臺石室第十四間。時於洛陽城西雍門外起佛寺。於其壁畫千乘萬騎繞塔三匝。又於南宮清涼臺。及開陽城門上作佛像。明帝時豫修造壽陵曰。顯節亦於其上作佛圖像。時國豐民寧遠夷慕義。學者由此而滋。

The questioner said: "When the Dao of the Buddha was first heard in the land of the Han, from where did it originate?" Mouzi said: "Formerly, the Filial Emperor Ming dreamed that he saw a divine man with sunlight on his body flying before the palace hall, and he was delighted by it. The next day, he questioned all his ministers extensively: 'What god is this?' A man of broad knowledge, Fu Yi, said: 'Your servant has heard that in Tianzhu there is one who attained the Dao, called the Buddha. He flies through empty space and has sunlight on his body. It was likely that deity.' Thereupon the Emperor awoke to this. He dispatched the Palace Gentleman Cai Yin, the Forest of Plumes Gentleman Qin Jing, the Doctoral Disciple Wang Zun, and others, eighteen men in all, to the Da Yuezhi, to copy the Buddhist Scripture in Forty-two Chapters and deposit it in the fourteenth chamber of the stone archive of Lantai. At that time, a Buddhist monastery was founded outside the Yong Gate to the west of Luoyang city, and on its walls was painted a thousand chariots and ten thousand horsemen encircling the stūpa three times. Furthermore, Buddha statues were made on the Qingliang Terrace of the Southern Palace and above the Kaiyang City Gate. At that time, Emperor Ming had his longevity tomb constructed in advance, called Xianjie, and had Buddhist images and portraits painted upon it as well. At that time, the state was affluent, the people were peaceful, and distant foreigners yearned for righteousness; scholars increased because of this."