廣弘明集 9.52

9.52

The Huahu jing says: The Bodhisattva Kāśyapa said: "Five hundred years after the Tathāgata's parinirvāṇa, I traveled east and transmitted the Dao to Han Pingzi, who ascended to heaven in broad daylight. Another two hundred years later, I transmitted the Dao to Zhang Ling. Another two hundred years later, I transmitted the Dao to Jianpingzi. Another two hundred years later, I transmitted it to Wushi. After that, toward the end of the Han dynasty, standards declined and my Dao was not honored. Coming to the jiazi year, the seventh year of the Yongping reign of Emperor Ming of the Han, a star appeared in the daytime, and at night Emperor Ming dreamed of a spiritual being sixteen feet tall with the light of the sun behind his neck. In the morning, he asked his ministers. Fu Yi said: 'In the west, the crown prince of a barbarian king attained the Way and was called Buddha.' Emperor Ming then dispatched Zhang Qian and others to exhaust the sources of the Yellow River. Passing through thirty-six kingdoms, they reached Śrāvastī. The Buddha had already entered nirvāṇa. They copied 605,000 words of scriptures, and returned in the eighteenth year of Yongping."