集神州三寶感通錄 2.4

2.4

First, examining the Records of Unseen Auspicious Signs by Wang Yan of the Southern Qi: It states that Emperor Ming of the Han dreamed of a divine person nearly twenty feet tall, golden in color, with the radiance of the sun circling his neck. He asked his ministers about it, and someone replied, 'In the west there is a deity named the Buddha, whose form is like what Your Majesty dreamed; could it not be this?' Thereupon, envoys were dispatched to India to copy and bring back scriptures and images to make them known in China. From the Son of Heaven down to the princes and marquises, all served them with reverence. Hearing that upon a person's death the spiritual consciousness is not extinguished, there were none who were not terrified and lost in awe. At first, the envoy Cai Yin, accompanied by the Western Regions' śramaṇa Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and others, brought a painted seated image of Śākyamuni made by King Udayana. The emperor valued it highly, as it was just like what he had seen in his dream. He then dispatched painters to make several copies of it, to be venerated at the Qingliang Terrace of the Southern Palace and atop the Xianjie Longevity Tomb at the Gaoyang Gate. Furthermore, on the walls of Baima Temple, an image was painted of a thousand chariots and ten thousand cavalry circling the stūpa three times, as is fully recorded in the various biographies.