法苑珠林 12.94

12.94

後漢明帝時。雒陽白馬寺有攝摩騰。本中天竺人。善風儀。解大小乘經。常游化為任。至漢永平三年中。明皇帝夜夢。金人飛空而至。乃大集群臣以占所夢。通人傅毅奉答。臣聞西域有神。其名曰佛。陛下所夢。將必是乎。帝以為然。即遣中郎蔡愔博士弟子秦景等。使往天竺尋訪佛法。愔等於彼遇見摩騰。乃邀還漢地。騰誓志弘通不憚疲苦。冐涉流沙至乎雒邑。明帝甚加賞。接於城西門外。別立精舍以處之。漢地有沙門之始也。

In the time of Emperor Ming of the Later Han, there was Shemoteng at Baima Temple in Luoyang. Originally a person of Central India, he was of noble deportment, understood the scriptures of both the Great and Small Vehicles, and constantly took traveling and proselytizing as his duty. In the third year of the Yongping era of the Han, Emperor Ming dreamed at night of a golden man flying through the air to arrive. He then assembled the multitude of ministers to divine the dream. The erudite Fu Yi replied, "Your subject has heard that in the Western Regions there is a divine being whose name is Buddha. What Your Majesty dreamed of must surely be him." The Emperor thought it was so and immediately dispatched the Court Gentleman Cai Yin, the disciple of the Erudite Qin Jing, and others as envoys to India to seek out the Buddha's Dharma. Yin and the others encountered Moteng there and invited him to return to the Han territory. Moteng vowed to promulgate the Dharma without fearing fatigue or suffering, braving the shifting sands to reach the city of Luoyi. Emperor Ming rewarded him generously, receiving him outside the western city gate, where a separate vihāra was built to house him. This was the beginning of śramaṇas in the Han territory.