Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c4.s2.18

v1.c4.s2.18

In the 3^rd century CE, Chinese began to go westward to seek the dharma. Zhu Shixing set out in 260 and crossed the Gobi Desert to arrive at Khotan which was near India and had many Indian residents. There Zhu Shixing found a sutra in Sanskrit and asked someone to bring it back to China, while he remained in Khotan. About 20 years later, Dharmaraksa went to the Western Regions for Buddhist sutras and there he visited various kingdoms and collected many sutras. He was said to have learnt as many as 36 languages. A number of years later, he took 165 Sanskrit sutras back to China and translated them and preached Buddhist doctrines in Dunhuang, Chang'an and other places.