Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c13.s3.t2.60

v2.c13.s3.t2.60

River. It was situated on the only route on the Silk Road for Buddhist monks and merchants going between India and China. *Juan* 97 of the Chinese work ‘*Bei Shi*’ said, “Udyàna was south of Shemi. In the north were the Pamirs and south was India.” Faxian said in his *Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms*, “Udyàna was due north of India, and people there all spoke Middle Indic.” Eminent monks, Song Yun and Huisheng, when they went west on pilgrimage in 518, met the king when they passed Udyàna. According to the *Records of the Luoyang Temples - Ningxuan Temple*, while talking about their own country they told him about “the morals of Zhou Gong, Confucius, Zhuangzi and Laozi... the cure of diseases by Hua Tuo and the necromancy of Zuo Ci”. This was supposed to have excited the king, and he said, “what you have spoken about is the country of Buddhism and I would like to be born in that country in my next life.” Besides, they also “spent from their travelling expenses and built a statue of Buddha on the mountain top and made a stone engraving to record the merits and virtues of the Wei dynasty.”