On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s1.28

v1.c8.s1.28

Now on earth, when the "lights of night" succeed the setting of the sun, there are stars, and there is the moon. The stars, however, have only a shining, the brightness of a glow. But the moon has a light which illuminates and influences the world, and which transcends in brightness all other lights of the night. So other lands have had sporadic sages who made a glory for themselves revolving each in his own peculiar eccentric orbit. But India had a regular succession of great Sages who 'followed the great wheel' of ancient authority, each successor only expounding, renewing, or developing the wise teachings of his divine or human predecessors; thus keeping the light of primitive revelation shining among mortals. In Buddhist writings the Buddha is often compared to the moon, while the stars are sometimes the rival teachers of his time, and occasionally his own great disciples.