An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c8.s2.t3: C. Buddhism in China.
An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c8.s2.t3
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C. Buddhism in China.
c8.s2.t3.1
§ 130. Buddhism does not seem to have made rapid progress in China for some two or three centuries; yet it is clear that large efforts were made to win the people. Some reflection of the activities of the Missionaries may be found in the long lists of translations carried out during the two centuries under review.³ Most of the sūtras selected for translation are quite short, and deal with the simpler elements of Buddhist teaching or with practical questions touching life and discipline. They are taken from Mahāyāna as well as from Hīnayāna sources, the first text translated, *The Sūtra of Forty-two Sections*,⁴ being a compendium of Buddhist teaching drawn from many books. There are only four noteworthy translators during the period, and their extraction is significant; two of them, Kāśyapa Matānga and Lokaraksha,⁵ were Indians, An Shi-Kao was a Parthian prince, while Ch'Yao was probably a Kushan.
c8.s2.t3.2
³ Nanjio, cols. 379-85.
c8.s2.t3.3
⁴ Nanjio, no. 678.
c8.s2.t3.4
⁵ This man seems to have translated only Mahāyāna works: Nanjio, col. 381.