Now the image was set
up rather more than three hundred years after the Nirvana of Buddha,
which may be referred to the reign of king P'ing of the Chow dynasty.
According to this account we may say that the diffusion of our great
doctrines in the East began from the setting up of this image. If it had
not been through that Maitreya, the great spiritual master who is to be
the successor of the Sakya, who could have caused the 'Three Precious
Ones,' [3] to be proclaimed so far, and the people of those border lands
to know our Law? We know of a truth that the opening of the way for such
a mysterious propagation is not the work of man; and so the dream of the
emperor Ming of Han had its proper cause."
[Footnote 1: Chang K'een, a minister of the emperor Woo of Han (B.C.
140-87), is celebrated as the first Chinese who "pierced the void," and
penetrated to "the regions of the west," corresponding very much to the
present Turkestan. Through him, by B.C. 115, a regular intercourse was
established between China and the thirty-six kingdoms or states of that
quarter.]
[Footnote 2: Less is known of Kan Ying than of Chang K'een. Being sent
in A.D. 88 by his patron Pan Chao on an embassy to the Roman empire, he
only got as far as the Caspian sea, and returned to China. He extended,
however, the knowledge of his countrymen with regard to the western
regions.
Pages:
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246