有个儿趣 Buddhism in Central Asia during the first few centuries CE.
1.King Asoka (third century BC) of India sent out nine delegations to spread the Dharma after the third council and amongst these delegations, several went to Central Asia.
1)Majjhantika (Madhyandina) =>Kashmir and Gandhara (Peshawar&Rawalpindi district)
2)Maharaksita (Maharakkhita) => Yavana or Great country(the foreign settlements of the North Western Frontier Province)
3)Majjihima => Himavanta(the Himalayan country)
4)Dharmaraksita( a Yavana) => Aparantaka(Western countries like Alor, Broach and Sopara)
5) Mahadharmaraksita => Maharastraor Maharattha (the Andhras and the Pulindas located about the Vindhyas)
6)Mahadeva => Mahisamandala (Mahismati, adistrict south of the Vidhyasor south Mysore of Mandhata)
7)Raksita (Rakkhita) => Vanavasi(North Kanara-the southern Indian peoples-Cholas, Pandyas, Keralaputras)
8) Sona and Uttara => Suvarnabhumior Suvannabhumi (Lower Burma-Pegu &Moulmein)
9)Mahinda or Mahendra with Ristriya, Utriya, Sambala,Bhadrasara => Tambapanni or Lanka (Sri Lanka orCeylon).
Asoka’s Empire
Bactrian Kingdom
2.Kingdomof Bactria. The Milindapañha and the Nāgasena Bhik?u Sutra (那先比丘經) both records that the King Menander (second to first century BC) conversed with Nāgasena on problems of Buddhist metaphysics and philosophy.
3.Menanderis an Indo-Greek king of Sakala (Sialkot in the Punjab) and Nāgasena is a Buddhist monk in his kingdom.
4.Menanderwas converted and popularised Buddhism in his kingdom, he constructed a monastery called Milinda-Vihara and offered it to Nāgasena.
5.This is also evidenced by a large number of coins of Menander with a wheel on them discovered in north-west India.
Gold coin of Diodotus c. 245 BCE.
Coin of Menander. Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ (BASILEOSSOTEROS MENANDROU) lit. "Of Saviour King Menander".
A coin of Menander I (r.160-135 BCE) with an eight-spoked wheel and a palm.
Silver coin of Menander, with Athena onreverse.
The Bimaran casket, representing the Buddha, is dated to around 30-10 BCE.British Museum.
6.In ancient Chinese literature, Central Asia is referred to as the Western Region (西域) where existed about thirty six small oasis kingdoms. Amongst these, the following are eminent: Parthia (Persia安息), Scythia (月支),Sogdiana (康居), Khotan (于闐or 和闐)and Kuchā (龜玆 or 庫車).The following are some of the important early translators:
Translators: Second Century
An Shigao 安世高from Persia (Second century CE)
Lokak·ema支婁迦讖from Scythia (178-189)
Zhu Foshu 竺佛朔 from India (172-183)
An Xuan 安玄from Persia
Zhi Yao 支曜probably from Scythia
Kang Ju 康巨from Sogdiana
Kang Menxian康孟詳from Sogdiana
Mah?bala竺大力from India
Third century
Dharmaphala曇果 from India 207
Zhi Qian支謙descent of Scythian (222-253)
KangShenkai 康僧鎧 probablyfrom Sogdiana(252)
Dharnak?la曇柯迦羅from central India (249-254)
Dharmasatya 曇無帝 from Parthia (254-255)
Dharmabhadra安法賢 from Central Asia
Bai Yan 白延 from Central Asia (258)
Vighna 維祇難fromIndia (224)
KangShenhui 康僧會descent of Sogdiana,forefathers later moved to India and his father moved to China (247-280)
Zhu Luyan 竺律炎 from India (224-230?)
Dharmarak·a竺法護descent of Scythian (266-313)
K?laruji彊梁婁至from Central Asia (281)
An Faqian安法欽from Central Asia (281-326)
Mok·ala無叉羅 from Khotan (291)
Zhu Shulan竺叔蘭 a Up?saka fro India (290-306)
Fali法立, nativeplace unknown (290-306)
Zhi Fadu支法度from Scythia (301)
Rawlinson, H.G. Bactria, the History of a Forgotten Empire, London: Probsthain & Co., 1912. 939.6 R2
Buddhism under the Kushanas
7.The Kushanas belonged to the group of the great Scythia race of North-west China. The Kushanas established their kingdom in the first century A.D. by Kadphises who declared himself as the first king (A.D.15-65). He also conquered the Eastern Parthian kingdom and Kapisa therefore became monarch of a vast empire extending from the frontiers of Persia to the Indus.
8.The greatest king of Kushanas is Kanishka who became a Buddhist and supported Buddhism in his kingdom.
9. Accordingto the Buddhist tradition, under the patronage of Kanishka, the fourth Buddhist council was held and the Mahavibh? was compiled, a great commentary of the Sarv?stiv?da school.
10.The Buddhism of the Kushanas derives from the Buddhism of Northern India. As yet,no traces of Mah?y?na Buddhism have been found in ancient Gandhari literature: the Kushana seems to have been solely followers of the êravakay?na.
11. Gandhari Buddhist texts from the Kushana empire seem to have been amongst the first Buddhist literature which reached China in the first or second century CE. Scholars have suggested that some of the earliest Chinese translations of Buddhist texts are from originals in Gandhari, and the early translators working in China include a significant number said to be of Kushana origin.
12. A Kharosthi Buddhist inion in Luoyang, the one-time capital of China in theNorth-east, shows that how far the transmission of Buddhism in the Gandhari language reached inside of China.
Bamiyan Valley
Bamiyan Valley with the giant Buddhas
The giant Buddhas
Bamiyan Valley, the bazaar
Remains of paintings near the Buddha statue
Auldara Stupa, 4th c. or earlier
All the above pictures from Silk Road Seattle
https://www.depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/index.html
The Buddhism of Khotan (于闐or 和闐)
13.Khotan was on the trade route between North-west India and China, which was also the primary route for the Tibetans when they made their incursions into Central Asia. This position ensured Khotan's importance in the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism from India to China and Tibet.
14. Inions in the Kharosthi indicate that Buddhism first arrived in Khotan from the west, over the Pamirs, helped by the flourishing of trade along the Silk Road and the growing power of the Kushana empire in the second and third centuries CE.
15.The Buddhism of the first period would have been êravakay?naor H´nay?na. However, all of the surviving Khotanese Buddhist literature dates from a later period, from the seventh to tenth centuries CE. These manus, written in the Brahmi , contain both Sanskrit texts and translations into the local language of Khotan. This body of literature is Mahayana, and reached Khotan through a different route, via Gilgit in Northern India.
16. Faxian wrote: "The country is prosperous and the people are numerous; without exception they have faith in the Dharma and they entertain one another with religious music. The community of monks numbers several tens of thousands and they belong mostly to the Mah?y?na."在道一月五日，得到于闐。其國豐樂，人民殷盛，盡皆奉法，以法樂相娛。眾僧乃數萬人，多大乘學，皆有眾食。彼國人民星居，家家門前，皆起小塔，最小者可高二丈許，作四方僧房供給客僧。
17.The Prajñāpāramitā 若波羅蜜多經, the Vimalakīrtinirde?a 維摩經and the Sukhavativyuha阿彌陀經 were among the sutras translated into Khotanese.
18. Mok?ala無叉羅from Khotan (291) translated one of the important Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, the 放光般若經.
Buddhism in Kucha (龜玆or 庫車)
19.Kucha has been one of the most important territories in the Tarim basin owing to itsgeographical position and the role it has played in Buddhist art and civilization.
20.Kucha was an oasis on the northern Silk Road (see map), populated by people of Indo-European origin. During the time of the Kushana empire, the Kucheans adopted Buddhism, and by the third century CE, Kucha had become one of the most important sites for both Sravakayana and Mahayana Buddhism in Central Asia.Travellers were impressed by the number of monasteries and stupas which had been built by the Kucheans.
21.The Buddhism of Kucha influenced other states along the northern Silk Road (such as Turfan and Karashahr) and Kuchean Buddhist missionaries travelled further eastward, some of them reaching China.
22. Kumārajīva,one of the greatest of the translators of Buddhism into Chinese, came from Kucha. By the eighth century CE, under pressure from the Chinese and the Turks,Kucha was no longer active as a Buddhist centre.
Sogdiana (康居)
23.The state of Sogdiana existed on the western end of the Silk Road, just north of Gandhara (see map). The Sogdians were successful merchants, often dominating the trade in silk between the third and seventh centuries CE.
24. In their religious life, the Sogdians were above all Zoroastrians, but minority religions including Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism and Buddhism were tolerated.
25.Initially,due to influences from the south, the Gandhara, the Sogdians adopted ?ravakayāna Buddhism, and later, in the eighth century under the influence of China, there was a brief flourishing of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
26. Elementsof Buddhism were often combined with Zoroastrianism and with elements of other religions like Manichaeism and Nestorian Christianity. In the eighth century CE, the Sogdians were conquered by the Arabs, and from the middle of the century onwards, Islam became the dominant religion of the area.
27. Kang Menxian康孟詳, Kang Shenkai 康僧鎧.
Languages of Central Asia
28.According to the Biography of Eminent Monks,Dharmark?a was well versed in the languages of the thirty-six kingdoms of the western region. However we do not know the details of these languages now.
29.How many languages existed once there in Central Asia we do not know, but from the Buddhist archaeological evidence and Buddhist literature there are Kharosthi 怯盧文used in Gandhara area犍陀羅, Tukhara吐火羅語used in Kucha, Khotanese used in Khotan and others.
30.Kharosthi: A Gandhari version of the Dharmapada was discovered in 1892 in the Khotan area, and a fragment of a Gandhari Mahāparinirvā?a sūtra(Hinayana version) was discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century.
31.Although few of the Kharosthi manus from the Silk Road are Buddhist, but many administrative documents mention Buddhist monks and a Buddhist monastic community.
32.Tukhara was used by theIndo-Scythians and in Xinjiang there found many Tukhara manus in Dunhuang.
33. Khotanese texts also were found inthe library cave in Dunhuang, indicating links between Khotanese Buddhists and the Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist communities further east.
Present day Central Asia
Ancient Jiaohe Ruined Town (Oct 07)
The mouth of the Hexi corridor in Gansu, where the Gobi meets theTaklimakan. A herd of camel flee from the on coming train. Only the telegraph wires and the distant greenery on the edge of the Qilian Mountain Range reveal the presence of mankind.
A group of Chinese tourists enjoy the singing sands on the edge of Mingshashan as dusk settles over the Dunhuang oasis; behind the stonyTaklimakan lurks menacingly, kept temporarily at bay by the irrigation systems built up with the hard toil of local people over countless generations.
The ruins of Gaochang city, near Turfan. More than 1500 years ago this city was the centre of the Huihe kingdom; now the local Uygur people tend their flocks of sheep and goats in what were once the houses and streets of the provincial capital.
Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves (Oct 07)
Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves (Oct 07)
People of Kashgar
Old City of Kashgar
Sunday Bazaar of Kashgar
For detailed study, please read Buddhismin Central Asia by B.N. Puri. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,1987.
Local Village
The flaming mountains
“Los Angeles Manu”, ink on birch bark, before treatment.
Buddhist illuminated palm leaf manu pages Pala, Eastern India opaque watercolor on palm leaf 12th century Art Institute of Chicago.
The Division of Chinese Buddhism
ERIK ZURCHER
Division into five main periods
1)The embryonic phase (from the first appearance of Buddhism in China in the mid-firstcentury CE to c. 300 CE). Roughly from Eastern Han to Three Kindoms.
2)The formative phase (c. 300-589 CE). Eastern Jin to the end of S & N Dynasties.
3)The phase of independent growth (coinciding with the second era of imperial unification during the Sui and Tang dynasties, 589-906 CE). Sui to Tang Dynasties
4)Buddhism inpremodern China (from the tenth to the nineteenth century). Song to Qing Dynasties
5)Buddhism in modern and contemporary China (c.1880-present).
MichihataRyoshū (道端良秀) Kamata, Shigeo (鎌田茂雄)
Four periods
1) Introduction and absorption (from Han tothree Kingdoms)
2) Development and consolidation (from EasternJin to South and North dynasties)
3) Completion and climax (Sui and Tang dynasties)
4) Practice and permeation (Song, Yuan and afterwards)
So we have the following five periods
(1)The beginning of Chinese Buddhism: the early introduction of Indian and Central Asian Buddhism (from Eastern Han through three Kingdoms to the end of Eastern Jin, mid-firstcentury CE to c. 317 CE);
(2)The emergence of Schools of thought (學派): the formation of many different short-lived schools based on various Chinese translations of Buddhist texts (from the end of Eastern Jin to South and North dynasty,c. 317-589 CE);
(3)The independent growth: distinctive Chinese Buddhist schools formed(宗派) (Sui and Tang dynasty, 589-906 CE);
(4)The syncretism of Chinese Buddhism: syncretism of Buddhist schools of thought and other religions (Song to Qing Dynasties, tenth to nineteenth century).
(5) Buddhism in Modern time (Started from the period of Republic of China).
1. The beginning of Chinese Buddhism
The early introduction of Indian and Central Asian Buddhism (mid-first century CE to c. 300 CE). It includes Latter Han (25-220), Three Kingdoms (220-265) and Western Jin (265-310) dynasties.
The character: translationof Indian and central Asian Buddhist texts.
Translators: First to Second Century
1.From Persia, An Shigao 安世高 An Xuan 安玄 in the second century, Dharmasatya 曇帝 (254-255), and An Faqian安法欽(281-326) in the third to the beginning of fourth century.
2.From Scythia, Lokak?ema支婁迦讖(178-189) and Zhi Yao 支曜 in the second century, Zhi Qian支謙(222-253) in the third century, Zhi Fadu支法度(301) and Dharmarak?a竺法護 (266-313).
3.From Sogdiana, Kang Ju 康巨 and Kang Menxian康孟詳 in the second century, Kang Shenkai 康僧鎧 (252) in the third century.
4.From Central Asia, Dharmabhadra安法賢, Bai Yan 白延, Kālaruji彊梁婁至from Central Asia (281) and An Faqian安法欽from Central Asia (281-326) inthe third century.
5.From India, Zhu Foshu 竺佛朔 (172-183)in the second century, Mah?bala 竺大力, Dharmaphala 曇果 in the late second century, Vighna 維祇難from India (224), Zhu Luyan 竺律炎 (224-230?), Dharnak?la 曇柯迦羅(249-254), and Kang Shenhui 康僧會(247-280) inthe third century.
6.If we look at these translators by time, it will be as follows:
Second Century
An Shigao 安世高from Persia (Secondcentury CE)
Lokak?ema支婁迦讖from Scythia (178-189)
Zhu Foshu 竺佛朔 from India (172-183)
An Xuan 安玄from Persia
Zhi Yao 支曜probably from Scythia
Kang Ju 康巨from Sogdiana
Kang Menxian康孟詳from Sogdiana
Mahābala竺大力from India
Third century
Dharmaphala曇果 from India 207
Zhi Qian支謙descent of Scythian (222-253)
KangShenkai 康僧鎧 probablyfrom Sogdiana(252)
Dharmakāla 曇柯迦羅from central India (249-254)
Dharmasatya 曇無帝 fromParthia (254-255)
Dharmabhadra安法賢 from Central Asia
Bai Yan 白延 from Central Asia (258)
Vighna 維祇難from India (224)
KangShenhui 康僧會descent of Sogdiana, forefathers later moved to Indiaand his father moved to China (247-280)
Zhu Luyan 竺律炎 from India (224-230?)
Dharmarak?a竺法護 descent of Scythian (266-313)
Kālaruji彊梁婁至from Central Asia (281)
An Faqian安法欽from CentralAsia (281-326)
Mok?ala無叉羅from Khotan (291)
Zhu Shulan竺叔蘭 a Upāsakafro India (290-306)
Fali法立, nativeplace unknown (290-306)
Zhi Fadu支法度from Scythia (301)
7. So from the above analysis, we can see that during the first two centuries, most of the translators came from Central Asia and it was only towards the end of third century, more and morepeople came from India.
8.In these two centuries, the main activity is translation of Buddhist sutras and there is no commentary written. However, these translators, as some of them knew Chinese, for example,An Shigao 安世高, delivered talks on Buddhism to Chinese people.
9.Dharmarak?a, who, an descendent of Scythia, was born in Dunhuang, is one of the important translators and hetranslated 54 texts, mostly Mahāyāna in nature.
恭敬经典 南无阿弥陀佛 合十