206 stephan peter bumbacher
It does not come as a surprise, then, that one of the earliest Buddhist
stras translated into Chinese, the Ugraparipcchstra—translated under
the title “Dharma-mirror stra”, Fajing jing , by the Parthian
layman An Xuan and the Chinese ramaa Yan Fotiao after 181
but before 190 AD—is mainly concerned with the lay bodhisattvas.^17
In any event, the Buddhist stras, whether orally transmitted or as
early translations, if they provided the Chinese with ideas and concepts
they were already familiar with, they had to present them in a new light
or had to offer new aspects. Or the contents of these texts must have
satis ed certain needs in a better way than the traditional means the
Chinese audience had at hand. Otherwise these scriptures would have
hardly been acceptable to a Chinese audience. However, we must also
be prepared for the possibility that Buddhist ideas, concepts, notions,
stories, images and so on may have made their way to China through
other “channels” than texts. Furthermore, while most scholars focused
(and still focus) their attention on the “Silk Road” we should not forget
that a much shorter way, although less convenient, existed that con-
nected Southwestern China with Eastern India’s Brahmaputra Valley,
the “Yunnan Route”.^18 It was via this route that, for example, Indian
cotton was imported into the southern Chinese state of Chu during
the Warring States period (481–221 BC).^19
- Saviours from the West: Xi Wang Mu and the Buddha
Far away from the of cial state cult and from the literati’s re ections on
deities and spirits, the overwhelming majority of the Chinese popula-
tion, usually the immediate victim of natural calamities, warfare and
crop failures, felt a need for saviours it could turn to in times of despair.
One such saviour deity was Xi Wang Mu , the Queen Mother
of the West, who was to become an important goddess in Daoism.^20
However complex the history of her myth may have been, by the
Former Han dynasty (206 BC–6 AD) she had developed into a deity
that could save people from all sorts of dangers and, more important,
(^17) A complete English translation with study was recently published in Nattier
- 18
See, e.g., Chen 1981.
(^19) Haussig 1983, p. 81.
(^20) Frühauf 1999, Wu Hung 1989, pp. 108–141, Fracasso 1988, Loewe 1979, pp.
86–133. For her Daoist role during the Tang dynasty, see Cahill 1993.