The Spread of Buddhism

232 stephan peter bumbacher

I now ought to sacri ce to Buddha Sun Moon Pure Bright Virtue as well

as to the Lotus stra.

However, we do have information about the high esteem in which
stras were generally held in China as early as towards the end of the
third century AD as a consequence of which their appearance was
welcomed and greeted like famous personalities of high rank. Dao’an
(312–385) in his catalogue of Buddhist scriptures that were
available in China in his time, the Zongli zhongjing mulu
(Comprehensive Catalogue of Scriptures) reports the following episode
concerning Mokala’s (Wuchaluo ) and the Indian up saka Zhu
Shulan’s Chinese translation of the Pañcaviatishasrikprajñ
parmitstra called Fangguang jing :^144

When the Fangguang [jing] thereupon appeared, it widely circulated in

the Chinese capital (i.e., Luoyang), and hosts of “retired gentlemen of

tranquillized minds” (i.e., cultured lay devotees) made copies of it. The

upadhyya Zhi ( ) at Zhongshan sent people to Cangyuan to

have it copied onto pieces of silk. When [this copy] was brought back

to Zhongshan, the king of Zhongshan and all monks welcomed the stra

[at a place] forty li South of the city, with a display of pennants and

streamers. Such was the way in which [this scripture] became current

in the world.^145

As the king of Zhongshan must have been Sima Dan , who
before 277 was king of Jinan and who was bestowed the status of
king of Zhongshan in that year, we know that, according to the Jinshu
, he passed away October 9, 292. This event must, therefore, have
taken place between December 31, 291, when the translation of this
stra was  nished, and the date of Sima Dan’s death.^146
It is interesting that the few pieces of evidence we have attesting to a
Daoist book cult cannot be traced back beyond Ge Hong. Once again
he seems to be the starting point of an apparently new development
in China. But as he compiled a sort of summa of the then available
Daoist knowledge in Southern China which, for the most part, has not
survived outside his own writings, it is perfectly possible that what he
described was the result of an older—yet hidden—tradition.
A new aspect appears with the description of the discovery of the
Taiping jing as related in the Daoxue zhuan. Erecting a meditation hut at

(^144) Chu sanzangji ji T.2145.55.48a15ff.
(^145) Zürcher 1959, p. 64.
(^146) Loc. cit.