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March 8, 2014 |
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The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China started in the 1st century CE with a semi-legendary account of an embassy sent to the West by the Chinese Emperor Emperor Ming of Han China|Ming (58-75 CE). Extensive contacts however started in the 2nd century CE, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan empire into the Chinese territory of the Tarim Basin, with the missionnary efforts of a great number of Central Asian Buddhist monks to Chinese lands. The first missionaries and translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were either Parthian, Kushan, Sogdian or Kuchean. From the 3rd century onward, Chinese pilgrims also started to travel to India by themselves in order to get improved access to the original scriptures, with Fa-hsien's pilgrimage to India (395-414), and later Xuan Zang (629-644). The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism essentially ended around the 7th century with the rise of Islam in Central Asia. The first contacts between China and Central Asia occurred with the opening of the Silk Road in the 2nd century BCE. The Records of the Great Historian (Ch:史記) describe a country named Shendu (India) and their Buddhist ways. The first direct encounter of China with Buddhism is described by Yang Xuanzhi as occurring around 70 CE:
The first documented transmission of Buddhist scripture occurs in 148 CE, with the arrival of the Parthian missionary An Shih Kao in China. He established Buddhist temples in Loyang and organized the translation of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese, initiating a wave of Central Asian Buddhist prozelitism that was to last several centuries. In the middle of the 2nd century CE, the Kushan empire under king Kanishka expanded into Central Asia and went as far as taking control of Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkand, which were Chinese dependencies in the Tarim Basin, modern Xinjiang. As a consequence, cultural exhanges greatly increased, and Central-Asian Buddhist missionaries became active shortly after in the Chinese capital cities of Loyang and sometimes Nanjing, where they particularly distinguished themselves by their translation work. They promoted both Hinayana and Mahayana scriptures. Thirty-seven of these early translators of Buddhist texts are known. Image:SilkRoadPeoples.jpg|thumb|221px|Peoples of the Silk Road, Dunhuang, 9th century.
Image:SerindianGroup.JPG|thumb|220px|"Heroic gesture of the Bodhisattva", 6th-7th century terracotta, Tumshuq (Xinjiang). Central Asian missionnary efforts along the Silk Road were accompanied by a flux of artistic influences, visible in the development of Serindian art from the 2nd through the 11th century CE in the Tarim Basin, modern Xinjiang. Serindian art often derives from the art of the Greco-Buddhist art of the Gandhara district of what is now Pakistan, combining Indian, Greek and Roman influences. Highly sinicized forms of this syncretism can also be found on the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin, such as in Dunhuang. Silk Road artistic influences can be found as far as Japan to this day, in architectural motifs or representations of Japanese gods (see Greco-Buddhist art). Image:Xuan Zang.jpg|thumb|220px|Xuan Zang, Dunhuang cave, 9th century. According to Chinese sources, Chinese Buddhist monks started to travel to India from around 260 CE. Fa-hsien's pilgrimage to India (395-414) is said to have been the first significant one. He left along the Silk Road, stayed 6 years in India, and then returned by the sea route. Tens of Chinese monks, possibly hundreds of them, visited India during that period. The most famous of the Chinese pilgrims is Xuan Zang (629-644), whose large and precise translation work defines a ?new translation period?, in contrast with older Central Asian works. Buddhism in Central Asia started to decline in the 7th century with the expansion of Islam there. The vigorous Chinese culture progressively absorbed Buddhist teachings until a strongly Chinese particularism developed. Central Asian Buddhist monks from the Tarim Basin and East Asian Buddhist monks appear to have maintained strong exchanges until around the 10th century, as shown by frescos from the Tarim Basin. Buddhism2
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Silk Road transmission of Buddhism".
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