Records from the East

On April 8, the 24th year of King Zhao of the Zhou Dynasty, a vision appeared in the sky. Suyou, the Taishi, divined: "A saint was born in the West, and after a thousand years, his teachings will be spread to China." In this year, Siddhartha, the prince of Suddhodana in Kapilavastu, India, was born. He gave up the throne, became a monk and practiced Taoism, became fully enlightened, and was named Buddha. He preached the sermon for forty-nine years and saved countless people. The name of its religion is Buddhism, which takes compassion as its embrace, wisdom as its boat, and liberation as its destination. After the Buddha passed away, his teachings gradually spread to the countries in the Western Regions. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, Huo Qubing conquered the Xiongnu, and had to slaughter the king to sacrifice the Tianjin people. They placed it in Ganquan Palace. This was probably the first Buddha statue to enter China. However, at that time, people only worshiped it as a god and did not understand its meaning. In the first year of Yuanshou of Emperor Ai, Yi Cun, an envoy of Dayue clan, came to the court and dictated the Buddha Sutra to his disciple Jing Lu in Chang'an. This was the introduction of Buddhist scriptures into China. The earliest records of the country have not been widely circulated in the world. For thousands of years, the sound of Sanskrit came faintly from the quicksand of the Western Region, crossed the green ridges, crossed the quicksand, and finally turned into the morning bells and evening drums of China. This is a spiritual journey in the history of Chinese civilization. From the White Horse Carrying Sutras to Xuanzang's Journey to the West, from Kumarajiva's translation field to Huineng's Zen forest, the seeds of Buddhism took root, sprouted, blossomed, and bore fruit in the soil of our Chinese land. This is not only the ambition of emperors and generals to protect the Dharma, but also the sacrifice of their lives by eminent monks and great virtues to seek Dharma. It is also the heart lamp lit by ordinary people in front of the Buddha. This is an epic of encounter and integration of civilizations. When faith crosses thousands of mountains and rivers, what really changes is ultimately the human heart. Taking this as an opportunity, the process of the spread of Buddhism to the East was written down to convey its story.