The Tokharians and Buddhism[1]
 
Xu Wenkan
 
1.Introduction：On the Tokharians and the Yuezhi
From the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning ofthe twentieth，a great number of manuscripts in Indo－Eruopeanlanguages were discovered in northwest China（mainly in Xinjiangand Dunhuang， Gansu）.It has heen revealed that the languagesin Which these manuscripts were written include Gāndārī，Pahlavī，Sogdian，Parthian，Khotanese，Tumshuqese，etc.Alsofound were texts in another ancient Indo-European language，different from the Indo-Iranian languages listed above and writ-ten in the Brāhmīscript.Two dialects of this language，A andB,have been identified.①Based on the colophons of Maitrisim-it,a famous Buddhist play written in Uighur,F.W.K.Müller, E.Sieg,and W.Siegling named this ancient language“Tokharianin their works.One of these Uighur colophons,nr.48,reads:
Nakridi■ ulu■ta toγmi■ Arya■intri bodisvt k■i acari Äntkäktilint[in]…Toχri tilin■ä yaratmïs Il-baliqda toγmï■Prtanyarak■it k■i a■ari Toχri tilintin Türk tili■ä ävirmi■Maitri…[si]mit nom bitig.②
W.B.Henning has translated this paragraph  into English：The sacred book Maitreya-Samiti which the Boddhisattvattvaguru ācārya ■ryacandra,who was born in the country of Na-garade■a,③had composed④in the Twγry language out of theIndian language，and which the guru ācārya Praj■araksita，who was born in Il-baliq，①translated from the Twγry lan-guage into the Turkish language.
During the decades that followed，many scholars have de-bated hotly on the nomenclature of this language and a series ofrelated historical，geographical and ethnological issues，and es－pecially its relationship to the Yuezhi and Kushan peoples.②Most of them hold that the Tokharian dialects A and B are actual-ly Agnean and Kuchean.① However，many questions about thistheory still need to be resolved，and“Tokharian”as a usefulterm should not be dismissed.
The extant Tokharian documents date from the period be－tween the sixth and the eighth centuries.However，Tokharian it－self is an ancient Indo－European language belonging to the Cen－tum branch，more closely related to Celtic，German，Italian，and Greek than to other languages.②This means that an Indo－European people rather than those speaking Eastern Iranian（theSatem branch）entered modern Chinese territory at a very，earlytime.The British scholar T.Burrow，who studied the Kharosthīdocuments unearthed in Niya，Loulan and Shanshan，pointed out long ago that many grammatical phenomena and the vocabulary ofNiya vernacular were close to Tokharian.③Therefore,the resi-dents of the Shanshan state were speaking a Tokharian languagewhich was somewhat different form the later Agnean and Kuchean.That is to say，there existed a third Tokharian  dialect，and the Tokharian entry to the Tarim Basin can be traced back tothe second and third centuries.
Furthermore，there have been some very important archaeo－logical discoveries in Xinjiang in recent years which may provide new clues to the origin of the Tokharians.For example，in 1979 the Archaeology Institute of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sci-ence excavated forty-two ancient tombs in the lower Kongque River valley，seventy kilometers west of the presently dry Lake Lop-nor.These tombs，which constitute an important site of the Gumugou Culture，date from the Bronze Age，approximately 3，000 before present.The anthropometric studies of the human skulls collected from these tombs have shown that the Gumugou people possessed primitive Caucasoid features and that their physical characteristics had certain similarities with the Nordic ornorthern European type.①Moreover，a large number of mummieshas recently been found in Xinjiang.These mummies，of which the oldest date from 4，000 before present，also show Caucasoidfeatures.May we surmise from these facts that，as early as threeor four thousand years ago，the Caucasian residents of the TarimBasin were already in certain ways related to the Tokharian peplewho came later？
The Yuezhi月支 people recorded in Chinese histories might be related to the Tokharians.Since the 1970s quite a few schol－ars have proposed that the Yuezhi were a branch of the Tokhari- ans.Detailed arguments can be found in articles by B.Henning，A.K.Narain,Lin Meicun，and myself.①
It is commonly accepted that the“Yuzhi”禺知people men-tioned in Mu tianzi zhuan［Biography of the Son of the Heaven Mu]穆天子传，the“Yuzhi”禺氏 people in the“wanghui”王会 chapter of Yi Zhoushu [The Lost History of the Zhou]逸周书as well as in the“Gouxu”国蓄，“Kuidu”揆度，“Qingzhongjia”轻重甲，and“Qingzhong yi”轻重乙 chapters of Guanzi[Book ofGuanzi]管子，the“Yuezhi”月氏 people in the“Yiyi chaoxian伊尹朝献 chapter of Yi zhoushu，and the“Niuzhi”牛氏 peoplein the“Dishu”地数chapter of Guanzi，all are the same as theYuezhi people.During the Qin and Han Dynasties，the Yuezhiwere one of the three major ethnic groups（the other two were theEastern Hu and Xiongnu） to the north of China，living betweenDunhuang and Qilian Mountains，“residing wherever there werewater and grass.”So they must have been active in the vast areafrom the Tarim Basin to the Ordos Grassland.The power of theYuezhi was weakened after they were defeated by the Mo Du shan-yu of the Xiongnu.After their king was killed by anotherXiongnu shan-yu，Laoshang，the Yuezhi was divided into twogroups，one called Greater Yuezhi and another called LesserYuezhi.The former moved westwards，conquered Bactria，andestablished a kingdom in south Central Asia，leaving a remark-able chapter in world history.
It is after the westward migration of the Tokharian-Yuezhipeople that the term“Tokharian began to appear in the docu-ments of various languages.According to Strabo’s Geography[Ⅺ.8.2]，the four nomadic peoples who took Bactria from theGreeks were the Asii，Gasiani，Tochari，and Sacarauli.Trogus，on the other hand，records that“the Scythian tribes，the Sarau－cae and Asiani，conquered Bactria and Sogdiana”，and that“theAsiani［became］the kings of the Tochari，and the Saraucae weredestroyed.”We believe that one or a few of the four peoples whowere mentioned in the Greek sources as having conquered Bactriamust have been the Yuezhi.The Yuezhi was a tribal federation dominated by the Tokharians.Yet in the course of their westwardmigration,they also absorbed various Eastern-Iranian speaking Saka tribes.①According to“Xiyu zhuan”[Account of the West-ern Regions]西域传 in both  Han shu[history of the Han Dy- nasty]汉书 and Hou Han shu[History of the Later Han Dy-nasty]后汉书，the Greater Yuezhi were later broken into“five di-visions under five xihou 翕候leaders”,among which the Kushan division was the most powerful.In the early first century，theKushan xihou Kujula Kadphises unified the five divisions，brokeaway from the control of the Hellenized Bactrian dynasty，and es－tablished the Kushan Empire.
All the branches of the Tokharian people mentioned above had important influences on the transmission of Buddhism acrossCentral Asia to China.In the following section I will explore thispoint，relying principally on Chinese sources.
2.The Tokharians，Yuezhi and the transmission
of Buddhism to China
Buddhism spread to northwest India and its neighboringcountries very eady.According to the A■okan inscriptions，Indi－an envoys reached Parthia，Bactria，Egypt，and Greece.Weknow for sure that as early as the mid-third century BCE，Bud-dhism flourished in Qandahar in southern Afghanistan.In theearly second century BCE，the Bactrians，who were ruled by theGreeks，invaded northwest India，but later Bactria itself becamedivided.Menander（or Menandros，rendered as Milinda in Pal－i），the king of the Hellenistic city state whose center was Sāgala（modern Siālkot in Pakistan），had a well-known discourse withNāgasena，a prestigious monk from Jibin（present－day Pe－shawar.Pakistan），and allegedly converted to Buddhism.Thisdiscourse was recorded and compiled into the Milindapa■hāinPali and translated into Chinese as the Naxian buqiu jing[Sütraof Bhiksu Nāgasena]那先比丘经.After the Tokharians，namelythe Yuezhi，Conquered Bactria in the middle of the second centu-ry during their westward migration，they inherited Buddhism，which had already been transmitted there.
The Greater Yuezhi had converted to Buddhism by the firstcentury BCE at the latest.the country expanded rapidly after Qi－ujiuque established the Kushan Dynasty.Within one hundredyears the Yuezhi had invaded Parthia，took Gaofu（today’s Kab-ul in Afghanistan），and destroyed Puda（today’s Gwadar in Pak-istan）and Kashmir.From the first century CE，the famousGandharan art began to appear.In the early second century，theking of the Kushans，Vima Kadphises(Yan-gao-zhen 阎膏珍in Chinese），further expanded the country by occupying the In－dus River region in Pakistan.Then the Kadphises royal house was replaced by the－ska family.The founder of this new royal house was the historically renowned Kaniska I.V.V.Ivanov has studied the suffix of the name of this Kushan king,and regarded it to have originated from Kuchean.①
The  exact  date  of Kaniska’s  accession  to  the  Kushan  thronehas not been confirmed,and the entire chronology of the Kushan empire has also been the subject of heated controversy.These is－sues were the primary topic of two international conferences heldin London in 1913 and 1960,and they were also discussed dur- ing the conference on Kushan civilization held in Dushanbe in 1968.However,no consensus has been reached.②  According toour present understanding, Kaniska’s accession probably oc- curred sometime between 78 and 144 CE,with c.128 being the-most likely specific date. Since Kaniska employed a policy of supporting and sponsoring various religions,Buddhism was able to develop rapidly.The famous Fourth Council of Buddhism（ac-tually a conference of the Sarvāstivāda school) was summoned during Kaniska’s reign. He built Buddhist temples and stupas throughout the kingdom.The Queli(Jaurya)雀离stupa, which he built at his capital Purusapura(today ’s  Peshawar),was  re-portedly seen by the Northern Wei emissary Song Yun宋云and a pilgrim Huisheng惠生 who passed by here on their way to In－ dia in search of Buddhist scriptures in the early sixth century.①Research  has  shown that  Queli  and  Zhaohuli昭怙■②,the nameof another Buddhist temple in Kucha reported by Xuanzang玄奘in the first chapter of his Da Tang xiyu ji[Accounts of the West-ern Regions  of the  Great Tang Dynasty]大唐西域记， must be  thesame Tokharian word.③
The most important Kushan Buddhist site excavated in for－mer Soviet Central Asia is Kara-tepe in ancient Termez. Thearchaeological findings include stone statues，sculptures,Kushancoins, and inscriptions   in the  Kharosthī and Brāhmī scripts.There are also inscriptions in local Bactrian,written in a cursivestyle of Greek script.①
Zhang Qian’s 张骞 journey to the Western Regions during the Western Han period marked the official opening of the SilkRoad, which connected in land China with Central Asia.It has long been a hotly debated issue when Buddhism was transmitted from  India  to  China.  Nevertheless, one  thing  is  known  for  sure：the Tokharian-Yuezhi people played a key role in this transmis-sion.In a passage from Yu Huan’s 鱼豢 Weilue[A Brief History of the Wei]魏略Cited by Pei Songzhi裴松之in his  commentary to the“Dong Yi zhuan”[Account of the  Eastern Aliens]东夷传 chapter in Weizhi[History of the Wei]魏志 of Sanguo zhi[His- tory of the Three Kingdoms]三国志，there is a clear record：
In the first year of the Yuanshou Reign of the Han Emperor Aidi哀帝(2 BCE),Jing Lu景卢， A student of the Grand Academy， received the  dictation of  Futu Jing[Buddha’s Sūtra]浮屠经from Yicun伊存，an envoy sent to China by the king of the Creater Yuezhi.  It was he  who had reestab- lished[Buddhism  in  China].All  the  terms such as pusai[upāsaka]蒲塞，sangmen[■ ramana］桑门，bowen [brāhmana？]伯闻，shuwen疏问，boshuxian白疏■，biqiu [bhiksu]比丘 and chenmen晨门appearing in this sutra are titles  of[Buddha’s] disciples.
This  event  is  also reported in  Liu  Xiaobiao’s刘孝标  commentaryto  the “Wenxue”[Literature]文学  chapter of Shishuo  xinyu[New words and Sayings of the World]世说新语，“Shi Lao zhi”[Treatise on Buddhism and Daoism]释老志 of Weishu[Historyof the Northern Wei] 魏书，“Jingji zhi”[Bibliographical Treatise]经籍志of  Suishu[History of the  Sui] 隋书，the fifth  chapter ofFalin’s法琳  Bianzhent  Lun[Treatise  on  Defending  the  Right] 辩正论，Zhang Shoujie’s张守节 commentary to the“Dawan liezhuan”[Account of Ferghana]大宛列传 of Shiji[Records ofthe   Grand  Historian]史记， the 193rd  chapter  of   Tongdian [ Com－prehensive Codes]通典， Futu jing[Buddha Sūtra] 浮屠经of theJin and Song dynasties cited in the 196th chapter of Tongzhi[Comprehensive Accounts]通志，and Jin zhongjing[The MiddleSūtra of the Jin]晋中经 cited in the second chapter of Guangchuan huaba[Guangchuan’s Postscripts to Paintings]广川画跋. However,Jing Lu’s name is written as Qin Jingxian秦景宪 in Weishu, and in Bianzheng lun we find another versionof the story(Qin Jing秦景  went to  the  Yuezhi  country, whoseking  ordered his  son  to  teach[Qin]the  Futu jing), which is sim-ilar to the account in the Jin zhongjing.
After the Greater Yuezhi migrated westwards to Bactria,they quickly assimilated themselves to the local culture.There－fore,it is highly possible that Buddhism was prevalent there in the late first century BCE,and that a Greater Yuezhi envoy to China at that time orally transmitted a Buddhist  scripture to aChinese student.①Tang Yongtong has correctly pointed out thatthe Greater Yuezhi’s invasion of  Bactria was  an  important eventin  the  history  of Buddhist  transmission  to  China, that the GreaterYuezhi converted to Buddhism during the Western Han period, and that Buddhism probably came to China from Bactria.There- fore the beginning of Buddhist translation should be traced backto the late Western Han.②The Futu jing said to have been trans-lated in this period might be a scripture describing Buddha’slife， similar to the later ones like  Benqi jing [Sūtra of the Bud－dha’s origin]本起经 and Benxing jing[Sūtra of the Buddha’s Activities]本行经. Later on, quite  a few  Buddhist monks from the Greater Yuezhi began to arrive in China for mis- sionary and translation work.
There is a well－known legend telling that，in the seventh year of the  Yongping永平 Reign(64 CE),the  Emperor Han Mingdi汉明帝 dreamed of Buddha and then sent,envoys to the Western Regions in search of Buddhist teachings.This highly fie-tional story has many different versions.Its earliest version isfound in the preface to Sishier zhang jing[Sūtra in Forty－twoSections]四十二章经：
One night in the past， the Emperor Han Mingdi dreamed of a deity，who had golden hues on his body and sunlight emanating from his neck， flying in front of the palace. This made the emperor ecstatic and pleased.The next day the  emperor  asked  his  ministers：“Who  was  that  person？” The  learned  Fu  Yi傅毅  answered：“I have  heard  that  in India there is a person who has obtained the Dao，called Buddha.He can easily rise and fly.He is most likely the deity you dreamed of.” Upon hearing this，the emperor understood and immediately sent twelve people，including the Envoy Zhang Qian,the Court Gentleman-Qin Jing,and an erudite student Wang Zun王遵 to the Greater Yuezhi.They copied the Sūtra in Forty－two Sections and placed it in fourteen stone cases.[The emperor]established stupas  and  temples  [for the  sutra]. Thus the Dharma  was widely spread, and Buddhist temples were set up everywhere.
Later added to the story were various details,such as that whenZhang Qian and Qin Jing arrived in the Western Regions they meta  monk   called   Zhu   Moteng[ Kā■yapa   Matanga] 竺摩腾， fromwhom they copied the sutra, then returned to Luoyangand pre－served the sutra in the fourteenth stone chamber of Lantai [Or－chid Tower]兰台.①All of these stories concerning the earliesttransmission of Buddhism to China involved the Greater Yuezhi.Despite their fictional elements，they clearly indicate at least thatit was the Yuezhi who were most closely related to early   Buddhisttranslation in China.
Here we can not discuss the problems such as the authentic－ity，translation and nature of the Sūtra in Forty-two Sections indetail. However，  its  close   relation  with   Dharmapada（ Faju jing法句经） has to be pointed out.②The Gandhārī Dharmapada inKharosthīscript discovered in Khotan was thoroughly examined by J.Brough in the early 1960s.③Kharosthīwas one of the offi-cial scripts used by the Kushan Empire，and the grammar and vocabulary in this KharosthīBuddhist scripture resemble those ofthe Kharo-sthī inscriptions of the Kushan  Empire.Therefore a careful comparison between the GāndhārīDharmapada and the Chinese Sūtra in Forty-two Sections would be helpful.
Professor Ji Xianlin has already argued that the languages ofancient Central Asia and Xinjiang， such as the various Iranianand Tokharian languages,influenced the Chinese translation of
Buddhist scriptures.①As early as 1947,he demonstrated thatthe Chinese word Fo is not a direct translation from the Sanskrit buddha，but probably from a Tokharian origin,such as P■t-in Agnean  and  pud-[or pūd-]in  Kuchean.Yet,according  to Bernhard  Karlgren s  reconstruction， the  ancient pronunciation ofthe Chinese character Fo 佛，b’iw■t/b’iu■t，begins with a voiced  consonant， while in Tokharian   it  always   begins   with   anunvoiced consonant.In 1970, the German scholar F.Bernhard supported Ji’s  hypothesis， maintaining  that Fo was a transcrip-tion of* but in a Tokharian dialect that predates the A and B di- alects(of.pud■■kte in the B and ptā■k■t in the A dialect).② E.G.Pulleyblank also regards the original form of Fo to be but.③In 1979， a small bronze statue of a sitting Buddha，inscribed with one line  of Kharosthī  letters  on the  bottom，  was  found  at asite in the ancient Chinese capital of Xi’an(formerly Chang’an).According to Lin Meicun，it is dated to no later than theend of the fourth century,and it was produced by the Yuezhi im-migrants from Kushan who had been moving to China in greatnumbers ever since the mid-second century.① The inscriptionon the bottom of this statue contains a word meaning Buddha,written as  buca.The transformation from t  into c is a known fea-ture  of  Tokharian, also  seen  in  the  oldest  stratum  of  Tokharianused in Kharosthī documents from Loulan. Therefore， buca is aTokharian term used by the Yuezhi people.This evidence furtherconfirms Ji’ shypothesis.
3.The Yuezhi Buddhist Translators in China
The situation of Buddhism in the Greater Yuezhi kingdomcan be learned about to a general degree through the Buddhistsutras which were brought from that country to the East and trans－lated into Chinese.
Most of the people who came from the Western Regions toChina  and  adopted  the  Chinese  surname  Zhi支  during  the secondto fifth century were more or less related to the Yuezhi. One ofthem， Lokaksema(Zhi Loujiachan支娄迦谶， sometimes abbre-viated to Zhi Chan支谶），was the most famous Buddhist transla-tor during the Later Han period.He was originally a Kushan ■ra-mana and arrived at Luoyang in the late years of the Emperor Han Huandi’s reign. In 178 and  179 CE，he translated more than ten Buddhist sutras from Central Asian languages into Chi-nese，including A st asāhasrikāpraj■āpāramitāsūtra(Boruo daox-ing jing般若道行经），sāhasrikāpraj■āpāramitāsūtra Sūramgama－ samādhi－ sūtra（Shoulengyan jing首楞严经），Pratyutpanna－buddha－sammukhāvasthita－samādhi-sūtra(Banzhou sanmei jing般舟三昧经），Ajāta■atrukankrtyavinodana(Asheshiwang jing 阿■世王经），and  Ratnakuta（Baoji jing宝积经）.Among the sutras translated by Lokaksema the most noteworthy is Praj■ā-pāramitā which laid the foundation for the early development of Mahāyāna Buddhism in China.The fact that his translation of Astasāhasrikāpraj■āpāramitāsūtra，also called Xiaopin boruo [Small Praj■āpāramitā]小品般若，had already been retranslated two times by the time of Kumārajīva clearly shows its great influ- ence.The Mādhyamika school of Mahāyāna might have evolved from the  Mahāsānghika tradition，which originated in the south of India and had been transmitted to the north by the time of Kanis ka.Chinese Buddhists regard A■vaghosa as the first advocator of Mahāyāna Buddhism,who was said to have been highly respect- ed by King Kaniska.During the Eastern Han period，Mahāyāna- scriptures already became popular in the Kushan Empire.By the- end  of the Eastern Han，Mahāyāna  sutras   including Praj■āpāramitā and Vaipulya had made their way to China. There fore, it is not surprising at all for us to see that the earlyMahāyāna Buddhist system in China was established by the Yuezhi Lokaksema，rather than by anyone of another nationality.
Another Yuezhi monk， Zhi Yao 支曜，engaged in Buddhist translation  at  Luoyang  in 185 CE. Chengiu guangming jing [Su- tra on  the  Completion  of Brightness]成具光明经, the  only  extanttranslation that can be definitely identified as being made by ZhiYao，also belongs to the Mahāyāna tradition.
One of Zhi Chan’s known students was Zhi Liang 支亮（al-so styled Jiming 纪明）. It is uncertain yet whether he was anupāsaka  or  ■ramana.Some scholars suggest that Zhi Liang andZhi Yao were actually the same person.① In Chinese both liangand Yao mean"light" or "brightness"；they were probably usedto translate the same Sanskrit word prabhāsaka.
Another Yuezhi monk Zhi Qian支谦（also named Yue越 and styled Gongming恭明）translated as many as thirty-six Buddhist sutras in forty-eight chapters between 222 and 253CE.His grandfather，Fadu法度，the leader of the hundreds ofGreater Yuezhi people who migrated to China during the reign ofthe Emperor Han Lingdi，was appointed by the Han court as a Court Gentleman.Zhi Qian studied with Zhi Liang and thus be-came the second generation disciple of Lokak■ema.He is said tohave studied Buddhist texts from the age of ten and Central Asianlanguages from the age of thirteen.He mastered six languagesand was well-read in Chinese classics.Sun Quan孙权，theruler of the Wu Kingdom，was deeply impressed by Zhi Qian'sexplanation of Buddhist scriptures and gave him the title of Boshi[Erudite Scholar]博士，with the responsibility of working withWei Zhao 韦昭 and other scholars  to counsel and instruct thecrown prince.①The scriptures that he translated covered a widespectrum,including both Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna texts. Hismost important translations include the Vimalakīrtinirde ■ a(Weimojie jing维摩诘经）in two chapters，Astasāhasrika-praj■āpāramitā(Da mingdu wuji jing大明度无极经）in fourchapters，a biography of the Buddha(Taizi ruiying jing太子瑞应经)，etc.He also collated Wei Zhinan's维祗难 translation ofDharmapada.Zhi Qian inherited Lokaksema's philosophical sys-tem and tried to make his translations smooth and readable.Forexample,when he was translating the mantra in Weimichi jing微密持经，he succeeded in both maintaining the original eight-syllable format and correctly translating the meaning，instead oftranscribing the sounds.He proved himself to be a literary masterwell versed in rhymes and cadence，as shown in his compositionof" Phrase-Linked Mantra in Praise of Boddhisattva"(Zan Pusalianju fanbei赞菩萨连句梵呗).The scriptural commentary hemade for his own translation Liaoben shengsi jing[■ālistamb[h]a[ka]sūtra]了本生死经 is the earliest example of such kind ofBuddhist literature in China.
Another Buddhist translator with the surname "Zhi" was Zhi Qiangjieliang[Kālasivi？] 支■接梁， who also might have comefrom the Yuezhi country.While residing in Jiaozhou 交州 (pre-sent-day Hanoi,Vietnam）in either 255 or 256， he translatedSaddharmapu■ ■ arīka(Zheng  fahua  jing 正法华经) in  sixchapters.
The most eminent translator during the Western Jin periodwas Dharmarak■a(Zhu Fahu竺法护）， whose ancestors had livedin Dunhuang for generations.Althouth he was of the Yuezhi na-tionality，when Dharmarak■ became a monk at the age of eight un-der an Indian monk Zhu Gaozuo竺高座，he adopted his teacher's surname.When he was young，Dharmarak■a traveled with histeacher to many countries in the Western Regions and learnedCentral Asian languages and scripts and then returned to Chinawith a large number of Buddhist texts.In 266 he traveled fromDunhuang to Chang'an and Luoyang,then crossed the YangtzeRiver.During his travels he never stopped teaching and translat-ing.He translated 154 Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna sutras，① virtuallycovering all important texts circulating in the Western Regions.Thus,he greatly expanded the possibilities for the further develop-ment of Mahāyāna Buddhism in China.Among the 86 translationsattributed to Dharmaraksa that have survived up to the present arePa■cavimsatisāhasrikāpraj■āpāramistasūtra (Guangzan boruoboluomi jing光赞般若波罗密经) in ten chapters,Saddharmapu■■ar■kasūtra(Zheng fahua jing正法华经)in ten chapters, Da■abhūmikasūtra(Jianbei yiqie zhide jing渐备一切智德经)in fivechapters,Lalitavistara(Puyao jing普曜经) in eight chapters,etc.Dharmarak■a was often assisted by men like Upāsaka NieChengyuan 聂承远 and his son Nie Daozhen 聂道真，who not on-ly took the responsibility of writing down Dharmarak ■a's oralrecitation and checking the translation，but also translated sometexts  by themsleves.Besides,they recorded information about theoriginal texts and the place of translation，which constituted theearliest Chinese Buddhist catalog commonly called Nie Daozhen lu[Nie Daozhen's Catalog]聂道真录.
Although their ethnic attributes are not specified in scrip-tural catalogs,Zhi Fadu支法度and Zhi Daogen 支道根，twoother Buddhist translators active during the fourth century,weremost likely directly or indirectly related to the Yuezhi.
According to Biqiuni  zhuan [Biographies of Nuns ]比丘尼传， the monk Seng Jian 僧建 obtained the Mahāsa■gghikaKarmavācana and Prātimoksa for nuns in the Yuezhi country be-tween 335-342,and translated them at Luoyang.This fact indi-cates that the Bhik■un■Prātimoksa was in circulation in Yuezhi.Zhi Shilun支施仑，who translated some Vaipulya scriptures in-cluding  Susthitamati[devapūtra] pariprachā( Ruhuan sanmei jing如幻三昧经)，Shang jinguangshou jing上金光首经and ■ūra-■gamasamādhisūtra.
After the Former Qin Kingdom unified north China and re-established direct communication with the Western Regions,a Tokharian monk called Dharmanandhī(Tanmonanti 昙摩难提)arrived in China and translated Madhyamāgama(Zhong Ahan jing中阿含经）and Ekottarāgama(Zengyi Ahan jing增一阿含经）during the Jianyuan years(364-389）.These are the earli-est translations of major Agamas.Two eminent Chinese monks,Daoan道安 and Fahe法和，examined these Agamas，while the former wrote a preface for the Chinese version of Ekottarāgama.
In 433，the monk Daotai道泰 obtained the Sanskrit versionof Mahāvibhā■ā(Piposha lun 毗婆沙论)in more than one hun-dred thousand gāthās from the area west of the Pamirs. Fouryears later，this sutra was translated into Chinese at Liangzhou byBuddhavarman(Futuobamo浮陀跋摩)，who was said to be a Tokharian.①It is well-known that Mahāvibhā-■ā was quitepopular among the Yuezhi.
In summary,Yuezhi monks translated a great number of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese,most of which seemd to be Mahāyāna texts，including those from Avatamsaka，Vaipulya,Praj■āpāramitā，Saddharmapu■dar■ka and Nirvāna. Thesetranslations greatly accelerated the development of Chinese Bud-dhist philosophy.As for the original languages in which thesescriptures were written，no thorough examination has been madeso far.It seems that most of them were written in Sanskrit orBuddhist Hybrid Sanskrit，though some probably contained ele-ments of various Central Asian languages such as Tokharian.Thequestion of whether most early Chinese Buddhist sutras weretranslated from Central Asian languages is still an important sub-ject that needs further study.
4. Kumārajīva and Kuchean Buddhism
It is not clear yet when Buddhism first spread to Kucha， astate established by the Tokharians on the northern edge of theTarim  Basin. The story in Ayuwang taizi huaimu yinyuan jing阿育王太子坏目因缘经 which says that Kucha was among thelands A■oka gave to his son Fayi法益 is obviously unbelievable.However， according to Chinese sources， as early as the thirdcentury some Buddhist monks from Kucha arrived in inland Chinato translate and teach.For example，a Kuchean prince  called BoYan 白延 took part in the translation of ■ūramgamasamādhisūt-ra， which Zhi Shilun was in charge of.It is also said that BoYan was good at both Chinese and foreign languages， well-readin a variety of classics，and mastered both Buddhism and Confu-cianism.Other Kuchean Buddhists active in China during theWestern Jin period were Upāsaka Shan Yuanxin单元信，and BoSrimitra(Bo  Shilimiduoluo帛尸梨密多罗)，a member of theKuchean royal house.Fotudeng佛图澄，who arrived at Luoyang in 310 and whose original surname was Bo，was also a Kuchean.After the Later Zhao regime was established, he became a confi- dant of the  Zhao rulers such as Shi Le石勒 and Shi Hu石虎，advised them to be lenient，and made every effort to spread Bud-dhism among the masses. Although he did not translate any Bud-dhism  sutras，Fotudeng missionized in north China for dozens ofyears and had a great influence on Chinese Buddhist history.
Buddhism became even more popular in Kucha during the fourth century.The number of Buddhist monks in that country reached more than ten thousand，while no less than one thousand temples and stupas were set up in the capital alone.Buddhist statues were worshipped in the palace just as they were in the  temples.Some temples were very magnificent and gorgeous,such as the famous Queli Temple located at Subasi to the north of the seat of today's Kucha County，whose remains have been found by archaeologists.①The most famous bishop of the HīnayānaBuddhist clergy in Kucha was Fotushemi 佛图舌弥.He was in charge of many temples，including three big ones for the nuns who were princesses of the royal houses of Eastern Central Asiankingdoms and came to Kucha to learn Buddhism.The KucheanVinaya was said to be very strict and attractive even for EasternJin monks who traveled thousands of miles to here to requestVinaya texts from Fotushemi.Thus we can conclude that Kuchahad become the Buddhist center at that time for both the northernand southern routes of the Tarim Basin.The earlier Buddhistcaves at Qizil were also constructed during this period. In thesecaves were found many Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts dating fromthe second to fourth centuries， most of which are Hīnayāna texts.
The most famous Kuchean monk was Kumārajīva(Jiumolu- oshi鸠摩罗什)，whose dates of birth and death are differentlyrecorded in various sources.Accoriding to Sengzhao's僧肇Jiu-moluoshi fashi lei [ Memoir of Master Kumāraj■va]鸠摩罗什法师诔，he died in the fifteenth year of the Hongshi Reign of the East-ern Jin at the age of seventy.Thus we can reckon his lifetime tobe between 344 and 413.Kumārajīva's  father Kumārāyana wasan Indian.He resigned the post of prime  minister， became  amonk， and then traveled across the Pamirs to Kucha where hewas warmly welcomed by the king， appointed as court teacher，and married the king's sister Jivā.When Kumārajīva was sevenyears old， he left home along with his mother and studied theAbhidharmasūtra  with Fotushemi.At the age of nine，Kumārajīva traveled with his mother across the Indus River toKashmir， and further to Yuezhi，Kashgar and other places beforethey arrived at Yarkand.All the Buddhist sutras Kumārajīvastudied before he was twelve years old were Hīnayāna texts，es-pecially those of the Sarvāstivāda school which was popular inKashmir.However,after he met prince Sūryasoma of Yarkand inKashgar,he switched his interest to Mahāyāna. In addition toHīnayāna and Mahāyāna Buddhism,Kumārajīva also studied thefour Vedas and Pa■cavidyā.After he returned to Kucha via Ak-su，he become a bhik■u in the palace at the age of twenty.
Kumārajīva's  reputation reached as far as China， where themost eminent monk Daoan suggested in a letter to Fu Jian苻坚，the ruler of the Former Qin，that Kumārajīva be invited to China.In 385 Fu Jian sent some troops under general Lü Cuang 吕光 toKucha and kidnapped Kumārajīva to Liangzhou.Sinee Fu Jianwas soon assassinated and Lü Guang established his own regimein the Liangzhou area， Kumārajīva stayed there for more than tenyears.In 401 liangzhou was seized by Yao Xing姚兴，the founder of the Later Qin，who invited Kumārajīva to Chang'anand gave him the title of" state  preceptor". After that time，Kumārajīva began to translate sutras with the assistance of hun-dreds of monks.
Among more than three hundred chapters of Buddhist textstranslated by Kumārajīva in Chang'an were Praj■āpāramitāsūtra,Saddharmapu■■ar■kasūtra,Vimalak■rtinirde■asūtra,Amitābhas-ūtra,Vajracchedikāpraj■āpāramitāsūtra,etc.Most of them wereMahāyāna scriptures and re-translations.Kumārajīva also sys-tematically introduced the Mādhyamika school of Indian Bud-dhism into China and translated representative works of thisschool including Mādhyamikasāstra,■ata■āstra，Dvāda■anikāya-■ āstra， Mahāpraj■āpāramitā■āstra，and Satyasiddhi■āstra.Kumārajīva started a new epoch in the history of Buddhist trans-lation in China because he was successful in both correctly ren-dering the original meaning and expressing them in elegant Chi-nese.That is the reason why Sengyou僧■,in the first chapterof Chu sanzang ji ji，makes a distinction between Kumārajīva's"new"translations and the"old"ones made by all his precur-sors.
As a master of Buddhist translation，Kumārajīva authoredonly a few works of himself.Shixiang lun[Treatise on Real Phe-nomena]实相论，the work which systematically expressed hisphilosophy，has long been lost,His correspondence with HuiYuan慧远 was collected by later scholars and preserved in abook titled Dasheng dayi zhang[Essays on the Essence ofMahāyāna]大乘大义章 in three chapters.Most recently, an an-cient manuscript of Kumārajīva's  Dasheng  Pusa rudao  sanzhongguan[ Three Contemplations of the Enlightened Mahāyāna Bod-dhisattva]大乘菩萨入道三种观has been found in Nagoya，Japan.①Its authenticity，however，needs further examination.
Up to the fifth and sixth centuries，Buddhism  was still flour-ishing in Kucha.It was during this period that most of theKuchean caves were built. Many Buddhist scriptures in Tokhari-an B（Kuchean）as well as temple registers and begging accountsdating from this period have been discovered.As seen in thecave wall-paintings and excavated scriptures,Hīnayāna Bud-dhism was still dominant there.During the 720s,Xuanzang passed through Kucha en route from China to India. In his DaTang xiyu ji，he reported that there were more than one hundredBuddhist temples and no less than five thousand Hīnayāna monksand nuns.He also visited the two Zhaohuli Temple on the eastand west，namely the great Queli Temple we talked about above.From the mid-seventh to the late eighth century, many Chinesepeople immigrated to Kucha.Because of the cultural exchangesbetween the Chinese and Kucheans，some Buddhist caves mixedthe  art styles  of both. From  the second half of the ninth century，the Uighurs gradually replaced the Tibetans as the controllers ofKucha.the Uighurs also converted to Buddhism and tried hard toresist the eastward spread of Islam.The Turks had long since en-tered Kucha.Gradually they became dominant in the local popu-lation during later periods and eventually assimilated the Kucheannatives， while the Kuchean language was also replaced byUighur.By the thirteenth century，the Kuchean people had con-verted to Islam.Buddhist culture as well as the Tokharian-speaking Kucheans themselves disappeared in the long river ofhistory.
However，the extinct Tokharians and their relation with Bud-dhism have been discovered by modern archaeology.All the Tokhar-ian documents are written in slanted Brāhmīwhich is called North-ern Turkestan Brāhmīby L.Sander.The Buddhist literature writtenin ancient Kuchean and Agnean consists mainly of:Udānavarga andits commentary Udānālamkāra,① Prātimoksa,②Karmavācanā，Karmavibhanga,Prat■tyasamutpāda, Abhidharmaka■a, Catusparisatsūtra,the story of Nanda and his wife Sundarī，Māt■ce■a's Buddhastotra,etc.Also found were Pu■yavanta-Jātaka， a variety of avadāna stories，Ara■emi, Jātaka and soforth,most of them can be collated with Avadānasataka, Divyāvadāna, Jātakamālā and Avadānakalpalatā. In the earlytwentieth century，the German  expedition found some fragments of Maitreyasamiti at ■or■uq near Karashahr(Yanqi).In the win- ter of 1974,another 44 sheets（88 pages） of the same work were found in an ash pit near the north temple at the Siksim site,alsoin the vicinity of Karashahr.③Other Buddhist texts related to Maitreya include Maitreyāvadānavyākarana,whose contents arein large part the same as those of Maitreyasamiti,but also have some significant differences. In addition to the above findings，there are also manuscripts and cave inscriptions related to Bud-dhism.Besides Buddhist literature，there are medical，legal，e-conomical and Manichaen documents.①