The White Horse Temple is China’s first Buddhist monastery, located east of present-day Luoyang, Henan Province. It was originally built in the eleventh year of Yongping (68 CE) during the Eastern Han dynasty. Historical texts such as the Commentary on the Water Classic (Shuijing Zhu), A Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Luoyang (Luoyang Qielan Ji), and Biographies of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng Zhuan) regard its establishment as the beginning of Buddhism’s introduction into China.
According to legend, Emperor Ming of Han dreamed of a golden figure whose back radiated light like the sun and moon, who identified himself as the “Buddha.” The emperor then dispatched the court official Cai Yin and the scholar Qin Jing to Tianzhu (ancient India) to seek Buddhist teachings. In 67 CE (the tenth year of Yongping), they returned to Luoyang accompanied by Central Indian monks, including Kāśyapa Mātaṅga (She Moteng), carrying Buddhist scriptures and statues. They were initially housed in the Court of State Ceremonial (Honglu Si). Later, Emperor Ming ordered a new residence to be built outside the Yong Gate specifically for them. This new institution retained the name “Si” (temple/monastery)—a term previously used for government offices—as a mark of respect for the foreign monks.
The temple’s name “White Horse” is said to derive from the white horses that carried the scriptures and images back from India.
Although repeatedly damaged by wars since the late Eastern Han, the temple has been extensively restored and funded by successive dynasties. Today, it preserves over 40 ancient stone inscriptions, among which especially precious are: the 1103 stele from the second year of Chongning in the Song dynasty; the Jin dynasty stele “Record of the Reconstruction of the Śākyamuni Relic Stupa”; the Yuan dynasty stone inscription “Last Will of Master Longchuan”; the Yuan stele “Record of the Ancestral Court of Luoyang’s White Horse Temple”; and the Ming dynasty stele “Record of the Restoration of the Ancient White Horse Chan Monastery.”
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