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Saints and Poets

Two Monks, Two White Horses, and the First Temple in China

A Han emperor dreamed of a golden man flying over his palace. His envoys came back with two Indian monks and a horse carrying books.

The emperor dreamed of a golden man, radiant, flying above his palace.

The dream

Emperor Ming of the Han dynasty, in the first century CE, described the dream to his court and asked what it meant.

One of his ministers had an answer.

There was a sage in the west, in India, called the Buddha. And the golden figure was probably him.

So the emperor sent an embassy west to find out.

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