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66 42. In the succeeding century, however, relations must have been opened, for in a.d. 65 the Emperor Ming Ti, in consequence of a dream, sent ambassadors to T'ien chu to obtain instruction in the doctrines of Buddha, and to bring back images of him, a step which brought upon that emperor's memory the execrations of the ortho- dox Confucian literati, and which led to very peculiar relations between the two countries for many centuries^. Under the Emperor Ho Ti (a.d. 89-105) Indian sovereigns several times sent tribute (presents) to the court of China, and again in 159 under Hwan Ti, the same emperor that received the mission supposed to have come from Marcus Aurelius. 43. Throughout the greater part of the third and fourth centuries political intercourse between India and China seems to have been interrupted^, though it may 1 [The authenticity of this story is very doubtful. From the study of some newly discovered texts, it appears that Buddhism was introduced into China at the beginning of the Christian era, and that at the very time the two bonzes are supposed to have been brought back from India by Ming Ti's envoys, some Buddhist monks and laymen were living in China with a brother of the Emperor. Prof. Henri Maspero, of Hanoi, who made a careful study of the texts, has come to the conclusion that the traditionary history of the introduction of Buddhism in China is based entirely on some pious legends of the second century. H. Maspero, Le songe et l' amhassade de Vempeveuv Ming, Bui. Ecole Ext. Orient., Jany. - March, 1910, pp. 95-130. In b.c. 2 the king of the Yue chi was a fervent Buddhist and tried to develop his religion in China ; it is probably from him and through the ambassadors of Ngai Ti that the Chinese knew Buddhism.] ^ [Chavannes has given as an appendix to his translation of Sung Yun [Bui. Ecole frang. Ext. Orient., July—Sept., 1903) a list of various works relating to India published in China before the time of the T'ang. According to the Leang Shu, during the Period of the Three Kingdoms, a sovereign of Wu (a.d. 222-280) sent in the middle of the third century K'ang Tai and Chu Ying as ambassadors to Fan Siun, king of Fu Nan (Cambodia) ; they learned that some years previously, Fan Shan, king of Fu Nan, had sent a mission to Central India whose sovereign sent back with them a certain Ch'en sung who was seen by K'ang Tai, to whom he gave some information on India recorded in the Leang Shu.] [" At the time of the Wei and Tsin (220-419) the relations between China and India were interrupted, and they were not