Kashyapa Matanga and Gobharana were two Dharma Masters from India who co-translated the Sutra In Forty-Two Sections, in the later Han dynasty. The Han Dynasty was divided into the Eastern Han and the Western Han, and the period referred to here is the Eastern Han. In the Eastern Han, during the third year of the Yung Ping reign period (62 AD.),Emperor had a dream. He dreamed of a golden man who had a halo of light which shone forth from the crown of his head and streamed out through empty space into the palace where the Emperor was sleeping. The next day he questioned his officials about the dream and an astrologer named Fu-i said to the Emperor, "I have heard that in India there was a holy one whom people called the Buddha. Your dream, Your Majesty, certainly is of the Buddha."

A scholar named Wang-Tsun also spoke to the Emperor: "In the Chou Dynasty, there was a book written which was called Records Of Strange Events. In that book it was stated:

When the Buddha was born,
the creeks and rivers overflowed their banks,
the entire earth quaked,
and a five-colored light pierced the heavens.

At that time there was an astrologer, also a diviner, named Su-Yu. He consulted the I Ching and got the hexagram "Ch'ien," "nine in the fifth place," "flying dragon the heavens," and knew from that, that a great Sage had been born in the West, in India. That Sage would transmit a teaching which after five hundred years would be transmitted to Chung Kuo (China).

At that time, the King of Chou ordered that the details of the event be carved in stone as a record and then buried at a certain spot south of the city to wait and see if the event would actually occur--to see if five hundred years hence, the Buddhadharma would actually be transmitted to Chung Kuo.

Later, during the reign of King Mu, there was a massive earthquake which moved heaven and earth. A white rainbow with twelve rays arched through the sun. At that time there was another astrologer named Hu-to who also used the I Ching to reckon the hexagrams, and he figured out, "This is a great Sage from the West who has entered extinction. In India, earlier in the Chou Dynasty, this great Sage came into the world and now he has entered Nirvana." So, although when the Buddha entered the world and entered extinction he was very far from Chung Kuo, nonetheless, they knew about it in Chung Kuo. The Buddha's appearance in the world was no chance event.

When the Emperor Ming of Han had the dream about the Buddha, he commanded Ts'ai-yin, Ch'in-ching, Wang-tsun, and others to go to India to seek the Buddhadharma. In India they met Kashyapa Matanga and Gobharana, and these two monks returned to Chung Kuo with Ts'ai-yin, Ch'in-ching, and Wang-tsun arriving in Loyang in the tenth year of the Yung-p'ing reign period (69 A.D.). They came carrying the Sutras on a white horse, whereupon the Emperor of Han established white Horse Monastery. There they translated The Sutra In Forty-Two Sections Spoken By The Buddha, making it the first Sutra transmitted to Chung Kuo.

At that time Taoism flourished in Chung Kuo. When Buddhism arrived in Chung Kuo, the Taoist masters became jealous. By the fourteenth year of the Tung-p'ing reign period, they had had enough. On New Year's Day they met with the Emperor and told him that Buddhism was false, that it was a barbarian religion, not Chung Wen (Chinese). "You should abolish Buddhism," they urged. "If you will not abolish it, then you should at least have a contest in order to compare Buddhism with Taoism." They suggested that the texts be put together in a pile and then burned. Whichever texts did not burn would be the true ones.

On the fifteenth day of the new year, Taoist Master and leader Ch'u Shan-hsin, as well as five hundred other Taoist Masters, assembled at the southern gate of White Horse Monastery. They put the Taoist texts and the Buddhist texts together and then prayed to the Old Man of Mount T'ai, saying, "Divine Lord, Virtuous One of the Way, please grant us an efficacious response to insure that our Taoist texts will not burn and that the Buddhist Sutras will."

At that time there were many Taoist Masters with spiritual penetrations. They could mount the fog and ride the clouds. They could fly through the heavens and hide in the earth. They could vanish into thin air. They had used the charms and spells of the Taoist religion to gain spiritual powers. But when the fire was lit, guess what happened? The Buddhist Sutras did not burn. Instead, they emitted light. The shariras of the Buddha emitted a five-colored light as bright as the sun, illumining the whole world. The light shone into empty space and formed a great canopy which covered everyone in the Great Assembly. As soon as the Taoist texts were set on fire, they burned. And those who before could mount the clouds and ride the fog couldn't anymore. They didn't have any more spiritual penetrations. Those who before could fly could no longer fly. Those who before could hide in the earth could no longer hide in the earth. Those who before could vanish could no longer vanish. When they spoke their charms, they were no longer efficacious. There wasn't any response. The Taoist texts burned to a crisp and the Taoist Masters ch'u Shan-hsin and Fei Cheng-ch'ing just about died of rage. In the midst of the fury of the masters, two or three hundred of their disciples shaved their heads on the spot and became Buddhist monks. So the first time Taoism and Buddhism came to grips, the two Venerable Ones, Kashyapa Matanga and Gobharana, ascended into empty space and manifested the eighteen transformations of an Arhat. The Upper part of their bodies emitted water, the lower part of their bodies emitted fire; the upper part of their bodies emitted water; they walked about in empty space; they lay down and went to sleep in empty space, and so forth. Because of those manifestations, the Emperor and the people all came to believe in Buddhism.