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Why did Zhang Qian bid farewell to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and paint all monks?
At present, when talking about Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, several sets of middle school history textbooks all use the mural of Cave 323 in Dunhuang, The Map of Zhang Qian's Mission to the Western Regions. In teaching, many teachers and students have raised questions: "Why do all the characters in the picture look like monks?"? Was Buddhism introduced to China by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty? " In fact, although this painting, which was completed in the early Tang Dynasty, has great artistic value and Buddhist research value, it is of little use to help middle school students form a correct historical representation.

Please look at the panorama of this painting. The picture can be divided into three scenes: in the upper right part, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty holds an incense burner and worships two statues with his ministers in the "Ganquan Palace"; In the middle part, Zhang Qian knelt down to bid farewell to Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, who rode on a horse, followed by a waiter with an umbrella cover (the line drawing provided by the textbook was made accordingly); On the upper left, Zhang Qian and his party made a long journey across the mountains to the summer. These three scenes tell a story: After defeating the Huns, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty won two golden statues, which were enshrined in Ganquan Palace. Because I didn't know the name of Jin, I sent Zhang Qian to Daxia (now Afghanistan) to inquire. Zhang Qian successfully completed the task and told Emperor Wu that the two golden statues were Buddha statues, so Buddhism spread to China. However, it is clearly stated in the textbook that Buddhism was only introduced to Chinese mainland in the late Western Han Dynasty. How did this happen?

It turned out that this story was completely invented by Buddhists at that time. It is a historical fact that Zhang Qian went to the Western Regions and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty got two golden statues, but there is no relationship between them. The two golden statues are Xiongnu gods who worship heaven, not Buddha statues. This story, which comes from the romance of Buddhism, suddenly advanced the introduction of Buddhism into Chinese mainland by more than a century, and regarded Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty as a great hero who supported Buddhism. Because the story is made up by Buddhists and the painting is painted by Buddhists, the characters in the painting are almost all monks, which is far from the real scene of Zhang Qian's farewell to Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty.