Everything about An Shih Kao totally explained
An Shih-kao (?-~
168) (安世高;
pinyin Ān Shígāo) was a prince of
Parthia, nicknamed the "Parthian Marquis", who renounced his prospect as a contender for the royal throne of Parthia in order to serve as a
Buddhist missionary monk.
The prefix
An in An Shih-kao's name is an abbreviation of
Anxi (Ch:安息), meaning
Parthia in ancient Chinese:
Anxi is a transcription of "
Arsaces", the founder of the
Arsacid Dynasty of Parthia. Most Parthian visitors who took a Chinese name received the
An prefix to indicate their Parthian origin.
In
148, An Shih-kao arrived in
China at the
Han Dynasty capital of
Luoyang, where he set up a centre for the translation of Buddhist texts. He translated thirty-five texts from the
Theravada and
Mahayana schools of Buddhism, including works on meditation, psychology, and techniques of breath control.
An Shih-kao is the first Buddhist missionary to China to be named in Chinese sources. Another Parthian monk named
An Xuan is also said to have followed An Shih-kao to Loyang around
181 CE, where he took charge of translating Mahayana texts.
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