ABSTRACT
Kang Senghui's family lived in the Indian subcontinent for generations, but his father, a trader in Sogdiana, moved to settle in what is present-day Vietnam. Both of Kang Senghui's parents died when he was in his teens. After a period of mourning he joined a Buddhist order and was ordained a monk. He became very knowledgeable in Chinese culture and thought. Sun Quan, the Emperor of the Kingdom of Wu, had a monastery built for him. This was the first monastery built in China south of the Yangtze River. Kang Senghui translated two sutras in this monastery, employing methods that were aimed mostly at bringing across the ideas. Later, at a meeting with King Sun Hao, the grandson of Sun Quan, he tried to explain Buddhist teachings with ideas drawn from canonical Ruist texts. His was the first attempt to merge the ideas of Buddhism with those of Ruism.
