Name Kang Senghui | ||
Died 280 AD, Jianye District, Nanjing, China | ||
Kang Senghui (traditional: 康僧會; simplified: 康僧会; pinyin: Kāng Sēnghuì; Wade–Giles: K'ang Seng-hui; Vietnamese: Khương Tăng Hội; died 280) was a Buddhist monk and translator during the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China. He was born in Jiaozhi (Chinese 交趾; modern-day northern Vietnam). Khương Tăng Hội is regarded as the first Vietnamese patriarch of Zen Buddhism in Việt Nam. He was the son of a Sogdian merchant. Kang contributed to the diffusion and translation of Buddhist sutras into the Chinese language. According to legend the first Buddha relic in China appeared in a vase in 248 C.E. so that Kang Senghui would have something to show a local ruler. The king of Wu Sun Quan would unsuccessfully attempt to destroy the tooth, by subjecting it to various tests.
Kang is known as Khương Tăng Hội in Vietnam and Thông Biện (1096) claims scriptural traditions from Kang influenced Vietnamese Buddhism, though there is no independent evidence for this tradition.