1. Śākyamuni. 12. Aśvaghosha. 2. Mahākāśyapa. 13. Bhikshu Kapimala. 3. Ānanda. 14. Nāgārjuna. 4. Śaṇavāsa. 15. Kāṇadeva. 5. Upagupta. 16. Ārya Rāhulata. 6. Dhṛitaka. 17. Saṁghanandi. 7. Micchaka. 18. Saṁghayaśas. 8. Buddhanandi. 19. Kumārata. 9. Buddhamitra. 20. Jayata. 10. Bhikshu Parśva. 21. Vasubandhu. 11. Puṇyayaśas. 22. Manura. 23. Haklenayaśas. 26. Puṇyamitra. 24. Bhikshu Siṁha. 27. Prajñātara. 25. Vāśasita. 28. Bodhi-Dharma. To be consistent with the view that Zen was a “special transmission from the Buddha outside of his doctrinal teaching,” Zen historians have extended this transmission even beyond Śākyamuni; for, according to tradition prevalent already among primitive Buddhists, there were at least six Buddhas prior to the Buddha of the present kalpa who was the Muni of the Śākyas; and these several Buddhas had each to leave a gāthā of “Dharma transmission” which is systematically preserved in Zen history. Now if the six Buddhas of the past had their gāthās, why not those patriarchs between Śākyamuni and Bodhi-Dharma, all inclusively? Or, if any one of them had at all any kind of gāthā, why not the rest of them too? So, they have all bequeathed their gāthās of transmission regularly prefaced with the words: “I now hand over to you the eye-treasure of the Great Law, which you will guard and ever be mindful of.” No doubt they are fictitious productions of the historical imagination which was so highly exercised by the early writers of Zen history, evidently inspired by an extraordinary zeal for their orthodox faith. The translators of these patriarchal verses are, according to the author of the _Records of the Right Transmission_, Chih-chiang-liang-lou,[4.5] of the First Wei dynasty, and Na-lien-ya-shê,[4.6] of the Eastern Wei; the former came from Middle India and the latter from Kabul. Their book known as the _Account of Succession in the Law_[4.7] disappeared after the repeated persecutions carried out by the reigning dynasties, but the stories of these patriarchs were quoted at least in the two books, the _Pao-lin Ch‘uan_[4.8] and the _Shêng-chou Chi_,[4.9] both compiled prior to the _Transmission of the Lamp_, in which they are referred to. But they too were lost some time after Kaisu (Ch‘i-sung) in the Sung dynasty. Therefore at present the _Transmission of the Lamp_ is the earliest history of Zen where the twenty-eight patriarchs and their verses of law-transmission are recorded in detail. To quote as samples two of the six Buddhas’ gāthās, the first Buddha Vipaśyi declares: “This body from within the Formless is born, It is like through magic that all forms and images appear: Phantom beings with mentality and consciousness have no reality from the very beginning; Both evil and happiness are void, have no abodes.”[4.10] The gāthā of the sixth Buddha, Kāśyapa, who just preceded the Muni of the Śākyas, runs thus: