"China's first and most influential history book, The Historical Records, stated clearly that Emperor Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC) strictly banned Buddhism and Buddhist temples," says Han Wei, a noted researcher with the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archeology.

According to the Historical Records, the ban went alongside the emperor's major military strategies including the deportation of the invading Huns, and was applied far beyond the ancient capital Xianyang in today's Xi'an to cover the whole country.

Emperor Qin Shihuang's ban on Buddhism indicated the religion was already popular in China's interior regions in his reign, says Han, whose thesis on the subject was published last week in Xi'an