It’s well known that there are a lot of ancient Indian Buddhist tales to spread into China along the Silk Road. This paper focuses on the story of three fishes and mainly compares the different contents, themes and structures of this story in Indian Jātaka, Pañca-tantra, Hitopades' a, Kathāsaritsāgaraand Mahābhārata, and in Sogdian tales, Arabic Kalīla wa Dimna, Persian Mathnawi and Thai tales of Nang Tantrai beyond India. And by analysis of this story with the related three images, the author tries to draw the outline of its transmission in multiple literature and arts. As an empirical case, it will help us to understand the complexity of the transmission of Indian literature and religions into different periods and spaces.
