country, not merely through his translation of Zen sutras above
mentioned, but by the education of his disciples, such as Sang Chao
(So-jo, died A.D. 414), Sang Shang (So-sho, whose writings
undoubtedly influenced later Zen teachers. A more important
personage in the history of Zen previous to the Blue-eyed Brahmin is
Buddhabhadra, a well-known Zen master, who came over to China A.D.
406. His translation of Dharmatara-dhyana-sutra (which is said to
have been preached by Bodhidharma himself when he was in India) and
that of Avatamsaka-sutra may be said without exaggeration to have
laid the corner-stone for Zen. He gave a course of lectures on the
Zen sutra for the first time in China in A.D. 413, and it was through
his instruction that many native practisers of Zen were produced, of
whom Chi Yen (Chi-gon) and Huen Kao (Gen-ko) are well known. In
these days Zen should have been in the ascendant in India, because
almost all Indian scholars-at least those known to us-were called Zen
teachers-for instance, Buddhabhadra, Buddhasena, Dharmadhi, and some
others were all Zen scholars.

Chinese Buddhist scholars did no less than Indian teachers toward the
uprising of Zen. The foremost among them is Hwui Yuen (E-on, died
A.D. 414), who practised Zen by the instruction of Buddhabhadra. He
founded the Society of the White Lotus, which comprised eighteen
eminent scholars of the age among its members, for the purpose of
practising Meditation and of adoring Buddha Amitabha. We must not
forget that during the Western and the Eastern Tsin (Shin) dynasties
(A.D. 265-420) both Taoism and Buddhism grew prosperous to no small
extent. And China produced, on the one hand, Taoists of an eccentric
type, such as the Seven Wise Men of the Bamboo Forest, while she gave
birth to many recluse-like men of letters, such as Tao Yuen Ming
(To-yen-mei, died A.D. 427) and some others on the other. Besides