Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s3.t13.3

v1.c7.s3.t13.3

According to historical records, *Bodhidharma* was the prince of a country in south India, who gave up the throne for Buddhism and later came to China by sea. First he went to Jinling (present-day Nanjing) to meet Xiao Yan, Emperor Wudi of the Liang Dynasty (on the throne from 502 to 547 CE) and then started a journey northward, during which he passed by Luoyang and eventually settled at the foot of Mount Songshan. In a rock cave of Shaolin Temple, he sat in meditation facing a wall for the entire nine years and began to accept students and disseminate the *dharma*. Today, Damo Cave in Shaolin Temple is just the place of Bodhidharma sitting in meditation. During Tang Dynasty, Zen Buddhism was officially established which recognised retroactively Bodhidharma as the Adiguru of Chinese Zen. Zen is a product of Indian Buddhism in China and has a certain relationship with Bodhidharma’s thought and practice. Therefore, Shaolin Temple became the “ancestral Chamber” of Zen.