Fotu Cheng
Fotu Cheng was a Buddhist monk and missionary from Kucha. He studied in Kashmir and arrived in the Western Jin capital Luoyang in 310 CE, and was active in the spread of Buddhism in China.Life
Fotu Cheng came from Kucha to the Western Jin dynasty in 310 CE and propagated Buddhism widely. He is said to have demonstrated many spiritual powers and was able to convert the warlords in this region of China over to Buddhism. He succeeded in converting the Jie warlord Shi Le and became Shi's closest advisor as he founded the Later Zhao dynasty in 319 CE. Fotu Cheng uttered the only phrase that reached us in the Jie language, cited in connection with Shi Le's successful war against Liu Yao of the Han-Zhao dynasty in 328 CE, and recorded in the Chinese annals in Chinese transcription with a Chinese translation. This phrase was analyzed in several publications.As a teacher of meditation
Fotu Cheng is well known for his teaching methods of meditation, especially ānāpānasmṛti. Fotu Cheng widely taught ānāpānasmṛti through methods of counting breaths, so as to temper the breathing, simultaneously focusing the mind into a state of peaceful meditative concentration. By teaching meditation methods as well as doctrine, Fotu Cheng popularized Buddhism quickly. According to Nan Huai-Chin, "Besides all its theoretical accounts of emptiness and existence, Buddhism also offered methods for genuine realization of spiritual powers and meditative concentration that could be relied upon. This is the reason that Buddhism began to develop so vigorously in China with Fotu Cheng."Legacy and successors
Eventually, Fotu Cheng became a Later Zhao government official under Shi Hu, who allowed him to found a great number of Buddhist temples. Among his disciples were Dao An, Zhu Faya, Zhu Fatai, Fa-he and Fa-ch'ang. These disciples had a great impact on Buddhism in China, and continued to revere the memory of their teacher. In his history of China, John Keay writes: