In 381 we are told that in north-western China nine-tenths of the inhabitants were Buddhists.  In 372 Buddhism was introduced into Korea and accepted as the flower of Chinese civilization.

The state known as the Former Ts’in[618] had its nucleus in Shensi, but expanded considerably between 351 and 394 A.D. under the leadership of Fu-Chien,[619] who established in it large colonies of Tartars.  At first he favoured Confucianism but in 381 became a Buddhist.  He was evidently in close touch with the western regions and probably through them with India, for we hear that sixty-two states of Central Asia sent him tribute.

The Later Ts’in dynasty (384-417) had its headquarters in Kansu and was founded by vassals of the Former Ts’in.  When the power of Fu-Chien collapsed, they succeeded to his possessions and established themselves in Ch’ang-an.  Yao-hsing,[620] the second monarch of this line was a devout Buddhist, and deserves mention as the patron of Kumarajiva,[621] the most eminent of the earlier translators.

Kumarajiva was born of Indian parents in Kucha and, after following the school of the Sarvastivadins for some time, became a Mahayanist.  When Kucha was captured in 383 by the General of Fu-Chien, he was carried off to China and from 401 onwards he laboured at Ch’ang-an for about ten years.  He was appointed Kuo Shih,[622] or Director of Public Instruction, and lectured in a hall specially built for him.  He is said to have had 3000 disciples and fifty extant translations are ascribed to him.  Probably all the Tartar kingdoms were well disposed towards Buddhism, though their unsettled condition made them precarious residences for monks and scholars.  This was doubtless true of Northern Wei, which had been growing during the period described, but appears as a prominent home of Buddhism somewhat later.

Meanwhile in the south the Eastern Tsin Dynasty, which represented the legitimate Empire and ruled at Nanking from 317 to 420, was also favourable to Buddhism and Hsiao Wu-Ti, the ninth sovereign of this line, was the first Emperor of China to become a Buddhist.

The times were troubled, but order was gradually being restored.  The Eastern Tsin Dynasty had been much disturbed by the struggles of rival princes.  These were brought to an end in 420 by a new dynasty known as Liu Sung which reigned in the south some sixty years.  The north was divided among six Tartar kingdoms, which all perished before 440 except Wei.  Wei then split into an Eastern and a Western kingdom which lasted about a hundred years.  In the south, the Liu Sung gave place to three short dynasties, Ch’i, Liang and Ch’en, until at last the Sui (589-605) united China.