The Liu Sung Emperor Wen-Ti (424-454) was a patron of Confucian learning, but does not appear to have discouraged Buddhism.  The Sung annals record that several embassies were sent from India and Ceylon to offer congratulations on the flourishing condition of religion in his dominions, but they also preserve memorials from Chinese officials asking for imperial interference to prevent the multiplication of monasteries and the growing expenditure on superstitious ceremonies.  This marks the beginning of the desire to curb Buddhism by restrictive legislation which the official class displayed so prominently and persistently in subsequent centuries.  A similar reaction seems to have been felt in Wei, where the influential statesman Ts’ui Hao,[623] a votary of Taoism, conducted an anti-Buddhist campaign.  He was helped in this crusade by the discovery of arms in a monastery at Ch’ang-an.  The monks were accused of treason and debauchery and in 446 Toba Tao,[624] the sovereign of Wei, issued an edict ordering the destruction of Buddhist temples and sacred books as well as the execution of all priests.  The Crown Prince, who was a Buddhist, was able to save many lives, but no monasteries or temples were left standing.  The persecution, however, was of short duration.  Toba Tao was assassinated and almost the first act of his successor was to re-establish Buddhism and allow his subjects to become monks.  From this period date the sculptured grottoes of Yun-Kang in northern Shan-si which are probably the oldest specimens of Buddhist art in China.  In 471 another ruler of Wei, Toba Hung, had a gigantic image of Buddha constructed and subsequently abdicated in order to devote himself to Buddhist studies.  His successor marks a reaction, for he was an ardent Confucianist who changed the family name to Yuan and tried to introduce the Chinese language and dress.  But the tide of Buddhism was too strong.  It secured the favour of the next Emperor in whose time there are said to have been 13,000 temples in Wei.

In the Sung dominions a conspiracy was discovered in 458 in which a monk was implicated, and restrictive, though not prohibitive, regulations were issued respecting monasteries.  The Emperor Ming-Ti, though a cruel ruler was a devout Buddhist and erected a monastery in Hu-nan, at the cost of such heavy taxation that his ministers remonstrated.  The fifty-nine years of Liu Sung rule must have been on the whole favourable to Buddhism, for twenty translators flourished, partly natives and partly foreigners from Central Asia, India and Ceylon.  In 420 a band of twenty-five Chinese started on a pilgrimage to India.  They had been preceded by the celebrated pilgrim Fa-Hsien[625] who travelled in India from 399 to 414.

In the reign of Wu-Ti, the first Emperor of the Ch’i dynasty, one of the imperial princes, named Tzu Liang,[626] cultivated the society of eminent monks and enjoyed theological discussions.  From the specimens of these arguments which have been preserved we see that the explanation of the inequalities of life as the result of Karma had a great attraction for the popular mind and also that it provoked the hostile criticism of the Confucian literati.