Hui Yuan[829] who lived from 333 to 416 is considered as the founder of the school.  He was in his youth an enthusiastic Taoist and after he turned Buddhist is said to have used the writings of Chuang-tzu to elucidate his new faith.  He founded a brotherhood, and near the monastery where he settled was a pond in which lotus flowers grew, hence the brotherhood was known as the White Lotus school.[830] For several centuries[831] it enjoyed general esteem.  Pan-chou, one of its Patriarchs, received the title of Kuo-shih about 770 A.D., and Shan-tao, who nourished about 650 and wrote commentaries, was one of its principal literary men.[832] He popularized the doctrine of the Pai-tao or White Way, that is, the narrow bridge leading to Paradise across which Amitabha will guide the souls of the faithful.  But somehow the name of White Lotus became connected with conspiracy and rebellion until it was dreaded as the title of a formidable secret society, and ceased to be applied to the school as a whole.  The teaching and canonical literature of the Pure Land school did not fall into disrepute but since it was admitted by other sects to be, if not the most excellent way, at least a permissible short cut to heaven, it appears in modern times less as a separate school than as an aspect of most schools.[833] The simple and emotional character of Amidism, the directness of its “Come unto me,” appeal so strongly to the poor and uneducated, that no monastery or temple could afford to neglect it.

Two important Indian schools were introduced into China in the sixth and seventh centuries respectively and flourished until about 900 A.D. when they began to decay.  These are the Chu-she-tsung and Fa-hsiang-tsung.[834] The first name is merely a Chinese transcription of the Sanskrit Ko’sa and is due to the fact that the chief authority of the school is the Abhidharmakosasastra of Vasubandhu.[835] This work expounds the doctrine of the Sarvastivadins, but in a liberal spirit and without ignoring other views.  Though the Chu-she-tsung represented the best scholastic tradition of India more adequately than any other Chinese sect, yet it was too technical and arid to become popular and both in China and Japan (where it is known as Kusha-shu) it was a system of scholastic philosophy rather than a form of religion.  In China it did not last many centuries.

The Fa-Hsiang school is similar inasmuch as it represented Indian scholasticism and remained, though much esteemed, somewhat academic.  The name is a translation of Dharmalakshana and the school is also known as Tz’u-en-tsung,[836] and also as Wei-shih-hsiang-chiao because its principal text-book is the Ch’eng-wei-shih-lun.[837] This name, equivalent to Vidyamatra, or Vijnanamatra, is the title of a work by Hsuan Chuang which appears to be a digest of ten Sanskrit commentaries on a little tract of thirty verses ascribed to Vasubandhu.  As ultimate authorities the school also recognizes the revelations made to Asanga by Maitreya[838] and probably the Mahayanasutralankara[839] expresses its views.  It claims as its founder Silabhadra the teacher of Hsuan Chuang, but the latter was its real parent.