There are three major schools of Buddhism in China: Han, Tibetan, and Southern Theravada Buddhism. About the introduction of Han Buddhism in China, it is said that the Ming emperor of the Eastern Han dynasty dreamt one night of a man with a golden body and a halo behind his head levitating freely in the hall of his palace. 

In the third year of Yongping in the Eastern Han dynasty (60 AD), the Ming emperor had a dream: he saw a golden figure with a circle of light around its neck flying freely above the palace of the imperial court. The next morning, when the court was assembled, the emperor summoned all the officials to tell them about the dream. Fu Yi, the imperial historian, said, “In the time of King Zhou Zhao (c. 1027 – 977 B.C.) there is a record of the appearance of a sage in the West, whose body was six feet tall and covered with gold; the golden man seen in His Majesty’s dream may be the Buddha.” Dr. Wang Zun thought the same and added that, according to the records, the Buddha’s teachings would reach China within a thousand years after the events of Zhou Zhao, exactly the time that had passed until then. The Ming Emperor was delighted to hear this. From then on, he waited day and night for the arrival of the Buddha’s teachings. However, several years passed without news. In the seventh year of Yongping (64 A.D.), the Ming Emperor sent eighteen wise ministers from his court, among them Cai Yun, Qin Jing and Wang Zun, to the West in search of the Buddha’s teachings.

On their march westward, these eighteen men passed through the Yuezhi Kingdom and met two Indian monks: Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaratna. Qin Jing and the other envoys respectfully explained their purpose and then invited the two venerable monks to go with them to China to spread the Dharma. So the two monks brought the sutras, statues and relics of Buddha to China on white horses. They arrived in Luoyang in the tenth year of Yongping (67 A.D.).

According to legend, the Buddha statue they brought, the fourth Buddha statue made by King Udayana, had the same shape as the golden man in the Ming emperor’s dream. When he saw it, he was so moved that he installed the two Indian monks in the Honglu temple, where he received his most noble guests. The following year, the emperor issued an edict to build a temple opposite the Yongmen Gate in the west of the city to house the two masters and translate the Buddhist scriptures, in what is now the White Horse Temple in Luoyang, thus opening a new chapter in the history of Chinese Buddhism.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Han Buddhism reached its peak, developing into many schools and spreading to Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Among the many schools, the eight most important Chinese schools are: the Three Treatises (also known as the Dharma Nature School), Yoga (also known as the Dharma Sangha School), Tiantai, Huayan (also known as Flower Garland), Zen, Pure Land, Ritsu and Tantric (also known as the True Word School). Among these, Zen and Pure Land Buddhism are the most widespread in China.

In the two thousand years since its introduction into China, Buddhism has continued to integrate and complement its Confucian and Taoist cultures, establishing a hybrid system with Chinese characteristics. Chinese Mahayana Buddhism is already considered one of the main pillars of traditional Chinese culture.