s before they were approved by orthodox Hindus.

Bodhidharma's teaching was Indian but it harmonized marvellously with
Taoism and Chinese Buddhists studied Taoist books.[796] A current of
Chinese thought which was old and strong, if not the main stream, bade
man abstain from action and look for peace and light within. It was, I
think, the junction of this native tributary with the river of
inflowing Buddhism which gave the Contemplative School its importance.
It lost that importance because it abandoned its special doctrines
and adopted the usages of other schools. When Taoism flourished
under the Sung Emperors it was also flourishing and influenced art as
well as thought, but it probably decayed under the Yuan dynasty which
favoured religion of a different stamp. It is remarkable that
Bodhidharma appears to be unknown to both Indian and Tibetan[797]
writers but his teaching has imparted a special tone and character to
a section (though not the whole) of Far Eastern Buddhism. It is called
in Chinese Tsung-men or Ch'an-tsung, but this word Ch'an[798] is
perhaps better known to Europe in its Japanese form Zen.

Bodhidharma is also accounted the twenty-eighth Patriarch, a title
which represents the Chinese Tsu Shih[799] rather than any Indian
designation, for though in Pali literature we hear of the succession
of teachers,[800] it is not clear that any of them enjoyed a style or
position such as is implied in the word Patriarch. Hindus have always
attached importance to spiritual lineage and every school has a list
of teachers who have transmitted its special lore, but the sense of
hierarchy is so weak that it is misleading to describe these
personages as Popes, Patriarchs or Bishops, and apart from the
personal respect which the talents of individuals may have won, it
does not appear that there was any succession of teachers who could be
correctly termed heads of the Church. Even in China such a title is of
dubious accuracy for whatever position Bodhidharma and his successors
may have claimed for themselves, they were not generally accepted as
being more than the heads of a school and other schools also gave
their chief teachers the title of Tsu-shih. From time to time the
Emperor appointed overseers of religion with the title of
Kuo-shih,[801] instructor of the nation, but these were officials
appointed by the Crown, not prelates consecrated by the Church.

Twenty-eight Patriarchs are supposed to have flourished betwee