The first traces
The earliest firm Chinese record of Buddhist practice concerns Prince Ying of Chu. The Book of the Later Han says that in 65 CE he honoured the Buddha together with the Daoist sage Laozi, and supported monks and lay devotees at his court. In 166 CE Emperor Huan offered sacrifices to both Laozi and the Buddha in his palace.
Buddhism arrived with foreign merchants and monks travelling the routes from Central Asia, and communities of them lived in the capital, Luoyang.
Understood through Chinese eyes
At first Chinese people understood Buddhism in their own terms, as a way to immortality or as a foreign form of Daoism. Early translators even borrowed Daoist words for Buddhist ideas, a practice later called "matching concepts".
It faced real objections. Monks shaved their heads and did not marry, which seemed to break the Confucian duty to one's parents and ancestors. Over the following centuries Buddhists answered these objections in writing, and the religion found a secure place in Chinese life.
Why it matters
It marks the start of Buddhism's long encounter with Chinese civilization, which would transform both.
History and tradition
What historians can say
Buddhism's arrival in China cannot be tied to one date. The references to Prince Ying and Emperor Huan are the earliest reliable evidence; translation work at Luoyang is documented from the mid-2nd century CE.
What Buddhist tradition remembers
A famous later legend says Emperor Ming of Han dreamed of a golden figure flying before his palace, and sent envoys west who returned with two Indian monks and scriptures carried on a white horse. The White Horse Temple at Luoyang, traditionally China's first Buddhist temple, is named after that horse.