After the Tang
The persecution of 845 damaged the scholastic schools badly: they depended on libraries, endowments and court patronage, and did not fully recover. Chan and Pure Land needed less of that apparatus, and came through strongest.
Under the Song, Chan organised itself into documented lineages, published collections of encounter dialogues such as the Blue Cliff Record and the Gateless Gate, and found an enthusiastic readership among the scholar officials.
The two gates together
From the 10th century onwards, most Chinese monks practised both. Yongming Yanshou argued for their union, and the Ming teacher Yunqi Zhuhong made the case again: sitting meditation and the recitation of Amitābha's name, nianfo, as one practice rather than two rival ones.
Outside the monasteries, Buddhist, Confucian and Daoist practice mixed in ordinary life without anyone finding it strange. Lay societies met to recite, to fund printing, to release animals and to feed the hungry ghosts.
Books and devotion
The Buddhist canon was printed in full repeatedly from the 10th century, an undertaking on the scale of a state project. Guanyin, the Chinese form of Avalokiteśvara, became the most widely loved figure in Chinese religion, and the four sacred mountains became pilgrimage destinations that still draw crowds.
Why it matters
They shape the everyday Buddhism of China for centuries.
History and tradition
What historians can say
Chinese sources are abundant: monastic codes, local gazetteers, printed canons, state records and inscriptions. The older picture of a Buddhism in long decline after the Tang has been substantially revised. Song and Ming Buddhism were vigorous; they were organised differently, around lineage, lay society and devotion rather than around doctrinal schools.