**Buddhism in China**

Here is how Buddhism was initially received in China.

> One can understand even more fully why Buddhists in China felt pressure to present their religion as an ancient practice that had existed in China since its cultural inception during the Zhou dynasty if one realizes that at the time, **all things Buddhist seemed barbaric and abhorrent to many in the Chinese empire.** Textual evidence abounds that to the fourth- and fifth-century Chinese, the Buddhist rituals of shaving the head, begging for food, keeping one shoulder bare, squatting on the floor "like a fox," cremating the bodies of deceased parents, refusing to marry and have children, and leaving one's own mother and father behind appeared to be actions of an uncivilized humanity and signs of deficient morality.14

[Source](https://books.google.ca/books?id=e7J5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT71#v=onepage&q&f=false)

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> Initially, Buddhism in China faced a number of difficulties in becoming established. The concept of monasticism and the aversion to social affairs seemed to contradict the long-established norms and standards established in Chinese society. Some even declared that Buddhism was harmful to the authority of the state, that Buddhist monasteries contributed nothing to the economic prosperity of China, that **Buddhism was barbaric and undeserving of Chinese cultural traditions.[10]** However, Buddhism was often associated with Daoism in its ascetic meditative tradition, and for this reason a **concept-matching system was used by some early Indian translators, to adapt native Buddhist ideas onto Daoist ideas and terminology.[11][12]**

[Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Buddhism#Early_translation_methods)

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> The Four Buddhist Persecutions in China was the wholesale suppression of Buddhism carried out on four occasions from the 5th through the 10th century by four Chinese emperors.

[Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Buddhist_Persecutions_in_China)

> When Buddhism came to China, it was adapted to the Chinese culture and understanding. Theories about the influence of other schools in the evolution of Chan vary widely and heavily reliant upon speculative correlation rather than on written records or histories. Some scholars have argued that Chan developed from the interaction between Mahāyāna Buddhism and Taoism,[19][20] while others insist that Chan has roots in yogic practices, specifically kammaṭṭhāna, the consideration of objects, and kasiṇa, total fixation of the mind.[21] A number of other conflicting theories exist.

> Buddhism was exposed to Confucian[22] and Taoist[23][24] influences when it came to China. Goddard quotes D.T. Suzuki,[note 3] calling Chan a "natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions".[25] Buddhism was first identified to be "a barbarian variant of Taoism", and Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts,[24] a practice termed "matching the concepts".[26]

> Judging from the reception by the Han of the Hinayana works and from the early commentaries, it appears that Buddhism was being perceived and digested through the medium of religious Daoism (Taoism). Buddha was seen as a foreign immortal who had achieved some form of Daoist nondeath. The Buddhists' mindfulness of the breath was regarded as an extension of Daoist breathing exercises.[27]

[Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_Buddhism#Signification_of_Buddhism_and_Taoist_influences)

> Zen Origins and Taoist influences

> When Buddhism came to China from Gandhara (now Afghanistan) and India, it was initially adapted to the Chinese culture and understanding. Buddhism was exposed to Confucianist[92] and Taoist[93][94][95][96] influences.[note 10] Goddard quotes D.T. Suzuki,[note 11] calling Chán a "natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions."[97] Buddhism was first identified to be "a barbarian variant of Taoism":[95]

> Judging from the reception by the Han of the Hinayana works and from the early commentaries, it appears that Buddhism was being perceived and digested through the medium of religious Daoism (Taoism). Buddha was seen as a foreign immortal who had achieved some form of Daoist nondeath. The Buddhists’ mindfulness of the breath was regarded as an extension of Daoist breathing exercises.[60]

> Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts,[95] a practice termed ko-i, "matching the concepts",[98] while the emerging Chinese Buddhism had to compete with Taoism and Confucianism.[92]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen#Origins_and_Taoist_influences_(c._200–500)

From ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

> Chinese Buddhism has been viewed not as a Sinicized Indian religion but as flowers on the tree of Chinese religions that blossomed under Indian stimulus and that basically maintained their Chinese character.

> The Indian religion was at first regarded as a foreign variety of Daoism; the particular Buddhist texts chosen to be translated during the Han period reveal the Daoist preoccupation of the earliest converts with rules of conduct and techniques of meditation. Early translators employed Daoist expressions as equivalents for Buddhist technical terms. Thus, the Buddha, in achieving enlightenment (bodhi), was described as having “obtained the Dao”; the Buddhist saints (arhat) become perfected Immortals (zhenren); and “non-action” (wuwei) was used to render nirvana (the Buddhist state of bliss). A joint sacrifice to Laozi and the Buddha was performed by the Han emperor in 166 ce. During this period occurred the first reference to the notion that Laozi, after vanishing into the west, became the Buddha. This theory enjoyed a long and varied history. It claimed that Buddhism was a debased form of Daoism, designed by Laozi as a curb on the violent natures and vicious habits of the “western barbarians,” and as such was entirely unsuitable for Chinese consumption. A variant theory even suggested that, by imposing celibacy on Buddhist monks, Laozi intended the foreigners’ extinction.

> On a more profound level the ultimate synthesis of Daoism and Buddhism was realized in the Chan (Japanese Zen) tradition (from the 7th century on), into which the paradoxes of the ancient Daoist mystics were integrated. Likewise, the goal of illumination in a single lifetime, rather than at the end of an indefinite succession of future existences, was analogous to the religious Daoist’s objective of immortality as the culmination of his present life.

> Chan Buddhism deeply influenced neo-Confucianism, the renaissance of Confucian philosophy in Song times (960–1279), which in Chinese is called “Learning of the Way” (daoxue). In this movement Confucianism acquired a universal dimension beyond a concern for society. Neo-Confucian thought often seems as Daoist as the so-called neo-Daoist philosophy and literature seem Confucian.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Daoism/Daoism-and-other-religions