Buddhist legends about Emperor Wu of Liang
During the reign of Emperor Wu (r. 502–549) of the Liang dynasty, he embraced and promoted Buddhism. Several times he became a Buddhist monk and forced his court to purchase him back with substantial offerings to the sangha. In 517 he ordered the destruction of Taoist temples and forced Taoist priests to return to lay life. Some of his other reforms, such as the disallowing of capital punishment and of the animal sacrifices during ancestral ceremonies, conformed with his Buddhist convictions. Because of his constant support for Buddhism, Emperor Wu came to be seen as the Chinese counterpart of Ashoka, the great Indian chakravartin and patron of the religion. Later writers who saw Emperor Wu's reign as a golden age of Chinese Buddhism compiled stories on the emperor's role in creating or sponsoring important Buddhist institutions or rituals. A cycle of stories developed around Bao Zhi, the emperor's favorite monk, and around Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen, who was alleged to have met the emperor in the 520s. The emperor's encounter with Bodhidharma According to Buddhist tradition, Bodhidharma, the first Zen patriarch of China, came to visit Emperor Wu around 520. The emperor told Bodhidharma that he had built temples and given financial support to the monastic community, and asked the patriarch how much merit he had gained for these actions. Bodhidharma replied, "None whatsoever." Perplexed, the emperor then asked the eminent monk who he was to tell him such things, to which he answered, "I know not." Bodhidharma then left the imperial court to continue his travels throughout China. This account of their legendary encounter typifies Zen's uncompromising teaching methods. The dialogue appears in the first case of the Blue Cliff Record. Imperial officials disapproved of the dialogue, viewing it as contrary to the dignity of the throne. The encounter between Emperor Wu and Bodhidharma was first recorded around 758 in the appendix to a text by Shen-hui (神會), a disciple of Huineng. The Liberation Rite of Water and Land Emperor Wu is also considered as one of the creators of the Liberation Rite of Water and Land, a grand and costly ritual that was supposed to last for an entire week and was designed both to save the spirits of the dead and to improve the condition of the living. This rite probably originated in the tenth century, but an account by monk Zhipan from the thirteenth century gives Emperor Wu a role in its creation. According to this account, the emperor had a dream in which a benevolent monk advised him to free the spirits of the dead from their sufferings. So the emperor called on Chan Buddhism Master Bao Zhi to organize such a ceremony. Bao Zhi allegedly spent three years to compile the necessary texts for this ritual. The Emperor Liang Repentance The emperor is probably best known for being one of the co-authors of a major scripture in Chinese Buddhism. A major Buddhist repentance service is named after the emperor. Titled the Emperor