Around 500 BCE, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, founded a religion in India called Buddhism. Buddhism revolves around the teachings of the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path. The Buddha preaches that if these doctrines are followed, Buddhists will reach a state of enlightenment called Nirvana, and thus freed from the worries of the physical world.

Spread of Buddhism into China
Although the exact date Buddhism reached China from India is unclear, it was obviously a factor as early as the first century CE. Buddhism was spread along the Silk Road and other trade routes and had reached China by the time of the Later Han Dynasty.
 
 

One account of Buddhism's entry into China describes Han Emperor Ming's dream during the first century CE. It is said that Buddha appeared to the emperor in a dream and that the very next day he ordered some his officials to travel west in an attempt to find what had caused his vision. The officials traveled along the Silk Road and eventually came upon two monks who were carrying a picture of Buddha as well as holy Buddhist writings. The monks were brought back to China's capital. There, the emperor identified the picture of Buddha as the figure he had seen in his dream. The monks were then asked to translate their texts into Chinese, and they began went to work in a building that became known as the White Horse Temple. While no one knows whether or not this myth is an accurate description, there is historical fact which shows Buddhism being practiced in China by the middle of the second century CE.

Even though the Later Han Dynasty disintegrated in the last half of the second century CE, the interest in Buddhism throughout China continued. Various figures and monks continued to translate Buddhist texts into Chinese and thus began the widespread popularity of Buddhism in China which continues today.