During his reign as emperor of China, Emperor Wu of Liang (r.
502–549) embraced and promoted Buddhism. Several times he became a
monk and forced his court to purchase him back with substantial
offerings to the Buddhist clergy.[1] In 517 he ordered the
destruction of Taoist temples and forced Taoist adepts to return to
lay life.[1] 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.[citation
needed] Because of his constant support for Buddhism he came to be
seen as the Chinese counterpart of king Ashoka, the great Indian
patron of that religion.[2] 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 Buddhism, who was alleged to have met the emperor
in the 520s.[2]
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