Four Great Bodhisattvas- Chinese GroupCollective"The Four Cardinal Bodhisattvas"

The Four Virtues

Indian Buddhism recognized these bodhisattvas independently, but Chinese Buddhists organized them into a complementary system where each fulfilled a necessary function: compassion, wisdom, practice, and the vow to save all beings. Guanyin and Wenshu were prominent from the earliest period of Buddhist transmission into China. Puxian's importance grew through the Huayan Jing, where he appears alongside Wenshu as an attendant of Vairocana Buddha. Dizang's cult arrived later, gaining momentum after the Korean monk Kim Gyo-gak settled on Jiuhua Shan during the Tang dynasty and was recognized after death as the bodhisattva's incarnation.

By the Song dynasty, the four were firmly established as a canonical grouping, each paired with one of China's Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains.

The Four Mountains

The sacred mountains form a pilgrimage network spanning eastern, northern, western, and central China. Putuo Shan, an island off the coast of Zhejiang, became Guanyin's abode when a Japanese monk carrying her statue was prevented by storms from sailing home. Wutai Shan in Shanxi became a meeting ground of Han Chinese and Tibetan traditions, its five flat-topped peaks housing monasteries of both schools. Emei Shan in Sichuan rises above the clouds at over three thousand meters, its golden summit one of China's most spectacular pilgrimage destinations. Jiuhua Shan in Anhui became famous for the practice of mummification among its monks, who sought to emulate Dizang's incarnation; several "flesh-body bodhisattvas" are still preserved and venerated in glass cases.

Pilgrimage to all four mountains represented the complete Buddhist path: compassion at Putuo, wisdom at Wutai, practice at Emei, and the vow at Jiuhua.