Quick answerWhy is Bodhidharma called the first patriarch of Chinese Chan Buddhism?
The Chan tradition honors him as the first patriarch who transmitted the dharma from India to China, continuing the lineage through patriarchs such as Sengcan, Daoxin, and Hongren. The Jingde Chuandeng Lu records details about his lineage and his receiving of the dharma from Prajnatara, but this is how the tradition tells it, not a contemporary historical record.
From the article “Bodhidharma: The Legend of the First Patriarch of Chan and What Historical Sources Actually Say”
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