Quote Originally Posted by David Jamieson View Post
Buddhism was in China before Bodhidharmas arrival. Actually, quite a while before and so, he was the first patriarch of Ch'an, but not of Buddhism in China as indicated by the list provided above.
As I had noted in my post

list of Ch'an school's patriach before bodhidharma
of course buddhism was in china before bodhidharma, but bodhidharma's transmission was a transmission that is outside of scripture. this particular teaching (dhyana school) was not available in China until bodhidharma's arrival. This is the direct path of enlightenment in present body as opposed to the gradual path that was more readily available in China at the time.