The Buddha prophesied that his teachings would vanish a few hundred years after his passing, creating an existential dilemma for Chinese Buddhists on the brink of Buddhism’s disappearance.

This book examines the origins of this prophecy and the famie 法灭 (‘end of Buddhism’) belief in Indian and Central Asian Buddhism, and the centuries-long struggle of Chinese Buddhists to interpret and adapt this prophecy. This resulted in the unique East Asian Buddhist belief of mofa 末法 (‘the final age of Buddhism’), which profoundly influenced medieval China and Japan.