Bodhidharma

The sources can't agree where he came from (Central Asia? South India? Third son of a king?) or when he arrived (420s? 500s?). What's consistent: he showed up from the Western Regions during the age of the Northern Wei, taught meditation rooted in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, and became the figure through whom Chan Buddhism entered China. Later traditions drew a lineage stretching back 28 generations to the Buddha himself. The kung fu origin story came much later — 17th century texts tied him to martial exercises, and the 20th century made it canonical. In art he's rendered as the bearded, wide-eyed…