Of all the Buddhist sects in China, Pure Land is the most popular.  It urges its adherents to generate a vow to be reborn in Buddha's country, namely, in the Western Pure Land.  The region is glorified in many of the Mahayana sutras, particularly in those having Pure Land for topic.  The Pratyupanna, Pei Hwa, Ratnakuta and several others are sutras that clearly set forth both the significance and the goals of Pure Land practice and therefore should be considered as its sources.  In his Awakening of Faith, Asvaghosa Bodhisattva recommends recitation of Amitabha Buddha's name and exhorts devotees to seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land.  Nagarjuna Bodhisattva dedicated one chapter and twelve sections to the subject of easy practice, while Vashubandhu Bodhisattva wrote a treatise on rebirth in Pure Land.  All above mentioned writings propagate Pure Land.

Pure Land teachings have reached China at the same time as the rest of textual Buddhadahrma and the Pure Land practice was initiated by the great Dharma-master Hui Yuan during the eastern Chin Dynasty (317-420 A. D.), the first one to practice sincere recitation of the Buddha's name.  He established the Lotus Society at Mount Lu in Kiangsi Province, a place that was frequented by numerous Dharma-masters and by renown adherents of Confucianism.  Hundreds responded to one call.  Dharma-masters T'an Luan, Chi Che, Tao Cho, Shan Tao, Chin Liang and Yung Ming subsequently spread the Dharma of Pure Land for the benefit of others as well as their own.  Ch'an masters Chang Lu, T'ien I, Yuen Whao, Ta T'ung, Chung Feng, T'ien Ru, Chu Shih and K'ung Ku intergrated Pure Land practice with that of their sect.  The great master Lien Chih of the Ming Dynasty, who was first introduced to Pure Land by Hsiao Yen Chih, understood its significance and adopted its practice, feeling that karma purified by those means complements and supports the practice of Ch'an.  Dharma masters Ou I, Chih Liu, Hsing An and Meng Tung followed Lien Chih's example and practiced Pure Land.

The Avatamsaka sutra, held to be the leading sutra of Mahayana, contains a section dedicated to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and to his ten Great Vows orientating sentient beings towards rebirth in Pure Land.  He should therefore be considered the first patriarch of Pure Land.  Initially, the great master Hui Yuan had no intention of establishing a Pure Land sect in China.  He merely hoped that people would generate the Great Vow.  The popularity of Pure Land steadily increased during the last thousand years despite the fact that it had no structured approach of its own to the teachings.  It was not until the Sung Dynasty that the seven Pure Land Patriarchs were selected from among the most celebrated of its masters renowned for their pure motives and great merit.  Hsiao Fa Shih of Shih Ming Mountain whose focus was exclusively on Pure Land, selected Hui Yuan, Shan Tao, Cheng Yuan, Fa Chao, Shao K'ang, Yen Shou and Hsing Chang.  Subsequently Dharma-master Chih Pan recorded for posterity all information deemed necessary for a well rounded teaching of Pure Land.  In the years that followed, additional luminaries have joined the roster, raising the number of Pure Land Patriarchs to eleven.  An illustrious disciple Yun Chi voted in the great master Lien Chih; inclusion of Ou I, Hsing An and Chi Wu was motivated by respect for these illustrious forefathers.  This feature distinguishes Pure Land from Ch'an; the tradition of the latter was established gradually and required many successive generations to become fully established.  The practice of Pure Land aims to save all regardless of potential and therefore it is a blend of wide variety of dharmas.  It can be considered the source of all dharmas to which they all return.  This also explains the absence of a rigid system.