Zen expected to become familiar with the classics of the Zen canon". A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Zen masters clearly reveals that they were well versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras, including Madhyamaka. Especially the Lotus Sutra played a large role in the development of East Asian Buddhism, including Zen. Nevertheless, Zen is often pictured as anti-intellectual. This picture of Zen emerged during the Song Dynasty (960–1297), when Chán became the dominant form of Buddhism in China, and gained great popularity among the educated and literary classes of Chinese society. The use of koans, which
History of Buddhism later Kamakura period (1185-1333), there were six new Buddhist schools founded which competed with the older Nara schools and are known as "New Buddhism" or "Kamakura Buddhism." They include the influential Pure Land schools of Hōnen (1133–1212) and Shinran (1173–1263), the Rinzai and Soto schools of Zen founded by Eisai (1141–1215) and Dōgen (1200–1253) as well as the Lotus sutra school of Nichiren (1222–1282). Japanese Buddhist art was especially productive between the 8th and 13th centuries during Nara period (710-794), Heian period (794-1185) and Kamakura period (1185-1333). Buddhism, especially Zen, remained culturally influential during the Ashikaga period (1333–1573) and the