The Book of M.E. Ermakov is the first cultural research in Russian science devoted to Chinese Buddhism. Based on the materials of short stories - xiaosho IV-VI centuries, the author reconstructs the basic ideologies, ideas about the other world, pantheon, cult practice and other aspects of "grassroots," or popular, Chinese Buddhism. A separate chapter examines the forms of influence of elite, scientist, Buddhism in the person of the lawmaker Hui-yuan (334-416) on the Buddhist flock.