Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and is regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. He is also popularly regarded as the founder of Shaolin kung fu, an idea popularized in the 20th century, but based on the 17th-century Yijin Jing and the Daoist association of daoyin gymnastics with Bodhidharma. 440 – 540; died at about 100. Alive at the same time as Justinian I, Aryabhata, Brendan the Navigator, Boethius, and Benedict of Nursia. Wiki link