The ‘concept of mofa 末法 [latter dharma]’ had a tremendous impact upon East Asian Buddhism. Formerly, it was widely believed that the mofa concept originated from Indian Buddhism and was a complete set of concepts involving the three periods of zhengfa 正法 [true dharma], xiangfa 像法 [semblance dharma], and mofa 末法 [final dharma]. Jan Nattier previously noticed that, within the original Indian Sanskrit canon, a corresponding word for the Chinese word ‘mofa’ seemingly cannot be found. This article builds upon the foundation of her research to confirm that Indian Buddhism originally only contained the concept of ‘famie’ 法滅 [extinction of dharma] that includes the two periods of zhengfa and xiangfa. Starting from the middle of the sixth century ce, after Indian Buddhism’s 500 years of zhengfa and 1,000 years of xiangfa had ended, Chinese Buddhism added a new period: the ‘10,000 years of mofa.’ It can be said that the ‘mofa concept’ is an invention of Chinese Buddhism.
