[2] He succeeded in converting the Jie warlord Shi Le and became his closest advisor as he founded the Later Zhao dynasty in 319 CE.

According to Nan Huai-Chin, "Besides all its theoretical accounts of emptiness and existence, Buddhism also offered methods for genuine realization of spiritual powers and meditative concentration that could be relied upon.

"[9] Eventually Fotu Cheng became a Later Zhao government official under Shi Hu, who allowed him to found a great number of Buddhist temples.

In his history of China, John Keay writes:[10] Fotu Deng's [Cheng's] disciples would include some of Chinese Buddhism's most outstanding scholars.

When the Later Zhao kingdom fell apart in 349 — four princes were enthroned and murdered in that year alone — Fotudeng's disciples fanned out across the north from Shandong to Sichuan and gravitated south as far as Guangdong.