Sengchou is one of the key figures mentioned by Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667) (Sengchouʼs third-generation disciple) in his survey of meditation 禪 practices and traditions down to Daoxuanʼs time. As such, scholars have taken Sengchou as an important link in the pre-history to the eventual emergence of the 'Chan schools.' . Such studies have tended to focus upon texts ascribed to Sengchou in Dunhuang manuscripts, especially P3559; but McRae and Faure have challenged the ascription of these texts to Sengchou. Studies by Chen Jinhua have traced later meditators in Sengchouʼs lineage, and examined their influence in the monastic institutions of the capital in the Sui and early Tang.

Sengchou is associated with the central cave among three in a cliff at Xiaonanhai 小南海 in northern Henan 河南. The cave features a representation of Sengchou himself, and statements linking its contents closely to his emphases in doctrine and practice. This cave was excavated in 1983 and with the first publication of findings in 1988; it has been identified with a cave previously known only from historical sources. Construction began in 550, came under Sengchouʼs supervision in 555, and was completed by his disciples immediately after his death in 560. The cave is significant as the earliest case in China of carving extended excerpts from Buddhist scriptures. The programme of the cave includes text from *Dharmakṣemaʼs Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra 涅槃經 (T 374) (a passage precisely on a meditation called the 'four bases of mindfulness' , which accords with historical traditions mentioned above); Buddhabhadraʼs *Buddhāvataṃsaka 華嚴經 (T 278); Kumārajīvaʼs 鳩摩羅什 *Mahāpāramitôpadeśa  大智度論(T 1509); and the Contemplation Sutra 觀無量壽佛經 (T 365); it also includes imagery that scholars have connected to T 374, T 1509, and Kumārajīvaʼs Vimalakīrtinirdeśa 維摩經 (T 475), and sutras relating to Maitreya 彌勒. The central Buddha of the cave is frequently identified in art-historical literature with Vairocana 毘盧遮那, on the basis of verses from the *Buddhāvataṃsaka (elsewhere in the cave) and the pervasive influence of Dilun 地論宗 scholasticism in the Buddhist culture of the region at that time.

On Sengchou, see Hu (1930): 303–304; Yanagida (1963); Yanagida (1970); Furuta (1980); McRae (1983): 34–50; Jan (1983a); Jan (1983b); McRae (1986): 309–312 n. 36, 324–325 n. 158; Faure (1986): 190, 192–195; Yan (1995): 582–584; Okimoto (1997); Yan (1998): 398–399; Hsu (1999): 13–30 (and passim); Chen (2002a): esp. 345–348, 360–362, 365–367, 375–377, 384–385; Chen (2002b): 28–29, Chapter Four 149–179, 182–183, 194–196, 205–208; Kim (2005): 311–315, 361–364; Adamek (2007): 141–143; Greene (2008): 52–54, 57–78, 85–87; Hsu (2011): 285–291. On the cave at Xiaonanhai more specifically, see Yan (1995); Howard (1996): 19–20; Tsiang (1996): 234–236; Yan (1998); Hsu (1999); Inamoto (2000); Kim (2005): 18–53, 311–333; Wenzel (2006); Kim (2005); Kim (2011); Hsu (2011).

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