The collection as we now have it was compiled in Japan, probably at the beginning of the Tokugawa era (1603–1867), since the earliest extant edition is dated 1647. Nothing is known of the circumstances under which the work was compiled. The individual treatises of which it is composed, however, were written in China during the Tang 唐代 (618–907), perhaps even in early Tang. There is little or no evidence that Bodhidharma actually wrote these treatises, though authorship of at least two of these treatises (Erzhongru 二種入 and Anxin famen 安心法門) has been ascribed to him from as early as the Tang period.

The six sections of the work were originally independent compositions, each with its own title. The first section is in verse and is entitled Xinjing song 心經頌 ( “Verses on the Heart Sutra”). The remaining five sections are in prose, and each concludes with a verse. They bear the following titles: Poxiang lun 破相論 (Treatise on the Refutation of Characteristics); Erzhong ru 二種入 (Two Entrances); Anxin famen 安心法門 (Dharma Gate of Peaceful Mind); Wuxing lun 悟性論 (Treatise on Awakened Nature); Xiemai lun 血脈論 (Treatise on [Chan] Lineage). Manuscript copies of the Erzhong ru and the Anxin famen have been found at Dunhuang 敦煌, and are now in the British Museum, London, and the National Library, Beijing. The Erzhong ru is also included in three Tang compilations, as follows:

1. An untitled and somewhat edited version of the text was included in Bodhidharmaʼs biography in the Xu gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳 (Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks), compiled by Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667) (T 2060.50.551c8–21).
2. An identical version to that of the Shaoshi liumen, follows the biography of Bodhidharma in the Lengqie shizi ji 楞伽師資記, by Jingjue 淨覺 (683–c750) (T 2837.85.1285a11–b15).
3. Fascicle thirty of the Jingde chuandeng lu 景德傳燈錄 contains a version of the text, prefaced by a short biography of Bodhidharma by Tanlin 曇林 (d.u.), under the title Putidamo luebian dacheng rudao sixing sihang 菩提達磨略辨大乘入道四行 (Bodhidharmaʼs Short Treatise on the Four Practices for Entering the Mahayana) (T 2076.51.458b7).

In all these Tang works the concluding verses found in the Japanese collection are missing. An English translation of the Jingde chuandeng lu text of the Erzhong ru, together with Tanlin introductory remarks, will be found under the title Meditation on the Four Acts, in D. T. Suzukiʼs Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series (1949, pp. 179–183). A few passages from the Xiemai lun, there entitled Treatise on the Lineage of Faith, will also be found in the same work (pp. 233–235). A more updated translation of the Two Entrances can be found in Broughton, Jeffrey L. The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen. Univ. of California Press, 1999, pp. 9–12.