The record of Bodhidharma sailing across the sea in traditional Buddhist sources is a part of the early formation of Bodhidharma’s deific figure, but they do not contain the story “Passing the sea by a reed.” The “reed” plot firstly appears in Bodhidharma’s crossing the river legend. However, in modern times the image of “Passing the river by a reed” is casted on the story of crossing the sea and a lot of arts named “Passing the sea by a reed” are created. The study on the evolution process of imagination about this new deific figure shows the legends’ creativity and re-creativity in different historical periods and how the difference of medium (such as text, painting, multimedia) changes the plots and figures.
