元代佛教，因朝廷政治考量，以藏密為國教，對漢傳佛教採「崇教抑禪」政策，致使教宗擴張、禪宗式微。然因經濟禮遇，亦使僧眾多以管理寺院資產為要，而鮮有義學著作、律宗戒律與禪法修行皆難以興盛開展。華北華嚴宗以洛陽、元大都與上都、五臺山為傳播中心，義學承襲遼、金、西夏遺續，以澄觀傳承為系統，並結合密教、唯識思想，展現華嚴學獨特之圓融性；江南華嚴則延續南宋傳統，以法藏思想為主軸，就華嚴教義解釋禪、律、教類典籍，教僧與禪僧亦多有往來。考諸方志可知江南華嚴名剎，南宋紹興以前即已定額或易禪為教，故「崇教抑禪」影響未如現今學界共識顯著。慈恩宗原盛於華北，至世祖時詔令向南傳播，然江南仍以禪宗為盛，故現今所留載元代慈恩法脈傳承者，皆居於華北，且多善華嚴，高瞻遠矚者更對經、律、論三藏皆圓融無礙，未有偏廢。

Due to political consideration, Tantrism in Tibetan Buddhism was adopted as the state religion for Buddhism in Yuan Dynasty and 'Huayan School suppresses Zen Buddhism', which resulted in the expansion of Huayan School and the decline of Zen Buddhism. It also resulted in most of the monks focusing on managing the temple and rarely done any work of Righteousness and practicing Ruzong Commandments and Zen Practice became a challenge due to economic benefits. Luoyang, Yuandadu, Shangdu, and Wutaishan were the centrals that spread the thoughts of Northern China Huayan School. The free School adopted the Liao, Jin, Western Xia practices, used Chengguan Heritage as the system, and combined Esoteric teaching, ideological thinking, which showed the unique harmony of Avatamsaka; Jiangnan Huayan School continued the tradition of Southern Song Dynasty, they used the thoughts of Dharmakara as the main focus, they used the teachings of Dharmakara to explain the books about Zen, Lu, and Jiao. Jiao monks and Zen monks also communicated with each other frequently. Examination of the Fangzhi showed that Jiangnan Huayan Famous Temple adopted E or Yichan Teaching as their religion before Shaoxing, the first year of the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1131), therefore the impact of ＂Huayan School suppresses Zen Buddhism＂ was not as obvious as what it is currently. Ci'en School originally came from Northern China, which was a popular School, it was being ordered to spread this thinking to southern part of China during Kublai Khan period, however, Zen Buddhism was still popular in Jiangnan. Therefore, the inheritor of Ci'en school dharma-lineage in Yuan Dynasty live in Northern China, they are mostly good at Avatamsaka. The ones that have a good understanding of it have a good grasp of Jing, Lu, Lun, they do not ignore any of the study.