中國的末法思潮約在南北朝時期出現，道綽親逢其盛，歷盡滄桑。尤其經歷北周武帝大舉滅佛，在顛沛流離的日子裏，心靈受到震撼。他後來鑽研《涅槃經》， 生起佛法面臨衰滅的危機意識，加上南北朝末法思潮的影響，使他歸向淨土信仰。 道綽在《安樂集》引用《大集月藏經》的五個五百年之說，強調審時度勢的宗教救度意涵，這是他的末法觀念，也是淨土教家中提倡末法思想的先驅。末法時期須以稱名念佛得救的看法，是道綽個人的主張，他從約機廢立的觀點，結合《觀無量壽佛經》「下品下生」的教示，發展出末法與淨土門的關係。這一發展的結果，不僅讓淨土門得以獨立成宗，亦確立了淨土門的實踐方向。

The trend of final dharma in China started in the South-north dynasty. Dàochuò was in its peak time and went through hardship. He was stroked spiritually in the tribulation when emperor Zhōuwŭ of North dynasty carried out on a large-scale wipeout of Buddhism. Later, he studied Nirvāna Sūtra and had the sense of crisis of falling Buddhism. He finally turned toward Pure Land belief. Dàochuò in his Paradise Collection cited the saying of “five hundred years in the five periods” in Candragarbha-sūtra, a section of the Mahāsamnipata-sūtra, emphazing the connotation of the religious liberation for all sentient beings from suffering of this time and situation. This concept made him the forerunner of Pure Land thinker to final dharma. He claimed that in the final dharma, for the purpose of obtaining rebirth in the Pure Land, one has to do the verbal chanting of the name of Amitābha Buddha. He started from the viewpoint of whether to discard or to sustain one’s various capacities and combined the teaching of “the most inferior class of the inferior” in the Amitāyur-dhyāna-sūtra to develop the relationship between final dharma and Pure Land teaching. This caused Pure Land an independent school and confirmed its method of practice.