418 henrik h. sØrensen
China was unified by the Northern Song, much of the ritual and icon-
ographical lore associated with the orthodox Zhenyan tradition had
been lost, and only vestiges of the once powerful and important Eso-
teric Buddhist school survived in isolated pockets around the empire.
The revival of Esoteric Buddhism that took place during the second
half of the tenth century was relatively limited in geographical and
cultural influence and does not seem to have influenced Chinese Bud-
dhism so deeply despite the large output of translations its proponents
produced. In any case, this second wave of mature Esoteric Buddhist
texts was not enough to reinstate Esoteric Buddhism as a major and
independent Buddhist tradition matching that which had flourished
during the Tang.