During the Ch’ên and Sui dynasties, roughly between 450 years and 500 years or so after the introduction of Buddhism to Later Han China, there lived a monk called Chih-i. Later called Grand Master T’ien-t’ai, he refuted the false teachings of three Southern and seven Northern schools, and he advocated the theology stating that the Lotus Sūtra ranks first among all the holy sūtras, the Nirvana Sūtra second, and the Flower Garland Sūtra third. This is the first 500-year period of the Age of the Semblance Dharma, which is referred to as the period of wide reading and discussions in the Sūtra of the Great Assembly.

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 199