In fact he has a longstanding association with Taiwan which goes back to the early settlers from Chuanchow, who looked for spiritual succor not to any emperor, but to him .... Of Taiwan's "Temples to the Patriarch", eight or nine out of ten are dedicated not to Bodhidharma, patriarch of the Ch'an School of Buddhism, but to the Pure Water Patriarch.
其實祂與台灣人的淵源極深，早期泉州人來台開墾，心理上的依靠不是皇帝，而是祂……。在台灣，說起「祖師廟」，十有八、九供的是清水祖師，而不是佛教中開創禪宗一派的達摩祖師。