Dongshan Liangjie

Dongshan Liangjie (807–869) was a Chinese Chan Buddhist monk traditionally regarded as a founder of the Caodong school, known in Japan as Sōtō.

Chan Buddhism: A Chinese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing meditation and direct insight into awakening. Dongshan taught within this Chinese tradition, whose practices and texts shaped his community.
Five Ranks of Dongshan: A five-part Chan framework traditionally attributed to Dongshan for expressing the relation of absolute and relative. The framework is the most distinctive doctrinal teaching associated with his name.
Yunyan Tansheng: A Chinese Chan master traditionally identified as Dongshan Liangjie’s principal teacher. Dongshan’s lineage story centers on his encounter with Yunyan and transmission from him.
Caodong lineage: The succession of teachers associated with the Chinese Caodong school of Chan Buddhism. The lineage’s later development made Dongshan a central ancestral figure.
Caodong school: A Chan Buddhist lineage founded in China and later transmitted to Japan as Sōtō Zen. Dongshan is traditionally named as one of this lineage’s founders.
Mirror Samādhi: A Chan teaching poem associated with Dongshan that uses a mirror image to express mutual illumination. This poem presents his teaching through the image of apparent separation and reflection.
Shitou Xiqian: An influential eighth-century Chinese Chan master whose lineage contributed to the formation of Caodong Chan. His teaching lineage is an important predecessor to the tradition later associated with Dongshan.
Dōgen: A Japanese Buddhist teacher who established the Sōtō school in Japan after studying in China. Dōgen transmitted the Chinese Caodong inheritance associated with Dongshan to Japan.
Sōtō Zen: A Japanese Zen school tracing its lineage to Chinese Caodong Chan. Its Japanese lineage carries forward the tradition associated with Dongshan.
Sandōkai: A Chan poem attributed to Shitou Xiqian that explores the unity of difference and sameness. It offers a related poetic treatment of the absolute and relative in Dongshan’s tradition.

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