Dongshan Liangjie was a Chan Buddhist monk of ninth-century China. He founded the Caodong Chan (Zen) school. Dongshan Liangjie spent a large portion of his early life wandering between Chan masters and hermits in the Hongzhou  region. He obtained instruction from Nanquan Puyuan (南泉普願) and later from Guishan Lingyou (溈山靈祐). Ultimately his primary teacher became Master Yunyan Tansheng, of whom Dongshan became the dharma heir. At the age of fifty-two, Dongshan established a mountain school at the mountain named Dongshan (in what is now the city of Gao’an in Jiangxi province). Here, according to tradition, he composed the Song of the Precious Mirror Samādhi. His disciples here are said to have numbered between five hundred and one thousand.  This Caodong school became regarded as one of the Five Houses of Zen.