T’an-luan ［曇鸞］ (476–542) (PY Tanluan;  Donran): The founder of the Chinese Pure Land school. Initially, he studied four treatises—The Treatise on the Middle Way, The One-Hundred-Verse Treatise, The Treatise on the Twelve Gates, and The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom. He further undertook the task of writing a commentary on the Great Collection Sutra, but his health failed and he traveled south to visit a Taoist teacher, T’ao Hung-ching, to master the secrets of immortality. After receiving a Taoist scripture about immortality, he returned north and at Lo-yang met Bodhiruchi, who was versed in the Pure Land teachings. Bodhiruchi taught him that one could attain everlasting life only through the Pure Land teachings, giving him a Pure Land scripture, the Meditation on the Buddha Infinite Life Sutra. T’an-luan was so impressed by it that he discarded the Taoist text and devoted himself to the practice of the Pure Land teachings. He stressed the practice of the Pure Land teachings as the “easy-to-practice way” that enables all people to attain rebirth in Amida Buddha’s Pure Land, and rejected all other practices as the “difficult-to-practice way,” and wrote The Commentary on “The Treatise on the Pure Land,” The Hymn in Verse to Amida Buddha, and other works. He is revered as the first of the five patriarchs of the Chinese Pure Land school and also regarded as the founder of the Four Treatises (Ssu-lun) school, which was based upon the above four treatises.