TANLUAN (traditional dates 476–542, but more probably c. 488–554) was the author of the first known systematic work to be produced in China on Pure Land (Chin., Jingtu) Buddhism, that branch of the Buddhist tradition that emphasizes faith in the Buddha Amitābha (Buddha of Limitless Light; Chin., Emituofo; Jpn., Amida) and rebirth in Sukhāvatī ("land of bliss"), Amitābha's paradisiacal realm in the western quarter of the universe, as a means of attaining enlightenment. Tanluan's writings were a major textual source for the Japanese monk Shinran (1173–1262), the founder of the Jōdo Shinshū, which therefore regards Tanluan as one of its major patriarchal figures.

According to his biography in the Xu gaoseng zhuan (Further Biographies of Eminent Monks), Tanluan was born in the north, near Wutai Shan in Shansi Province, and studied Buddhism in his youth. Following a serious illness, however, he took up the pursuit of techniques...