Mount Lu
The Pure Land teachings first became prominent in China with the founding of Donglin Temple at Mount Lu () by Huiyuan () in 402. As a young man, Huiyuan practiced Daoism, but felt the theories of immortality to be vague and unreliable, and unrepresentative of the ultimate truth. Instead, he turned to Buddhism and became a monk learning under Dao'an (). Later he founded a monastery at the top of Mount Lu and invited well-known literati to study and practice Buddhism there, where they formed the White Lotus Society (). They accepted the "Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra" and the "Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra" as their standards among the Buddhist sūtras, and they advocated the practice of reciting the name of Amitābha Buddha in order to attain rebirth in the western pure land of Sukhāvatī. Mount Lu is regarded as being among the most sacred religious sites of the Pure Land Buddhist tradition, and the site of the first Pure Land gathering.