Zhenxie Qingliao

Zhenxie Qingliao was an important Caodong master of the Song dynasty who contributed to the school's renewed prominence. He was known for his integration of the Caodong contemplative approach with careful attention to monastic discipline, creating communities that balanced inner cultivation with institutional order.

Qingliao's teaching emphasized the Caodong principle that practice and realization are not two separate events but a single, continuous expression of awakened mind. This non-dual understanding of practice—sitting not to achieve enlightenment but as the expression of enlightenment itself—became the defining characteristic of the Caodong and later Soto approach to meditation.