Sekito Kisen (Ch. Shitou Xiqian, 700–790), author of the Sandokai, was born in Guangdong Province in southern China at the beginning of the eighth century. This was a formative era in which Zen was growing in popularity and was first articulated as a unique school and lineage. It was also during this period that Zen became known for its emphasis on the direct experience of reality and the practice of seated meditation. Not much is known about Sekito's life. The first recorded event is an encounter, at the age of twelve, with the Sixth Ancestor, Daikan Eno (Ch. Dajian Huineng, 638–713). The Sandokai (Ch. Cantongqi) addresses the division between the Northern and Southern schools as well as other dichotomies such as one and many, light and dark, sameness and difference. Made up of twenty-two couplets (forty-four lines), the poem often follows a pattern of distinguishing first discontinuity, then continuity, and finally complementarity.