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| Huahujing | |||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 化胡經 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 化胡经 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Classic on converting thebarbarians | ||||||||||||||
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TheHuahujing (also romanized asHua Hu Ching) is aTaoist work, traditionally attributed toLaozi. No extant versions exist today apart from quotations in a partial manuscript discovered in theMogao Caves,Dunhuang, in China.
The work is honorifically known as theTaishang lingbao Laozi huahu miaojing (太上靈寶老子化胡妙經, "The Supreme Numinous Treasure's Sublime Classic on Laozi's Conversion of the Barbarians").
Traditionally, it is said thatLaozi wrote it with the intention of convertingBuddhists toTaoism, when they began to cross over fromIndia.[citation needed] The Taoists are sometimes claimed to have developed theHuahujing to support one of their favourite arguments against the Buddhists: that after leavingChina to the West,Laozi had travelled as far asIndia, where he had converted—or even become—theBuddha and thusBuddhism had been created as a somewhat distortedoffshoot of Taoism.[1]
Some scholars believe it is a forgery because there are no historical references to it until the early 4th century CE. It has been suggested that theTaoistWang Fu [zh] (王浮) may have originally compiled theHuahujing circa 300 CE.[2]
In 705, theEmperor Zhongzong of Tang prohibited distribution of the text.[3]
Emperors of China occasionally organized debates betweenBuddhists andTaoists, and granted political favor to the winners.[clarification needed] The Mongol Khan Mongke ordered all copies to be destroyed in the 13th century after Taoists lost a debate with Buddhists.
Parts of chapters 1, 2, 8 and 10 have been discovered among theDunhuang manuscripts, recovered from theMogao Caves nearDunhuang and preserved in theTaisho Tripitaka, manuscript 2139.
Estimated dates for the manuscript range from around the late 4th or early 5th century to the 6th century CENorthern Celestial Masters.[4][2]
Its contents have no direct relation to later oral texts produced in English.[clarification needed]
