The ''Huahujing'' (formerly written ''Hua Hu Ching'') is a

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...

work, traditionally attributed to Laozi (formerly written Lao Tzu). Two unrelated versions are claimed to exist, a partial manuscript discovered in the

Mogao Caves The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu p ...

, Dunhuang, in China and a modern English rendering from oral tradition, while some scholars believe the whole work to be a later work from the 4th century CE.

Origins

The work is honorifically known as the ''Taishang lingbao Laozi huahu miaojing'' (, "The Supreme Numinous Treasure's Sublime Classic on Laozi's Conversion of the Barbarians"). Traditionally, it is said that Laozi wrote it with the intention of converting

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

s to

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...

, when they began to cross over from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The Taoists are sometimes claimed to have developed the ''Huahujing'' to support one of their favourite arguments against the Buddhists: that after leaving China to the West, Laozi had travelled as far as

, where he had converted—or even become—the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

and thus

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

had been created as a somewhat distorted offshoot of Taoism. 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 the

() may have originally compiled the ''Huahujing'' circa 300 CE.Louis Komjathy (2004:48)

Destruction of copies

In 705, the

Emperor Zhongzong of Tang Emperor Zhongzong of Tang (26 November 656 – 3 July 710), personal name Li Xian, and at other times Li Zhe or Wu Xian, was the fourth Emperor of the Tang dynasty of China, ruling briefly in 684 and again from 705 to 710. During the first pe ...

prohibited distribution of the text.

Emperors of China ''Huangdi'' (), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heave ...

occasionally organized debates between Buddhists and

s, and granted political favor to the winners. An emperor ordered all copies to be destroyed in the 13th century after Taoists lost a debate with Buddhists.

Dunhuang manuscript

Parts of chapters 1, 2, 8 and 10 have been discovered among the

Dunhuang manuscripts Dunhuang manuscripts refer to a wide variety of religious and secular documents (mostly manuscripts, but also including some woodblock-printed texts) in Chinese and other languages that were discovered at the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, duri ...

, recovered from the

near Dunhuang and preserved in the Taisho Tripitaka, manuscript 2139. Estimated dates for the manuscript range from around the late 4th or early 5th century to the 6th century CE

Northern Celestial Masters The Northern Celestial Masters are an evolution of the Taoist Way of the Celestial Master () in the north of China during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The Northern Celestial Masters were a continuation of the Way as it had been practiced ...

. Its contents have no direct relation to later oral texts available in English.

Oral tradition

The work is said to have survived in oral tradition. A full translation into English by the Taoist priest Hua-Ching Ni was published in 1979. He claimed to have derived his translation from the preservation of the ''Huahujing'' through oral tradition, having been handed down through generations of Taoist priests. Hua-Ching Ni's translation contains exactly the same number of chapters, 81, as his translation of the ''Tao Te Ching'' although it is slightly longer. It takes the form of a narrative question-and-answer dialogue between a disciple Prince and his learned Master. Thematically the text covers much of the original ground of the ''

Tao Te Ching The ''Tao Te Ching'' (, ; ) is a Chinese classic text written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion d ...

'' elucidating on the concept of the

Tao ''Tao'' or ''Dao'' is the natural order of the universe, whose character one's intuition must discern to realize the potential for individual wisdom, as conceived in the context of East Asian philosophy, East Asian religions, or any other phil ...

. However it goes much further in elaborating the relationship of Taoism to other aspects of traditional Chinese culture such as holistic medicine, feng shui,

tai chi Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called " shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. ...

and the I Ching, not all of which existed in the time of Laozi. It also gives more detailed advice on Taoist philosophy, meditation and other practices. It also includes some reinterpretation for the modern world, for example it refers to the

four fundamental forces In physics, the fundamental interactions, also known as fundamental forces, are the interactions that do not appear to be reducible to more basic interactions. There are four fundamental interactions known to exist: the gravitational and electro ...

of modern physics, giving their individual modern names and relating them to the four fundamental forces identified in Taoist philosophy. Based on the teachings of Hua-Ching Ni, a shorter English-language text claiming to be the ''Huahujing'' has been written by Brian Walker. His version is in a spare, poetic form reminiscent of many translations of the ''Tao Te Ching''.Walker (1995).

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Komjathy, Louis
Daoist Texts in Translation
2004. *Liu Yi
"Towards a New Understanding of ''Huahujing'' (The scripture of transforming the barbarians) from Dunhuang"
''

International Dunhuang Project The International Dunhuang Project (IDP) is an international collaborative effort to conserve, catalogue and digitise manuscripts, printed texts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from the Mogao caves at the Western Chinese city of Dunhuang and v ...

Newsletter'' 7. 1997. *Ni Hua-Ching. ''The Complete Works of Lao Tzu: Tao Teh Ching & Hua Hu Ching'', The Shrine of the Eternal Breath of Tao and the College of Tao and Traditional healing, 1979. (New edition SevenStar Communications. 1997. ) *Walker, Brian. ''Hua Hu Ching: Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu''. San Francisco: Harper. 1995. * Weinstein, Stanley. 1987. Buddhism under the T’ang. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Welch, Holmes. ''Taoism: The Parting of the Way''. Boston: Beacon Press. 1957. *

External links

Hua Hu Ching
first 10 chapters translated by Brian Walker, with an introduction. *Derek Lin,
Hua Hu Ching
, Misconceptions, ''taoism.net'', 4 May 2013. (Retrieved 25 August 2018) {{Taoism footer Buddhism in China Taoist texts Taoism in China 4th century in religion 4th-century books 4th century in China