More from Lao Tzu?

In a recent comment, the Aussie who writes the fantastic blog, Tow Wow, provided a link to a book I'd never heard of, Hua Hu Ching. I've read many books on the subject of Taoism and this one has never been mentioned directly and I don't believe it's been part of any bibliography. Of course, in and of itself, that doesn't mean much. I'm certainly no expert on every Taoist book ever written!

So, I did a little research. Here's what I found on Wikipedia (I found similar info on a few other sites too).

The Huahujing (pinyin: Huàhújīng; Wade-Giles: Hua Hu Ching; literally "Classic on Converting the Barbarians") is a Taoist book. Although traditionally attributed to Laozi, most scholars believe it is a forgery because there are no historical references to the text until the early 4th century CE. According to Louis Komjathy, the Taoist Wang Fu originally compiled the Huahujing circa 300 CE, and the extant version probably dates from the 6th century Northern Celestial Masters. The text is honorifically known as the Taishang lingbao Laozi huahu miaojing ("The Supreme Numinous Treasure's Sublime Classic on Laozi's Conversion of the Barbarians"). A copy of the Huahujing was discovered in the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang, and Liu Yi (1997) believes the original text dates from around the late 4th or early 5th century.

Emperors of China occasionally organized debates between Buddhists and Taoists, and granted political favor to the winners. The Taoists developed the Huahujing to support one of their favorite arguments against the Buddhists, writes Holmes Welch, their claim that "Lao Tzu had gone to India after his westward departure from China, and had converted—or become—the Buddha. Buddhism then was only a somewhat distorted offshoot of Taoism."

The Huahujing is somewhat longer than Laozi's Tao Te Ching taking the form of a question-and-answer dialogue between a young Prince and a learned Master. Thematically the text covers much of the same ground as the Tao Te Ching elucidating on the concept of the Tao - the universal force that purveys everything and everyone. The Huahujing makes reference to holistic medicine, Taoist meditation, feng shui, and the I Ching.

The text has been translated into English by Brian Walker and the Taoist priest Hua-Ching Ni.

Hmm. So what are we to make of this document? If it genuinely was written when many scholars believe it was and it has no connection to the mythic figure of Lao Tzu, should we simply toss it aside?

My response is: Why do that? Unlike a religion, philosophical Taoism doesn't have "sacred texts". Neither Lao Tzu nor Chuang Tzu were prophets or divinely inspired. They each were merely sages -- wise men -- who wrote the foundational works for what became known as Taoism.

So, from my standpoint, it's immaterial whether this text originated with an oral tradition thousands of years ago or a bunch of Taoists of the 4th century AD wrote it. Again, unlike religion, we contemporary Taoists don't have to be married solely to documents and thoughts that are from the annals of antiquity.

ANY book written at ANY time is fair game. Alan Watts wrote several superb books that expand on and discuss ideas from the Taoist perspective; he's only been dead for about 35 years and I'm very confident that he never met Chuang Tzu!!

The Hua Hu Ching may speak to some Taoists, but not to others. That's one of the beauties of this philosophical perspective -- each person gets to decide this for him or herself.

Once the series on the TTC ends on October 6 (note: I've added a post on personal reflections after the last of the 81 verses), I plan to showcase some quotes from the Hua Hu Ching along with some of my own reflections. I invite anyone interested to jump in on the discussion. Let's see where this takes us.