Laughing at the Tao: Debates among Buddhists and Taoists in Medieval China

In the early centuries after the introduction of Buddhism to China, the new religion had to come to terms with the worldview of the Confucian elite, the inherent Chinese sense of ethnic superiority, and China's indigenous higher religion of Taoism. The "Xiaodao lun (Laughing at the Tao) is an important document of the debates among Buddhists and Taoists, debates that contributed to the process of cultural adaptation. Written by the Taoist renegade Zhen Luan in the year 570, this text aims to expose the absurdity and inconsistency of Taoist doctrine, mythology, ritual, and religious practice. In a complete and fully annotated translation of the "Xiaodao lun, Livia Kohn draws on rich Japanese scholarship to place the work within the context of the debates and expose the political schemes behind the apparently religious disputes.Kohn's work offers rare insight into an important and hitherto largely unexplored episode in Chinese intellectual history. She examines the complexities of medieval Buddhism's relationship to Chinese statecraft and society and shows how the shifting fortunes of varying factions and values figured in tKohn, Livia is the author of 'Laughing at the Tao: Debates among Buddhists and Taoists in Medieval China' with ISBN 9780691034836 and ISBN 0691034834.