[Buddha-l] Taoism and Lotus Sutra

[Dan Lusthaus]

Erik,

Until recently the French (and the Japanese) have led the world in 
scholarship on Daoism (the Americans have made strides and are starting to 
surpass them on several fronts), but, in general, there is a great deal more 
known about Daoism by the average literate French reader -- since some of 
the leading scholars wrote books aimed at popular audiences, while 
presenting groundbreaking studies -- than by others.

As for the specific claims, some may wish to put the Lotus in that 
privileged position, but that would only be a metonymy for the cultural 
developments that transpired from roughly the third century until the early 
Tang (7th c), namely the impact of Buddhist meditation techniques, how-to 
manuals, cosmology, and pantheon on the native Chinese traditions. Using the 
word "saints" for Daoist adepts is problematic, at least in English, but in 
French, with its Catholic background, it may be unavoidable without extra 
effort. Daoism absorbed a great deal of Buddhism into itself, but often with 
a twist, changing the meaning. E.g., one of the early Chinese transcriptions 
for Nirvana got converted into an important sacred place in the brain 
inhabited by deities; the Heaven of the Thirty-three gods -- already 
important in the early Pali texts -- becomes a staple of Daoist cosmology as 
well, though they imagine them differently. And so on. Since you were in a 
museum, this assimiliation was being expressed in terms of art and pictures. 
The Silk Road had a profound effect on Chinese culture and arts, music, 
sculpture, architecture, as well pictorial arts. And Buddhism was part of 
that. Representations of the Lotus Sutra pantheon, that one can find in 
Central Asia and western China (E.g., the Dunhuang caves), as well as 
Avatamsaka pantheons, etc., did play a role in Chinese and E. Asian art, and 
does have an impact on Daoist art as well.

So, aside from perhaps downplaying slightly the idea that the Lotus played a 
central role, the rest of what the guide said is quite true.

One of the best overviews of Daoist art is

Taoism and the Arts of China, written by Stephen Little with Shawn Eichman 
and others, published by The Art Institute of Chicago in association with 
the University of California Press

which was the catalogue for an exhibition some years ago at the Art 
Institute of Chicago. The website from the exhibit is still online, so you 
can explore it, and e.g., compare the early Tang statue of Laozi
http://www.artic.edu/taoism/church/d41.php
with comparable Buddhist sculptures of the period.

The main gateway to the site is http://www.artic.edu/taoism/menu.php

Happy exploration.

Dan