Huahujing

Some of this article's listed sources may not be reliable. Please help improve this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed. (August 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Part of a series on
Taoism
Outline History
Concepts Daoxue Dao De Wuji Taiji Yin-Yang Bagua Wu xing (Five Phases) Bianhua Fan (reversal) Wu-wei (non-action) Ziran Xian (immortal) Zhenren Zhenxing (true name) Three Treasures Jing Qi Shen Hun and po
Practices Three Treasures (virtues) Five Precepts Ten Precepts Meditation Neidan Waidan Bugang Chu Diet (Bigu) Sexual practices Art Talismans Priesthood
Texts I Ching Daodejing Zhuangzi Huainanzi Taipingjing Xiang'er Liezi Sanhuangjing Huahujing Qingjing Jing Baopuzi Daozang
Deities Hongjun Laozu Three Pure Ones Yuanshi Tianzun Lingbao Tianzun Daode Tianzun Four Sovereigns Yuhuang Dadi (Great Jade Emperor) Ziwei Dadi (Great Emperor of the North Star) Gouchen Dadi (Great Emperor of the Curved Array) Houtu Huang Diqi (Empress of the Earth) Others Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West) Dongwanggong (King Father of the East) Three Great Emperor-Officials Eight Immortals Chang'e Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors Yellow Emperor Guan Shengdi Li Hong Other deities
People Laozi Zhuangzi Lie Yukou Heshanggong Wei Boyang Zhang Daoling Gan Ji Zhang Jue Zhang Lu Ge Xuan He Yan Wang Bi Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove Guo Xiang Sun Hanhua Wei Huacun Ge Hong Bao Jingyan Kou Qianzhi Lu Xiujing Tao Hongjing Cheng Xuanying Chen Tuan Zhang Boduan Sun Bu'er Wang Chongyang Qiu Chuji Zhang Guoxiang Zhang Sanfeng Zhu Quan Fangshi
Schools Huang–Lao Way of the Taiping Xuanxue Shangqing Lijia Lingbao Chongxuan Quanzhen (Longmen) Wuliu Tianshi (Celestial Masters) Wudoumi Southern Tianshi Northern Tianshi Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Folk Taoism Yao Taoism
Sacred places Grotto-heavens Sacred Mountains of China Wudang Mountains Mount Penglai Mount Kunlun Taoist temple White Cloud Temple (Baiyun Monastery) Louguantai Temple Cebu Taoist Temple Taoist Temple (Hanford, California)
Institutions and organizations Chinese Taoist Association Celestial Masters Taoist priests
v t e

The Huahujing (also romanized as Hua Hu Ching) is a

Two unrelated versions are claimed to exist, a partial manuscript discovered in the Mogao Caves, 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 (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 that

In 705, the Emperor Zhongzong of Tang prohibited distribution of the text.^[3]

Estimated dates for the manuscript range from around the late 4th or early 5th century to the 6th century CE Northern Celestial Masters.^[4][2]

Its contents have no direct relation to later oral texts available in English.^{[clarification needed]}

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