Stephen R. Bokenkamp: The Buddhist Conquest of Daoism (2nd–6th c CE)

Our earliest evidence of Daoism as a translocal religion appears in the second century, C. E., roughly contemporaneous with the first spread of Buddhism beyond émigré communities and into the populace of what is now China. By the sixth century, Daoists had produced a massive corpus of scriptures, formulated soteriological ritual programs, created a wide-spread professional priesthood, and  begun constructing monasteries—all on Buddhist models. Chinese Buddhism, for its part, during the same period created the first massive written canon to survive and began to establish many of the forms the religion takes today. It is no exaggeration to say that the two religions, inasmuch as they were kept separate, grew in tandem during this period. And yet they are seldom studied as such. In this presentation, Bokenkamp will explore a few of the reasons why, despite the enormous linguistic impediments, we might want to reconsider the role of Daoism, the “defeated opponent,” in shaping Chinese Buddhism.

About the Speaker

Stephen R. Bokenkamp (PhD University of California, Berkeley) specializes in the study of medieval Chinese Daoism, with a special emphasis on its literatures and its relations with Buddhism. He is author of Early Daoist Scriptures, Ancestors and Anxiety, A Fourth-century Daoist Family, the Zhen’gao, as well as over forty articles and book chapters on Daoism and literature. Among his awards are the Guggenheim Award for the Translation of a medieval Daoist text, a National Endowment for the Humanities Translation grant and the invitation to present the Xuyun and Yanfu lectures for the Philosophy Department of Beijing University.  In addition to his position at Arizona State, he has taught at Indiana University, Stanford University, and short courses for graduate students at Beijing, Princeton and Fudan Universities. He was also part of the National 985 project at the Institute of Religious Studies, Sichuan University from 2006–2013. 

Co-sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford Humanities Center, and The Ho Center for Buddhist Studies