Early Buddhism in China : Daoist reactions

When Buddhism entered China and during the period of its integration into the foreign culture, it interfered with already existing religious traditions. Buddhism and Daoism, e.g., interacted in a complex way, both being influenced by and itself influencing the other. The saviour deity Xi Wang Mu (Queen Mother of the West) may have paved the way for another Western "god", the Buddha. On the other hand, the Buddha iconography irreversibly changed that of the Queen Mother. The earliest biographies of the deified Laozi served as a model for the earliest Chinese Buddha biographies. Once Indian Buddha vitae were translated into Chinese, they, in turn, had an impact on the later Laozi Lives. The Daoists seem to have adopted certain Buddhist forms of meditation. They also borrowed the Buddhist book cult. As far as holy books are concerned, both traditions appropriated works of the competitor, even to the degree of wholesale "plagiarism".