ABSTRACT
The authenticity of a sutra was one of the major causes of controversy between Buddhists and Taoists. The debate about whether or not the Sutra on the Conversion of the Barbarians was pure fabrication was just one of the endless controversies that broke out between these two schools over the centuries. On that occasion, attended by ministers and officials, many eminent people assembled in the palace hall. Renowned monks gathered there to hold forth against Taoist priests. There was much argument and altercation, and neither side could convince the other about the authenticity of that text, or settle the Taoist claim that it was Laozi the Taoist who taught Gautama to attain Buddhahood. It shows the extent and magnitude of these debates when the powers on high took it upon themselves to deal with the matter. Such debates recur in Chinese discourse on sutra translation, and highlight the debating skills of Buddhist monks or to resist ideological recuperation by Taoists.
