unstable struggle; so did families of Taoist aristocrats, who fomented palace
coups by occult prophecies and revelations. Buddhist organization was more
stable. Its monasteries, holding independent property and united by lineages
owing allegiance to written scriptures, were able to shelter from political winds
while their material base grew. Governments often found economic and ad-
ministrative advantages in an alliance with monasteries.
Taoists came to seek the advantage of this organizational base. By the 420s
in the Toba Empire of north China, the ruler set up a Taoist “pope” in his
capital, with authority over the entire Taoist church. The “pope” had Buddhist
masters and network contacts, even with the famous Kumarajiva (Mather,
1979: 112, 120–121). The code for Taoist monks was a direct imitation of the
Buddhist vinaya rules. In the early 500s in the south, a canon of Taoist
scriptures was formulated, an imitation of Buddhist sutras which came close
to plagiarism (Ofuchi, 1979: 267). Rivals for the same organizational niche
became doctrinal enemies. Taoism now went on the offensive in doctrinal
disputes and instigated political persecutions of Buddhists. In the Toba state,
Taoism was proclaimed the official faith in 444, and in 446 the Buddhists were
persecuted and their vast properties confiscated. A change in political fortunes
after a failed coup allowed the Buddhists to return in 454. In 520 and again
in 555, court debates between Taoists and Buddhists ended with the Taoists
banished and ordered to convert to Buddhism. In the south, a pro-Buddhist
emperor in 517 abolished Taoist temples and defrocked their priests. In one
of the northern states Confucians were declared the victor in a debate in 573,
and Confucianism was declared the state religion; both Taoism and Buddhism
were suppressed, and their property was confiscated.
For many centuries none of these religions was successful in eliminating its
rivals. Confucians held a distinctive niche as officials, reviving their fortunes
whenever a centralized state expanded bureaucratic control. Beyond this Con-
fucians were ill suited to go. In the early T’ang, on the rebound from a strongly
pro-Buddhist emperor in the preceding Sui dynasty, Confucianism became
institutionalized as a religion: every city had its state-supported Confucian or
“literary” temple, including a school; Confucius and his seventy-two disciples
were represented by images and received sacrifices. But these Confucian tem-
ples had no priests, and were guarded by local scholars and officials who never
competed seriously with Buddhism for popular support. Conversely, occasional
Taoist and Buddhist intrusions into government administration came to noth-
ing. Buddhist theocracy under the empress Wu and her successor flourished
briefly between 690 and 710; the next emperor, reversing course, built Taoist
temples in all cities, and required all nobles families to have a copy of the Tao
Te Ching. In 741 Taoist works were made official classics, an alternate basis
280 • (^) Intellectual Communities: Asian Paths