No extant versions exist today apart from quotations in a partial manuscript discovered in the Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, in China.
[citation needed] The Taoists are sometimes claimed to have developed the Huahujing to support one of their favourite arguments against the Buddhists: that after leaving China to the West, Laozi had travelled as far as India, where he had converted—or even become—the Buddha and thus Buddhism had been created as a somewhat distorted offshoot of Taoism.
It has been suggested that the Taoist Wang Fu [zh] (王浮) may have originally compiled the Huahujing circa 300 CE.
[3] Emperors of China occasionally organized debates between Buddhists and Taoists, and granted political favor to the winners.
[clarification needed] An emperor ordered all copies to be destroyed in the 13th century after Taoists lost a debate with Buddhists.