“Mutual linkage between Buddhism and Laoism” has opened the way to the “interpretation of Laoism by Buddhism.” And the “interpretation of Laoism by Zen”is one of the major forms of “interpretation of Laoism by Buddhism.” Taking six books, including Shao Ruoyu’s Direct Interpretation of Daoist True Scriptures of Song Dynasty, Li Daochun’s Collected Studies of Daoist Scriptures at the end of Song Dynasty and in early Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Sicheng’s Admonitions and Praises in the Chapters and Speeches of Daoist True Scriptures of Yuan Dynasty, Chen Zhixu’s Indirect Speeches of Daoist Scriptures of Yuan Dynasty, Jiang Rongan’s Praises of Daoist True Scriptures of Ming Dynasty, and Deyuanzi’s Proofs of Daoist Scriptures of Qing Dynasty as the representative works of the “interpretation of Laoism by Zen,” this study analyzes their footnote viewpoints work by work. This paper discovers that most of them stress the application of famous quotations of Zen. The authors of these works mingle the important thinking of Zen with the interpreted chapters of Laoism, and then undergo alternative academic creation. This act has positive value and meaning to the diversified development of academic thinking. But there is one thing worthy of our attention that their linking Laoism to Zen are mostly farfetched and given strained interpretation. The interpretations always have weak connection with the original meanings of Laoism. Some of the interpretations of Zen even have absolutely nothing to do with Laoism.
