"My Love for the Lotus" by the Song scholar Zhou Dun-yi has exerted an influence on the Chinese down to the present. In this essay, the lotus is compared to a man of great virtue for being able to live in muck without being tainted by it. Qian Zhong-shu, a Republican-era writer, wrote that Zhou's "inspirations" stemmed from Buddhist ideas.
宋朝周敦頤的「愛蓮說」至今影響中國人，文中以蓮花出汙泥不染喻君子，民國文人錢鍾書就認為作者的「靈感」得自佛家說法。