Eastern philosophy
The "Dao De Jing" ("Tao-Te-Ching," c. 4th century BCE), traditionally attributed to Laozi, and the "Nan Hua Jing" ("Zhuang Zi") are considered the key texts of the tradition. The first organized form of Taoism, the Tianshi (Celestial Masters') school arose in the 2nd century CE. Xuanxue ("deep learning", also "Neo-Taoism") was a major philosophical movement influenced by Confucian scholarship, which focused on the interpretation of the "Yijing," "Daodejing," and "Zhuangzi" and which flourished during the third to sixth centuries CE. The most important philosophers of this movement were He Yan, Wang Bi, the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, Ge Hong and Guo Xiang. Thinkers like He Yan and Wang Bi focused on the deep nature of Tao, which they saw as being best exemplified by the term "Wu" (nothingness, non-being, negativity).
Buddhism in the West
In 1897, D.T. Suzuki came to the US to work and study with Paul Carus, professor of philosophy. D.T. Suzuki was the single-most important person in popularizing Zen Buddhism in the west. His thought was also influenced by Theosophy and Swedenborgianism. Suzuki's writings had a strong impact on Western intellectuals such as psychologists Erich Fromm and Karen Horney, poets like Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac as well as on other figures like Alan Watts and Edward Conze. Through his writings Suzuki contributed to the emergence of a Zen modernism which blends Asian Buddhism with transcendentalism and romanticism.