Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/97

85 TOLERANCE AND SCEPTICISM IN CHINA. 85 indifference. He speaks like a prince who, having no state religion to defend, grants his protection to all modes of worship, and all symbols that do not oppose his government. His expressions are those of a true Chinese philosopher, disposed to believe that all reli- gions are good according to time and place. This strange syncretism was characteristic not only of the head of the state, but also of the whole nation. The worship of Buddha had become so firmly established in China, in concurrence with the two religions of the Lettered Class and of the Doctors of Reason, that many temples were raised to a conjunction of the three systems, in which the statues of Buddha, of Lao-tze, and of Confucius were placed on the same level on the common altar, and honoured by similar rites : the three divinities were represented standing, Confucius in the middle, between Buddha and Lao-tze, holding each by the hand, and with three wax lights burning at their ' DO feet. On the gate of temples of this kind was inscribed " San-Khiao-Tang," that is, Temple of the Three Re- ligions ; and in the interior there shone above the altar three great golden characters, which signify, " The Three Religions are but One:" San-Khiao-y-Khiao. If all doctrines were received in China with the same sympathy, or rather the same indifference, why should it be thought surprising that there should be at this time a colony of Christian priests, freely preaching the Gospel, building churches, and receiving a tolerant edict in favour of their religion by the philosophic em- peror, who solemnly declares it to be " mysterious, ex- cellent, peaceful," and which he respectfully compares to the metaphysical system of Lao-tze? G 3