The study of Chinese Buddhism is interesting but difficult.[557] Here
more than in other Asiatic countries we feel that the words and
phrases natural to a European language fail to render justly the
elementary forms of thought, the simplest relationships. But Europeans
are prone to exaggerate the mysterious, topsy-turvy character of the
Chinese mind. Such epithets are based on the assumption that human
thought and conduct normally conform to reason and logic, and that
when such conformity is wanting the result must be strange and hardly
human, or at least such as no respectable European could expect or
approve. But the assumption is wrong. In no country with which I am
acquainted are logic and co-ordination of ideas more wanting than
in the British Isles. This is not altogether a fault, for human
systems are imperfect and the rigorous application of any one
imperfect system must end in disaster. But the student of Asiatic
psychology must begin his task by recognising that in the West and
East alike, the thoughts of nations, though not always of individuals,
are a confused mosaic where the pattern has been lost and a thousand
fancies esteemed at one time or another as pleasing, useful or
respectable are crowded into the available space. This is especially
true in the matter of religion. An observer fresh to the subject might
find it hard to formulate the relations to one another and to the
Crown of the various forms of Christianity prevalent in our Empire or
to understand how the English Church can be one body, when some
sections of it are hardly distinguishable from Roman Catholicism and
others from non-conformist sects. In the same way Chinese religion
offers startling combinations of incongruous rites and doctrines: the
attitude of the laity and of the government to the different churches
is not to be defined in ordinary European terms and yet if one
examines the practice of Europe, it will often throw light on the
oddities of China.

The difficulty of finding a satisfactory equivalent in Chinese for the
word God is well known and has caused much discussion among
missionaries. Confucius inherited and handed on a worship of Heaven
which inspired some noble sayings and may be admitted to be
monotheism. But it was a singularly impersonal monotheism and had
little to do with popular religion, being regarded as the prerogative
and special cult of the Emperor. The people selected their deities
from a numerous pantheon