ave each their own
significance and may be seen represented in Buddhist and Taoist
temples even to-day. So too another writer, starting from the
tradition that Avalokita (or Kuan-Yin) was once a benevolent human
being, set himself to write the life of Kuan-Yin, represented as a
princess endued with every virtue who cheerfully bears cruel
persecution for her devotion to Buddhism. It would be a mistake to
seek in this story any facts throwing light on the history of
Avalokita and his worship. It is a religious novel, important only
because it still finds numerous readers.

It is commonly said that the Chinese belong to three religions,
Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and the saying is not altogether
inaccurate. Popular language speaks of the three creeds and an
ordinary person in the course of his life may take part in rites which
imply a belief in them all.[561] Indeed the fusion is so complete that
one may justly talk of Chinese religion, meaning the jumble of
ceremonies and beliefs accepted by the average man. Yet at the same
time it is possible to be an enthusiast for any one of the three
without becoming unconventional.

Of the three religions, Confucianism has a disputable claim to the
title. If the literary classes of China find it sufficient, they do so
only by rejecting the emotional and speculative sides of religion. The
Emperor Wan-li[562] made a just epigram when he said that Confucianism
and Buddhism are like the wings of a bird. Each requires the
co-operation of the other. Confucius was an ethical and political
philosopher, not a prophet, hierophant or church founder. As a
moralist he stands in the first rank, and I doubt if either the
Gospels or the Pitakas contain maxims for the life of a good citizen
equal to his sayings. But he ignored that unworldly morality which,
among Buddhists and Christians, is so much admired and so little
practised. In religion he claimed no originality, he brought no
revelation, but he accepted the current ideas of his age and time,
though perhaps he eliminated many popular superstitions. He commended
the worship of Heaven, which, if vague, still connected the deity with
the moral law, and he enjoined sacrifice to ancestors and spirits. But
all this apparently without any theory. His definition of wisdom is
well known: "to devote oneself to human duties and keep aloof from
spirits while still respecting them." This is not the utterance of a
sceptical statesman, equivalent