ed works,
encyclopaedias and biographies which excelled anything then published
in Europe. Antiquarian research and accessible editions of classical
writers were favourable to Confucianism, which had always been the
religion of the literati.

It is not surprising that the Emperors of this literary dynasty were
mostly temperate in expressing their religious emotions. T'ai-Tsu, the
founder, forbade cremation and remonstrated with the Prince of T'ang,
who was a fervent Buddhist. Yet he cannot have objected to religion in
moderation, for the first printed edition of the Tripitaka was
published in his reign (972) and with a preface of his own. The early
and thorough application of printing to this gigantic Canon is a
proof--if any were needed--of the popular esteem for Buddhism.

Nor did this edition close the work of translation: 275 later
translations, made under the Northern Sung, are still extant and
religious intercourse with India continued. The names and writings of
many Hindu monks who settled in China are preserved and Chinese
continued to go to India. Still on the whole there was a decrease in
the volume of religious literature after 900 A.D.[674] In the twelfth
century the change was still more remarkable. Nanjio does not record a
single translation made under the Southern Sung and it is the only
great dynasty which did not revise the Tripitaka.

The second Sung Emperor also, T'ai Tsung, was not hostile, for he
erected in the capital, at enormous expense, a stupa 360 feet high to
contain relics of the Buddha. The fourth Emperor, Jen-tsung, a
distinguished patron of literature, whose reign was ornamented by a
galaxy of scholars, is said to have appointed 50 youths to study
Sanskrit but showed no particular inclination towards Buddhism.
Neither does it appear to have been the motive power in the projects
of the celebrated social reformer, Wang An-Shih. But the dynastic
history says that he wrote a book full of Buddhist and Taoist fancies
and, though there is nothing specifically Buddhist in his political
and economic theories, it is clear from the denunciations against him
that his system of education introduced Buddhist and Taoist subjects
into the public examinations.[675] It is also clear that this system
was favoured by those Emperors of the Northern Sung dynasty who were
able to think for themselves. In 1087 it was abolished by the
Empress Dowager acting as regent for the young Che Tsung, but as soon
as he