Modern Taoism is of such a motley character as almost
to defy any attempt to educe a well-ordered system from its
chaos.''[16] As for Buddhism, its founder would not recognize
it, if he could visit China to-day. The lines:--

``Ten Buddhist nuns, and nine are bad;
The odd one left is doubtless mad----''

are suggestive of the depth to which the religion of Guatama
has fallen.


[16] Smith, ``Rex Christus,'' pp. 62, 72.


Indeed, it would be a mistake to suppose that the Chinese
people are divided into three religious bodies as, for example,
Americans are divided into Protestants, Roman Catholics and
Jews. Each individual Chinese is at the same time a Confucian,
a Buddhist and a Taoist, observing the ceremonies of
all three faiths as circumstances may require, a Confucian
when he worships his ancestors, a Buddhist when he implores
the aid of the Goddess of Mercy, and a Taoist when he seeks
to propitiate the omnipresent fung-shuy (spirits of wind and
water), and he has no more thought of inconsistency than an
American who is at the same time a Methodist, a Republican
and a Mason. Dr. S. H. Chester says that when he was in
Shanghai, he saw a Taoist priest conducting Confucian worship
in a Buddhist temple. Even if inconsistency were proved to
the Chinese, he would not be in the least disturbed for he cares