BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM
ilege open to all, he found release from the world of convention. It was in order to escape from social trammels that our artists shaved their heads and assumed the guise of priests.
But the social and the supersocial worlds never clashed, for each was the counterpart of the other. In Indian society we find the Shramanic as the necessary counterbalance to the Brahmanic ideal, while in China the same positions are held by Taoism and Confucianism. Herein lies the secret of that toleration which has made of India a museum of religions, and has caused China to welcome, so long as they do not interfere with her political system, the alien faiths of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Nestorianism, Mohammedanism, and modern Christianity. The existence of this twofold
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