RELIGIONS IN CHINA

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 210, 18 August 1934, Page 10

RELIGIONS IN CHINA

Favourism of No Sect Principles of religious freedom and tolerance throughout China were reaffirmed by Mr Wang Ching-wei, president of the Executive Yuan and one of the most influential figures in the present National Government, in an interview at Nanking. He pointed out that the only fashion in which true religious freedom might be attained was through the most complete tolerance—that is, respect for various sects and creeds. Intolerance, he said, has been the cause of great religious wars in the past as well as less dramatic but no less important troubles of other kinds. Confucianism, esteemed throughout China, is less a religion than a culture, Mr. Wang declared. It may be regarded with correctness as a school of philosophy. It teaches manners and methods; it is devoid of any mysticism and the great sage Confuscious (whose direct descendant, Mr. H. 11. Kung, is now Minister of Finance in tjje Gov-

ernment) never claimed infallibility ol judgment or for hrs own personal conduct. Mr. Wang emphasised, however, that the fact that Confucianism it not a religion does not detract from the fame of its founder, and in token ol China’s reverence for its greatest cultural leader in history and as a rnonument to the birth of Chinese civilisation the memory of Confucious is kept alive and his tomb is tenderly cared for. Christianity, Buddhism, Muhammadanism and other faiths are all equally esteemed by the Government of China, Mr. Wang said, asserting that in return the Government expects all religious sects to maintain an attitude of similar tolerance toward one another. He said that the Government will not especially favour Buddhism because it wishes to pacify the Buddhists of Tibet, nor will it favour .Muhammadanism because it makes overtures toward the great western Muhammadanism areas