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It is true that the Chinese are not so religious as the Hindus, or even as the Japanese; and they are certainly not so religious as the Christian missionaries desire them to be.

But I wish to point out that it is entirely wrong to say that the Chinese are not religious.

Chinese culture in general is not very religious. Confucianism is more a code of ethics than a religion, and ancestor worship is a way for parents to control you even after they're dead.

The Chinese people, too, went through all kinds of vicissitudes in their religious development.

In the schools of the Western countries, there is always the subject 'Religion.' The Classics are China's religion.

Practically all the prominent leaders of thought in China today are openly agnostics and even atheists.

The Jesuits had learned that a Christian mission to China could never succeed if it were not in a position to show and convince the Chinese intelligentsia of the superiority of the European culture.

I think because of their terrible past, particularly this century, the Chinese have come to accept cruelty more than many other people, which is something I feel very unhappy about.

Eradicating a religion of kindness is, I think, a terrible thing for the Chinese to attempt.

The Chinese state is constructed in an entirely different way from western states. Unlike European states, for over a millennium the Chinese state has not been obliged to compete for power with rivals such as the church, the aristocracy or merchants.