Sānjiào

In the Three Teachings, Confucianism supplied the ethics of family, state and ritual, Daoism the cosmos of the Dao, immortality and the folk gods, and Buddhism the doctrines of karma and rebirth. Under the Song, Neo-Confucianism, which rejected the mystical side of the others, came to dominate learning.

Yet the idea that the three were one grew ever stronger. Wang Chongyang of Quanzhen taught that Buddhism and Daoism had always been one family, and halls like the Hanging Temple at Hunyuan enshrined Confucius, Laozi and the Buddha together.

In the Ming, Lin Zhao'en (1517–1598) founded a society to join the three teachings, which became the Sanyi sect. A local official condemned it as heterodox in 1585, but after his death Lin was worshipped as the Lord of the Three-in-One in over a thousand temples.