ABSTRACT
Until the twentieth century three major traditions dominated Chinese culture. These three, Confucianism, Daoism [Taoism] and Buddhism, coexisted for the most part without conflict for over two and a half thousand years, often receiving intellectual and spiritual incentive from each other and sharing a range of moral and social values. At the time of the Hundred Days Reform of 1898, western influence was already strong, and by 1911, when the Qing [Ch’ing] dynasty was overthrown by Sun Yatsen and the Republic of China was founded, the three traditions were beginning to confront serious threat and disruption. Thirty-eight years later, in 1949, Mao Zedong established China as a communist state, the People's Republic of China. The new regime sought to eradicate long-established values, closing down many traditional and religious institutions and persecuting those who clung to them. At the millennium China is still changeful and restless. It remains to be seen just how profoundly the Chinese people's distinctive traditional cast of mind has been altered by its latterday upheavals.
