ages, Confucianism stepped the second time into the Land of Brave Scholars, it was no longer with the simple rules of conduct and ceremonial of the ancient days, nor was it as the ally of Buddhism.  It came like an armed man in full panoply of harness and weapons.  It entered to drive Buddhism out, and to defend the intellect of the educated against the wiles of priestcraft.  It was a full-blown system of pantheistic rationalism, with a scheme of philosophy that to the far-Oriental mind seemed perfect as a rule both of faith and practice.  It came in a form that was received as religion, for it was not only morality “touched” but infused with motion.  Nor were the emotions kindled, those of the partisan only, but rather also those of the devotee and the martyr.  Henceforth Buddhism, with its inventions, its fables, and its endless dogmatism, was for the common people, for women and children, but not for the Samurai.  The new Confucianism came to Japan as the system of Chu Hi.  For three centuries this system had already held sway over the intellect of China.  For two centuries and a half it has dominated the minds of the Samurai so that the majority of them to-day, even with the new name Shizoku, are Confucianists so far as they are anything.

To understand the origin of Buddhism we must know something of the history and the previous religious and philosophical systems of India, and so, if we are to appreciate modern “orthodox” Confucianism, we must review the history of China, and see, in outline, at least, its literature, politics and philosophy during the middle ages.

“Four great stages of literary and national development may be pointed to as intervening (in the fifteen hundred years) between the great sage and the age called that of the Sung-Ju,"[3] from the tenth to the fourteenth century, in which the Confucian system received its modern form.  Each of them embraced the course of three or four centuries.

I. From the sixth to the third century before Christ the struggle was for Confucian and orthodox doctrine, led by Mencius against various speculators in morals and politics, with Taoist doctrine continually increasing in acceptance.

II.  The Han age (from B.C. 206 to A.D. 190) was rich in critical expositors and commentators of the classics, but “the tone of speculation was predominantly Taoist.”

III.  The period of the Six Dynasties (from A.D. 221 to A.D. 618) was the golden age of Buddhism, when the science and philosophy of India enriched the Chinese mind, and the wealth of the country was lavished on Buddhist temples and monasteries.  The faith of Shaka became nearly universal and the Buddhists led in philosophy and literature, founding a native school of Indian philosophy.

IV.  The Tang period (from A.D. 618 to 905) marked by luxury and poetry, was an age of mental inaction and enervating prosperity.