It is not surprising that the Emperors of this literary dynasty were mostly temperate in expressing their religious emotions.  T’ai-Tsu, the founder, forbade cremation and remonstrated with the Prince of T’ang, who was a fervent Buddhist.  Yet he cannot have objected to religion in moderation, for the first printed edition of the Tripitaka was published in his reign (972) and with a preface of his own.  The early and thorough application of printing to this gigantic Canon is a proof—­if any were needed—­of the popular esteem for Buddhism.

Nor did this edition close the work of translation:  275 later translations, made under the Northern Sung, are still extant and religious intercourse with India continued.  The names and writings of many Hindu monks who settled in China are preserved and Chinese continued to go to India.  Still on the whole there was a decrease in the volume of religious literature after 900 A.D.[674] In the twelfth century the change was still more remarkable.  Nanjio does not record a single translation made under the Southern Sung and it is the only great dynasty which did not revise the Tripitaka.

The second Sung Emperor also, T’ai Tsung, was not hostile, for he erected in the capital, at enormous expense, a stupa 360 feet high to contain relics of the Buddha.  The fourth Emperor, Jen-tsung, a distinguished patron of literature, whose reign was ornamented by a galaxy of scholars, is said to have appointed 50 youths to study Sanskrit but showed no particular inclination towards Buddhism.  Neither does it appear to have been the motive power in the projects of the celebrated social reformer, Wang An-Shih.  But the dynastic history says that he wrote a book full of Buddhist and Taoist fancies and, though there is nothing specifically Buddhist in his political and economic theories, it is clear from the denunciations against him that his system of education introduced Buddhist and Taoist subjects into the public examinations.[675] It is also clear that this system was favoured by those Emperors of the Northern Sung dynasty who were able to think for themselves.  In 1087 it was abolished by the Empress Dowager acting as regent for the young Che Tsung, but as soon as he began to reign in his own right he restored it, and it apparently remained in force until the collapse of the dynasty in 1127.

The Emperor Hui-Tsung (1101-1126) fell under the influence of a Taoist priest named Lin Ling-Su.[676] This young man had been a Buddhist novice in boyhood but, being expelled for misconduct, conceived a hatred for his old religion.  Under his influence the Emperor not only reorganized Taoism, sanctioning many innovations and granting many new privileges, but also endeavoured to suppress Buddhism, not by persecution, but by amalgamation.  By imperial decree the Buddha and his Arhats were enrolled in the Taoist pantheon:  temples and monasteries were allowed to exist only on condition of describing themselves as Taoist and their inmates had the choice of accepting that name or of returning to the world.