The end of the fifteenth century is filled by two reigns, Hsien Tsung and Hsiao Tsung.  The former fell under the influence of his favourite concubine Wan and his eunuchs to such an extent that, in the latter part of his life, he ceased to see his ministers and the chief eunuch became the real ruler of China.  It is also mentioned both in 1468 and 1483 that he was in the hands of Buddhist priests who instructed him in secret doctrines and received the title of Kuo-Shih and other distinctions.  His son Hsiao Tsung reformed these abuses:  the Palace was cleansed:  the eunuchs and priests were driven out and some were executed:  Taoist books were collected and burnt.  The celebrated writer Wang Yang Ming[697] lived in this reign.  He defended and illustrated the doctrine of Lu Chin-Yuan, namely that truth can be obtained by meditation.  To express intuitive knowledge, he used the expression Liang Chih[698] (taken from Mencius). Liang Chih is inherent in all human minds, but in different degrees, and can be developed or allowed to atrophy.  To develop it should be man’s constant object, and in its light when pure all things are understood and peace is obtained.  The phrases of the Great Learning “to complete knowledge,” “investigate things,” and “rest in the highest excellence,” are explained as referring to the Liang Chih and the contemplation of the mind by itself.  We cannot here shut our eyes to the influence of Bodhidharma and his school, however fervently Wang Yang Ming may have appealed to the Chinese Classics.

The reign of Wu-tsung (1506-21) was favourable to Buddhism.  In 1507 40,000 men became monks, either Buddhist or Taoist.  The Emperor is said to have been learned in Buddhist literature and to have known Sanskrit[699] as well as Mongol and Arabic, but he was in the hands of a band of eunuchs, who were known as the eight tigers.  In 1515 he sent an embassy to Tibet with the object of inducing the Grand Lama to visit Peking, but the invitation was refused and the Tibetans expelled the mission with force.  The next Emperor, Shih-T’sung (1522-66), inclined to Taoism rather than Buddhism.  He ordered the images of Buddha in the Forbidden City to be destroyed, but still appears to have taken part in Buddhist ceremonies at different periods of his reign.  Wan Li (1573-1620), celebrated in the annals of porcelain manufacture, showed some favour to Buddhism.  He repaired many buildings at P’u-t’o and distributed copies of the Tripitaka to the monasteries of his Empire.  In his edicts occurs the saying that Confucianism and Buddhism are like the two wings of a bird:  each requires the co-operation of the other.

European missionaries first arrived during the sixteenth century, and, had the Catholic Church been more flexible, China might perhaps have recognized Christianity, not as the only true religion but as standing on the same footing as Buddhism and Taoism.  The polemics of the early missionaries imply that they regarded Buddhism as their chief rival.  Thus Ricci had a public controversy with a bonze at Hang-Chou, and his principal pupil Hsu Kuang-Ch’i[700] wrote a tract entitled “The errors of the Buddhists exposed.”  Replies to these attacks are preserved in the writings of the distinguished Buddhist priest Shen Chu-Hung.[701]