Religious Tolerance: Inscribed on the All-Embracing Hall of Three Teachings

COOL POEMS: Introduction > THE POEMS

Topic: Religious Tolerance

Author: Mei Yaochen (1002-1060)

Inscribed on the All-Embracing Hall of Three Teachings (1051)

Only the wise inhabit this place,
Where Heaven, Earth, and Man unite.
Within one finds both Buddha and Laozi,
Why now extend the group to three?
Each begins by embracing all,
Honesty and insight dwell naturally within.
They’ve planted their pillars, set culture’s foundations,
Banisters aglow in vermillion and green.
And now they’ve snared a Confucian like me,
And even want to lock up old Laozi!
But neither school quite understands
How to laugh and talk as equals in freedom.
Southern birds do not nest in the North,
Northern horses never neigh in the South,
Each firmly marking its territory;
But at times, eagles and unicorns can dwell together.

Comments: Ths poem must stand as one of the earliest written documents to advocate religious tolerance. In 1051 Mei was asked to write an inscription for the Academy named the “All-Embracing Hall of Three Teachings,” the three teachings being Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist. Although the job must have been commissioned in some sense, Mei is characteristically honest to the point of being downright blunt. He opens the poem with what sounds like a laudatory review of the academy and its lofty ideals, but he later notes that executing such an ideal isn’t so simple. People tend to hold to their own views, an observation anyone in academics can readily understand even today! Indeed he believes that “neither school quite understands how to laugh and talk as equals in freedom.” The last line, however, holds open the hope that true tolerance can be achieved, if outstanding individuals are able to rise above their petty differences.

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