Typical Portrayals of Harmony Between the "-isms"

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1. A Japanese ink painting, The Three Tasters of Vinegar, which is Chinese in style and subject matter. The three vinegar tasters are Confucius, Laozi, and Shakyamuni, the Buddha. They all react the same way to the vinegar, and the point of the painting is to stress that each of the three teachings end up in the same place.

2. In this Chinese painting (I am unsure of its date), Laozi and Confucius look after the baby Shakyamuni, a relative newcomer to China.

The general formula that most learned Chinese seem to have accepted was that Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism provide three different methods to arrive at the same ultimate goal.

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