Editing Three teachings (section)

== Controversy ==
Though the term "three teachings" is often focused on how well Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism have been able to coexist in harmony throughout Chinese history, evidence has shown that each practice has dominated, or risen to favour, during certain periods of time.<ref name=Globalsecurity>{{cite web|title=San Jiao / San Chiao / Three Teachings|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/religion-san-jiao.htm|access-date=10 February 2015}}</ref> Emperors would choose to follow one specific system and the others were discriminated against, or tolerated at most. An example of this would be the [[Song dynasty]], in which both Buddhism and Taoism became less popular. Neo-Confucianism (which had re-emerged during the previous [[Tang dynasty]]) was followed as the dominant philosophy.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Theobald|first1=Ulrich|title=Chinese History - Song Dynasty 宋 (960-1279) literature, thought and philosophy|url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Song/song-literature.html|access-date=13 February 2015}}</ref>
A minority also claims that the phrase "three teachings" proposes that these mutually exclusive and fundamentally incomparable teachings are equal. This is a contested point of view as others stress that it is not so. Confucianism focuses on societal rules and moral values, whereas Taoism advocates simplicity and living happily while in tune with nature. On the other hand, Buddhism reiterates the ideas of suffering, impermanence of material items, and reincarnation while stressing the idea of reaching salvation beyond.<ref name=afe />