Ch: Sanjiao. A painting subject of the three patriarchs, Confucius (Jp: *Kōshi 孔子), Laozi (Jp: Rōshi 老子), and Shakyamuni (Jp: *Shaka 釈迦), of China's three great religions, Confucianism (Jp: Jukyō 儒教), Taoism (Jp: Dōkyō 道教), and Buddhism (Jp: Bukkyō 仏教) respectively. The Neo-Confucian doctrine of the Southern Song scholar Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200) stressed the unity of the three creeds, Sankyō which had previously been thought of as contradictory. The pictorial theme of the Three Patriarchs, along with related themes such as the *sansan-zu 三酸図 and *Kokei sanshō 虎渓三笑, typically offer a light-hearted version of the ecumenical Neo-Confucian doctrine. The subject was rendered frequently in Chinese figure painting of the Southern Song and Yuan periods. Among Japanese paintings of the Muromachi period, Josetsu's 如拙 work, Ryōsokuin 両足院 in Kyoto, is particularly well known.