Religion was the consolation in people’s spirit. However, the religion is helpless but disturbs social order if the ordinary person who would not distinguish between good and evil will do something unethical in the name of religion and break the law. From the beginning of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the government knew that religion was not suitable as a means of ruling the country, and actively involved in religious affairs and regulated religious-related activities.
The Qing emperor recognized the benefits of religion to society, but was extremely disgusted with heresy. In 1656, the government enacted laws to suppress heresy, and required people to learn Confucianism to achieve stable social development and the consolidation of political power.
So many religious factions stem due to many ethnic groups during the Qing Dynasty. In addition to native Taoism and Buddhism, there are Tibetan Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam and folk secret religions, etc. Therefore, how to solve the problem of religious belief became the main political opinion of the Qing emperor in formulating religious policies.
Orthodoxy and heresy had standards under legal norms finally. However, all of policies in religion were ways for the Qing government to administrated the country and stabilized the regime and social stability for a long term.