本文從中國人在世人眼中的刻板形象談起（中國人予人印象是甚麼都吃的民族），提出中國人之「有吃無類」具有宗教基礎的命題。與全面否定現世的印度宗教作對比，可烘托出中國人的宗教觀具有「身體化」傾向：它一方面表現為儒家的「不孝有三，無後為大」，透過子孫萬代延續自己身體的不朽，也體現在道家延年益壽、長生不老的理想中。中國人想盡千方百計要保存的「臭皮囊」，正是印度人要儘量超脫的東西。但中國道教的神明甚至有居住在人體之內者。中國人的「物」觀其實是一種泛食物論，因此「採」盡天地精華以「補」一己之身是宗教經驗。本文並不苟同中國人是「食人族」，蓋吃人乃普世現象，但「割股療親」則是具有中國特色的宗教經驗。最後用《周禮》論證中國人的身體化宗教觀也是他們的最高政治理想。

The article begins with the stereotyped imagery of the Chinese, to the effect that they are a people not bound by any dietary taboos. The article tries to place this Chinese “omnivorism” on a religious basis. A comparison with the world-denying Indian religiosity throws into sharp focus the somatized strain of the Chinese religion. This strain underlies the Confucian cult of filial piety, i.e., the perpetuation of physical immortality through one's progency. The somatization tendency is most notably embodied in Daoist macrobiotics and its quest for corporeal immortality. The Indian Vedanta regards the body as putrid and attempts to transcend it, whereas the Chinese try their best to preserve the body. Amazingly, Daoist deities even establish their abode within the human body. The Chinese concept of “matter” is food-based, thus the harvesting of nature's quintessence for nourishment is religious experience. The accusation of cannibalism as a largely Chinese phenomenon is not well-founded, for thiis phenomenon is universal. The article nonetheless admits that feeding one's flesh to one's parents as medical cure is a unique Chinese religious experience. Finally, the ideal government as laid down by The Zhou Rites shows that the Chinese simatized religiosity coincides with their highest political ideal.