China's confrontation with European modernity in the middle of the nineteenth century not only had an important impact on the way the traditional Confucian elite saw themselves and China's position in the world, but also had an important impact on Chinese Buddhism. The Chinese Buddhist world was hereby not only confronted with the growing competition of new religions such as Christianity, but found itself compelled to redefine its position in Chinese society in conditions of increased secularization, and the ideas of socialism, communism, and anarchism advancing. This article examines how the famous Buddhist reformer Taixu (1889–1947) was inspired by these new ideologies to reform Buddhism on the one hand, but how he also clung to the Chinese tradition and its focus on religion on the other hand. The article argues that Claude Henri de Rouvroy, count of Saint-Simon (1760–1825), a French reform thinker during the French Revolution, may have had a more important impact on Taixu's thinking than has been recognized to date.