We're switching Atom to React, but we want to support backward-compatible shims to our previous view framework.

In the old framework, views were represented as jQuery-wrapped DOM elements. Ideally, we'd like to provide backward-compatible shims by simply rendering the React component and wrapping its root element in a jQuery wrapper with an API that's compatible to our old editor views. That would essentially look like this:

``` javascript
var editorRoot = document.createElement('div')
React.renderComponentWithRootElement(Editor(props), editorRoot)

// the element would actually be wrapped in a custom subclass of jQuery,
// but this is clearer for this example
var editorShim = $(editorRoot) 
```

Currently, this isn't possible because React components need to be rendered into a container. So instead we need to create a wrapper element and render the component inside it. This is sad because it adds an extra layer of markup which confuses styling, and also means that the editor has a wrapper when used via the shim layer but no wrapper when embedded as a child via React itself.

Is there something fundamental preventing React from adopting DOM nodes directly without the parent? Is this something we could even hack in in a way that would be somewhat maintainable?

:heart:

this._testJournal.stateAtStartOfWillMount = clone(this.state);
        this._testJournal.lifeCycleAtStartOfWillMount = getLifeCycleState(this);
        this.state.hasWillMountCompleted = true;
      }
      componentDidMount() {
        this._testJournal.stateAtStartOfDidMount = clone(this.state);
        this._testJournal.lifeCycleAtStartOfDidMount = getLifeCycleState(this);
        this.setState({hasDidMountCompleted: true});
      }
      render() {
        const isInitialRender = !this.state.hasRenderCompleted;
        if (isInitialRender) {
          this._testJournal.stateInInitialRender = clone(this.state);
          this._testJournal.lifeCycleInInitialRender = getLifeCycleState(this);
        } else {
          this._testJournal.stateInLaterRender = clone(this.state);
          this._testJournal.lifeCycleInLaterRender = getLifeCycleState(this);
        }
        
        this.state.hasRenderCompleted = true;
        return <div ref="theDiv">I am the inner DIV</div>;
      }
      componentWillUnmount() {