Introduction

The primary objective of this introduction is to establish the key theoretical concerns that are examined through the Han Kitab body of literature. The text defines the analytical boundaries of this discussion and identifies key issues about the study of Muslims in China—translation, interpretation, and sources. It defines the Han Kitab tradition as a genre of Chinese-language Islamic texts, which deploy “literati” discourses, themes, and references. Following this, the main subjects of the book, Wang Daiyu (1590–1658), Liu Zhi (1670–1724), and Ma Dexin (1794–1874), are briefly introduced. Next, the text critiques notions of centers and peripheries in establishing authenticity, orthodoxy, and authority. We argue that these literary artifacts are best understood as being produced within a dialogical process of past, present, and future readers and sources. Overall, the discussion describes a clear methodological method for a comparative assessment of key categories in the study of religion through an analysis of the Sino-Islamic tradition.

Interpreting Islam in China

This book explores the contours of the Han Kitab tradition through discussing the works of some of its brightest luminaries in order to identify and explicate pivotal transitions in Sino-Muslim engagement with the Islamic tradition. A distinctive intellectual tradition emerged during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Sino-Muslims established an educational system known as scripture hall education (jingtang jiaoyu經堂教育‎), which utilized an Islamic curriculum made of Arabic, Persian, and Chinese works. The Han Kitab, a corpus of Chinese-language Islamic texts developed within this system, reinterpreted Islam through the lens of Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian terminology. Three prominent Sino-Muslim authors are representative of major junctures within the history of Sino-Islamic thought and are used to illustrate discursive transformations within this tradition: Wang Daiyu 王岱輿‎ (1590–1658), the earliest important author; Liu Zhi 劉智‎ (1670–1724), the most prolific scholar; and Ma Dexin 馬德新‎ (1794–1874), the last major intellectual in premodern China. The chapters explore how these authors defined being a Muslim through an examination of their thoughts on the hajj, the Qur’an, and the Arabic language. In the discussions, I analyze how they deployed the categories of pilgrimage, scripture, and language in their writings, as well as their strategic objectives in doing so. More broadly, this book fosters an exploration of issues of vernacularization, translation, centers and peripheries, and tradition. It offers theoretical directions for redescription of critical categories in the study of religion, especially within translingual Muslim communities.

Tradition and the Shaping of Sino-Muslim Intellectuals

Chapter 2 offers a brief examination of the notion of tradition and narrativity in structuring discursive preferences and patterns. The chapter explores the creation and consumption of tradition as an intertextual configuration of interpretive selections because I understand texts as malleable, dynamic, and polyvalent. These queries require an explanation of the interpretive tools employed to delineate the intellectual processes that structured Han Kitab hermeneutics. Following this, the chapter maps out the literary networks and communities that established the textual constellation of signification for Han Kitab texts. The chapter investigates translational choices and interpretive structures surrounding the creation of local authoritative textual canons of Islamic works. The remainder of this chapter offers portraits of Wang Daiyu, Liu Zhi, and Ma Dexin. This panorama contextualizes these authors within specific personal histories, intellectual environments, and textual communities in order to situate the genealogy of pilgrimage, scripture, and language in Han Kitab thought.

Arabic Discourse, Linguistic Authority, and Islamic Knowledge

This chapter outlines the use of Arabic by Wang Daiyu, Liu Zhi, and Ma Dexin, as well as the guiding principles behind it. I trace the shifting motivations that caused these scholars to employ Arabic and determine why they chose to utilize it in their writings. I argue that the use of Arabic became more prominent over time because Sino-Muslims found themselves in a shrinking world, where the global Muslim population was establishing more contact and communication between disparate local communities. Arabic acted as a unifier between divergent linguistic and cultural Muslim communities in both theological and practical levels. The language served as a means for social and religious positioning through the posturing of Han Kitab discursive models and linguistic revision. Han Kitab scholarship joined the perceived orthodox Islamic intellectual tradition through the use of an established discursive framework when employing Arabic.

Liu Zhi: The Great Integrator of Chinese Islamic Thought

Liu Zhi (ca. 1660 – ca. 1730) was the consummate exemplar of the late Ming - early Qing (16th-19th c.) Chinese Muslim scholarly community that produced the Han kitāb corpus, promoting Islam as entirely consonant with Neo-Confucian norms. He continued a tradition of translating Islamic ideas into classical Chinese but added his own original thought and innovative methods. Engaged not only with Confucianism but also with Daoism, Buddhism, and the other Abrahamic traditions, he drew upon and synthesised eclectic sources and influences, from mysticism to ritualism. He also inspired subsequent generations of Chinese Muslims by constructing an identity and presenting a vision of Islam that is Chinese in its core values, yet unmistakably Islamic. He thus contributed significantly to the refinement, legitimation, and popularization of Sino-Islamic intellectual simultaneity at the meeting place of two great civilizations.