CHAPTER 11 and at the Turning Point from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty

Zhou Xiefan

Abstract

Both the Ming and Qing dynasties were crucial to the development of Chinese Islam, according to A Genealogy of Islamic Scholars and Canons (Jingxuexi zhuanpu 經學系 傳譜) and other historical materials. The spread of Sufism, introduced to Northwest China from , not only “Islamized” the northwest, but also became widely accepted in Han regions, thus influencing madrasah education, Chinese translations of Islamic texts and a later school of metaphysical thought. Sufi sects, such as the Naqshbandiyya order and its subdivisions, were called Ishan sects after their dissemi- nation in Xinjiang, and further circulation in the Hexi Corridor. Such sects, also called menhuan, become a subject of academic research that offers clues to help organize information on the development of Chinese Islam (especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties).

Keywords

Sufism – China – Islam

1 The Introduction of Sufism in China

Sufism is a sect that emerged from in Islamic thought. After rounds of successions of family clans and Caliphs, some pious disciples, having interpreted certain suras of the Quran, imitated ’s early practices

* This article was originally submitted to the First International Conference on Chinese History held in Tokyo and compiled in the “Basic Research” category in the conference proceedings, which was later published in Chinese History: United Institutions and Multiple Development— the First International Conference on Chinese History (Tokyo: The Publishing Association of Tokyo Independent University, 2002). The chapter is an abridged version of the original con- ference paper minus the third section and the reference.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789047428008_012 Sufism And Islam At The Turning Point From The Ming Dynasty 191 that emphasize asceticism. At the beginning of the 8th Century AD, asceti- cism, as a branch of Islamic thought, was widespread among Sufis in terms of practices of austerity, long hours of prayer, self-reflection, solitary life and retreat. These were a form of passive protest against profligates, plutocracy and party struggles in defiance of their current social atmosphere. In the late 8th Century AD, such asceticism developed as mysticism, and emphasized subjective intuition and internal, religious experiences that broke through the restraints of tedious religious doctrines and rituals. By the 9th Century AD, much academic attention had been given to Sufism, which later became a sub- ject of systematic discourse in academic writings. Such writing shattered the position of established Islamic scholars who saw Sufism as heresy. By the 11th Century AD, al-Ghazali, the authority on Islam at the time, wrote about and took Sufism as a branch of established Islamic thought; his contribution to Sufism was both a revitalization of Islam and the making of a modest version of the extremity of Sufism. By the 12th Century AD, the spreading but loosely organized Sufi sects became tightly structured, converting more adherents from non-Sufism and non-Islamic traditions. Meanwhile, they adopted indig- enous beliefs and customs, thus making Islam and Sufism popular religions. Meanwhile, thinkers and poets of Sufism, such as (1165–1240 AD) and (1207–1273 AD), offered systematic treatises and metaphorical rep- resentation of Sufism, which was inclined to be polytheistic, and directed many Muslims to mysticism. After the 15th Century AD, adherents, required to absolutely obey their sheikhs, were directed to collective muraqaba (the Sufi word for meditation) and organization, and sheikhs thereby possessed wealth and secular power. While the established Islamic scholars attacked Sufi prac- tices such as visitations, more formal organizations of Sufi orders emerged in all corners of the Islamic world as a religious form of dominance before the 18th Century. Owing to limited historical information, the exact time of Sufism’s introduc- tion into China has not been fixed. The renowned Sufi martyr Abu al-Mugit Husayn Mansur al-Hallaj (857–922 AD) preached Sufism in both India and Central Asia (905–912 AD) and finally in Gaochang near to modern Turpan. His trip, about which he spoke to his family, was to convert non-Sufi believers, but mention of this trip has not been found in historical records. According to personal narrative, after having followed a caravan of paper-trade merchants from China to Baghdad, he was arrested and imprisoned and his last words before execution influenced Yunus Emre and Admet Yesevi in creating poems of Turkic mysticism.1

1 Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Duke: The University of North Carolina Press, 1975), 62–77.