Muslim Approaches to Religious Diversity in China

Abstract

Muslims entered China in the seventh century and established communities within a century or two, but it took almost 1,000 years for them to begin writing about Islam in the Chinese language. In 1642, Wang Daiyu 王岱輿 (ca. 1592-ca. 1658) published the first known Chinese book on Islamic teachings, and many others joined him over the next two centuries. These scholars have often been called the Huiru 回儒, the Muslim Confucians, and their writings the Han Kitab, a Chinese-Arabic hybrid word meaning “the Chinese Books.” Many of them engaged in a profound dialogue with Confucian thought, and their approach may be able to suggest fruitful approaches to the contemporary dialogue of civilizations.