The First Islamic Classic in Chinese , livre ebook

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traduit par Sachiko Murata

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159 pages

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Published in 1642, Wang Daiyu's Real Commentary on the True Teaching was the first significant presentation of Islam in the Chinese language by a Muslim scholar. It set the standard for the expression of Islamic theology, Sufism, and ethics in Chinese, and became the literary foundation of a school of thought that has been called "Muslim Confucianism." In contrast to Muslim scholars writing in every other language, Wang avoided Arabic words, opting instead to reconfigure the religion in terms of Chinese concepts and categories. Employing the terminology of Neo-Confucian philosophy, his overview of Islam is thus both congenial to the mainstream Islamic tradition and reaffirms Confucian teachings about the human duty to establish harmony between heaven and earth. This book will appeal to those curious about the manner in which Islam has flourished in China over the past thousand years, as well as those interested in dialogue among religions and the significance of religious diversity.
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Wang Daiyu
Tawḥīd Chinese Style
Cosmic Hierarchy
Moral Perfection
Observing Propriety
The Contemporary Relevance
The Text and Translation
Notes

The Real Commentary on the True Teaching
Self-Narrative
Record of Questions and Answers

Book One

1.1. The Real One
1.2. The Original Beginning
1.3. Predetermination
1.4. Universal Compassion
1.5. The Real Solicitude
1.6. The Real Sage
1.7. Similarity to the Real
1.8. Changing the Real
1.9. Darkening the Real
1.10. The Outstanding Differences
1.11. Nature and Mandate
1.12. The Real Heart
1.13. Life and Death
1.14. The Level of the Human
1.15. Husband and Wife
1.16. Immortals and Spirits
1.17. The True Teaching
1.18. The True Learning
1.19. Huihui: The Returning Returners
1.20. Bearing Witness

Book Two

2.1. The Five Constants
2.2. Real Loyalty
2.3. Utmost Filial Piety
2.4. Listening to the Mandate
2.5. The Chief Leader
2.6. The Way of Friendship
2.7. Taking and Putting Aside
2.8. Preparation
2.9. Observing the Moments
2.10. Reflection and Wakefulness
2.11. Name and Profit
2.12. Living up to the Measure
2.13. Sacrificing Animals
2.14. Meat and Vegetables
2.15. Gambling and Drinking
2.16. Interest and Hoarding
2.17. Wind and Water
2.18. The True Mandate
2.19. This World
2.20. The Afterworld

Cited Works
Index

Sujets

Islam

Theology

Comparative religion

Informations

Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	27 mars 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781438465098
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	11 Mo

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The First Islamic Classic in Chinese
The First Islamic Classic in Chinese
Wang Daiyu’s Real Commentary on the True Teaching
Translated with an Introduction and Notes by
SACHIKO MURATA
Cover art from iStock by Getty Images.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wang, Daiyu, active 17th century, author. | Murata, Sachiko, 1943–translator.
Title: The First Islamic Classic in Chinese : Wang Daiyu’s “Real Commentary on the True Teaching” / translated, with an introduction and notes, by Sachiko Murata.
Other titles: Zheng jiao zhen quan. English | Wang Daiyu’s “Real Commentary on the True Teaching” | 1st Islamic Classic in Chinese: Wang Daiyu’s “Real Commentary on the True Teaching”
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031430 (print) | LCCN 2016032698 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438465074 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438465098 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Islam—Essence, genius, nature. | Islam—Doctrines.
Classification: LCC BP163 .W26513 2017 (print) | LCC BP163 (ebook) | DDC 297.2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031430
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Wang Daiyu
Taw ḥ īd Chinese Style
Cosmic Hierarchy
Moral Perfection
Observing Propriety
The Contemporary Relevance
The Text and Translation
Notes
The Real Commentary on the True Teaching
Self-Narrative
Record of Questions and Answers
Book One
1.1. The Real One
1.2. The Original Beginning
1.3. Predetermination
1.4. Universal Compassion
1.5. The Real Solicitude
1.6. The Real Sage
1.7. Similarity to the Real
1.8. Changing the Real
1.9. Darkening the Real
1.10. The Outstanding Differences
1.11. Nature and Mandate
1.12. The Real Heart
1.13. Life and Death
1.14. The Level of the Human
1.15. Husband and Wife
1.16. Immortals and Spirits
1.17. The True Teaching
1.18. The True Learning
1.19. Huihui : The Returning Returners
1.20. Bearing Witness
Book Two
2.1. The Five Constants
2.2. Real Loyalty
2.3. Utmost Filial Piety
2.4. Listening to the Mandate
2.5. The Chief Leader
2.6. The Way of Friendship
2.7. Taking and Putting Aside
2.8. Preparation
2.9. Observing the Moments
2.10. Wakeful Reflection
2.11. Name and Profit
2.12. Living up to the Measure
2.13. Sacrificing Animals
2.14. Meat and Vegetables
2.15. Gambling and Drinking
2.16. Interest and Hoarding
2.17. Wind and Water
2.18. The True Mandate
2.19. This World
2.20. The Afterworld
Cited Works
Index
Acknowledgments
I owe a major debt of gratitude to my friend Tu Weiming, who guided me in reading Wang Daiyu when I first discovered his works twenty years ago. The several years we then spent together working on The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi were invaluable preparation for my recent return to Wang Daiyu. As always, I owe a great deal to my editor (and husband), William Chittick. I extend my special thanks to Dr. Wang Xi 王希 of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. During a research year spent at SUNY Stony Brook, he took time off to read my translation of the Real Commentary and make numerous helpful suggestions for its improvement. I am especially grateful to the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, which awarded me a fellowship for the academic year 2011–12, without which it would have impossible to find the time to finish the translation.
Introduction
In Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light (2000) I translated one short treatise by each of two major Muslim scholars, Wang Daiyu 王岱輿 and Liu Zhi 劉智 . Wang announced in the title of this short treatise, The Great Learning of the Pure and Real ( Qingzhen daxue 清眞大學 ), that he was drawing from both the Islamic and the Confucian traditions. Great Learning refers to a Confucian classic much studied and cited by Neo-Confucian scholars. Pure and Real is an expression that Muslims have used to designate their own tradition, so it is commonly translated as “Islam.”
It is worth noting at the outset that the term zhen 眞 or “real” plays a prominent role in Muslim writings as an indicator of things Islamic. The word has a long history in Chinese thought, especially in Daoism, but never had the same favor it was to gain among Muslims, for whom it is the Chinese equivalent of the Arabic word ḥ aqq , which means real, true, right, appropriate, and worthy. In the Qur’an ḥ aqq is used to name God, to designate the content of prophetic revelation, to describe God’s activity in the world, and to indicate the nature of ideal human activity.
When I finished Chinese Gleams with the help of my two collaborators, Tu Weiming and William Chittick, we decided that despite Wang Daiyu’s historical priority, Liu Zhi was the more significant philosopher/theologian and that he would provide greater insight into the manner in which Muslims were able to synthesize Chinese and Islamic thought. We spent several years studying and translating Nature and Principle in Islam ( Tianfang xingli 天方性理 ), which appeared as The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi: Islamic Thought in Confucian Terms (2009). I then turned my attention back to The Real Commentary , which proved to be more difficult to decipher than Liu Zhi’s book, no doubt because of its relative lack of system and its pioneering quality. In any case, it provides a remarkable window into the worldview and ethos of Muslims in seventeenth-century China.
Over the past thirty years China has seen a great revival of interest in Chinese-language writing on Islam. Hundreds of books and treatises that originally appeared from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century have been republished. 1 Most of them pertain to the school of thought that has come to be called the Han Kitab 漢克塔補 , a Chinese-Arabic compound meaning literally “the Chinese books.” 2 This literature was produced by scholars commonly known as the Huiru 回儒 , that is, Muslim scholars trained in Confucian learning, or “Confucian Muslims.” 3 Despite all the new research and ongoing discoveries, it still seems safe to say that the first significant text published by the Huiru was Wang Daiyu’s Real Commentary on the True Teaching ( Zhengjiao zhenquan 正教眞詮 ), which appeared in 1642. Other works had already been printed, including two that Wang criticizes in chapter 1.8 , but this book overshadowed earlier writings and became the benchmark of Islamic learning.
English readers have a fine survey of the school of thought that produced Wang Daiyu in Zvi Bendor Benite’s Dao of Muhammad . Benite explains how the Huiru appeared as the result of the efforts of a number of significant scholars, beginning with Hu Dengzhou 胡登洲 (d. ca. 1597), who established a madrasah in Xianyang 咸陽 in Shaanxi province in the middle of the sixteenth century. Hu Dengzhou broke with the practices of traditional Islamic learning by teaching not only Islamic but also Chinese classics. His students established schools in four different cities, among them Nanjing, where Wang Daiyu was trained and subsequently taught, though in later life he moved to Beijing where he remained until his death. Wang’s students praised his ability to answer questions in a clear and logical manner. It is likely that much of The Real Commentary was composed precisely to answer the questions that he was constantly being asked, not only by Muslims but also by non-Muslims curious about Islamic teachings. 4
Wang tells us in the introduction to The Real Commentary that he compiled notes on his scholarly conversations and eventually organized them as this book. He divided the material into two sections, theory and practice. The first part explains the Islamic worldview and the manner in which it is distinct from the Three Teachings, which are Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. The second part deals not, as one might expect, with the details of Islamic practice, but with the spiritual and ethical underpinnings of practice. Wang clearly assumed that his readers already knew how to practice their religion, so he wanted to explain the rationale for that practice, not least in cases that would meet strong objections in Chinese society, such as dietary rules, the prohibition of alcohol and gambling, and burial customs. He has almost nothing to say about the typical issues that come up in books of jurisprudence ( fiqh ), the field of Islamic learning that sets down rules and regulations as established by the jurists on the basis of the Qur’an and the tradition. Given the lack of attention to practice per se, Muslims and non-Muslims who imagine that Islam is basically a set of instructions may have a difficult time recognizing the thoroughly Islamic character of the book.
In Arabic, Persian, and other Islamic languages, discussion of the social and spiritual rationale for practice takes place primarily in works that the secondary literature classifies as “Sufi,” even though many of the authors so classified would not have used the term in reference to themselves. I use the word for want of a satisfactory alternative. 5 I understand it to mean an approach to Islamic learning that looks for inner meaning when dealing with outward forms and that emphasizes the need to undergo transformation of the soul to achieve a constant personal engagement wit