Movement of Translating and Writing Scriptures in Chinese and Nationalization of Islam in China
During the transitional period between the Ming and Qing dynasties (the 17th century), following Mosque Education, the movement of translating and writing scriptures in Chinese rose vigorously. As all the translators and writers appeared in this period were well versed in four major religions, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Islam, and they preferred to expound Islamic doctrine in Confucian ways of thinking, so it was also called the movement of expounding scriptures with Confucianism.
The movement of translating and writing scriptures in Chinese was divided into three stages which started from Wang Daiyu, Muslim scholar in the transitional period between the Ming and Qing dynasties, and ended with Ma Lianyuan, Muslim scholar at the end of the Qing Dynasty, lasting over two hundred years. In this period of time there emerged a great number ofw e l l - k n o w n Islamic scholars emerged a great number of well- known Islamic scholars and Islamic works in Chinese thatexerted a long-
lasting influence upon Chinese Muslims and laid a solid theoretic foundation for the nationalization of Islam in China.
The first stage of the movement began with the publication of Wang Daiyu"s “Expounding Islam”, right up to the completion of Wu Zunqi"s “Road Leading to Islam”? In this period of time, the area around Nanjing and Jiangsu was the center of the movement, and the subject matter was always closely related to Mosque Education and Ilm al-Kalam (theology)? The works of this period were either reading books for Mosque Education or a monograph to a theory, which were also read by intellectuals of other religions who wanted to know more about Islam. As a matter of fact, all these works borrowed something more or less from Confucianism and Buddhism, but their Islamic nature was stillobviously demonstrated by their arguing and debating with Buddhism and Taoism, and criticizing certain views of Confucianism.
The representative figures of this period and their works are: Wang Daiyu, with his “Expounding Islam”, “Islamic Great Learning” and “Right Answers to Truth-Seekers”; Zhang Zhong, with his “General Knowledge of Islam”, “Essentials of Islam in Four Volumes”; Wu Zunqi, with his “An Introduction to Shariah” and “Road Leading to Islam”? Furthermore, there were some others of great fame who translated many scriptures into Chinese, such as Ma Minglong with his “To Know Oneself and Wake up to Reality”, Ma Junshi with his “Summary to Islamic History in Arabia”, She Yunshan with his “Zhao Yuan Mi Jue”, “Necessary Islamic Knowledge”, and “Tui Yuan Zheng Da”? All these works were prepared for those who were versed in Confucianism to study Islamic theology, and were also useful for ordinary Muslims to study Islamic doctrine.