該文介紹民國時期到埃及Al-Azhar唸書的中國穆斯林。其中包含之後來台的王世明與定中明阿訇。這段歷史在台灣學界尚未看到有人特別注意。
In the 1930s, several groups of Muslim students from China arrived to study at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. They were destined to play an important role in the history of modern Chinese Islam.[1] These 35 Chinese Azharites, all but two from the Sinophone Hui community, helped China to establish lasting links with Egypt and other Muslim countries in the Middle East. They also left a considerable cultural legacy, including translations of crucial texts from both the Islamic and Chinese traditions.
After returning to China, many of the Azharites became
intellectual and political leaders of the Hui community, roles they
continued to play in both continental China and Taiwan after the establishment
of two competing Chinese states in 1949. Both the Republic of
China and the People’s Republic of China utilized these highly educated men in
their diplomacy, putting former colleagues on two opposing sides of the deep
political divide. Yet regardless of their post-1949 citizenship, the Chinese
Azharites remained loyal to a similar vision of modernized Chinese Islam. Drawing
on the example of “Arabic purity” they learned in Egypt, they sought to
reconcile the Islamic and Chinese components of the Hui identity and to use the
resources of both civilizations for the benefit of the entire Chinese
nation-state.[2]
This national project with a common cause was the result of
decades of intellectual ferment within Chinese Muslim scholarly circles. The Chinese
Azharites were products of modernist Muslim schools that Hui literati had been
busy establishing since the late Qing dynasty. One major goal of
the modernist Muslim elites was to impart to young leaders―religious and
lay―sufficient linguistic skills and knowledge of the modern Muslim world so
that they could act as intermediaries between China and Islam. It was hoped
that these rising leaders would inject the Chinese Islamic practice with new
ideas based on a better understanding of the “original” Islam found in the
Middle East.
The Yunnanese Pioneers
Al-Azhar had stood at the center of the Sino-Muslim quest for
authentic Arab Islam since at least 1845, when Ma Dexin
(1794-1874), the famous Islamic scholar from Yunnan, visited the university
and briefly studied there. Ma described his time at Al-Azhar and its
importance for Muslim jurisprudence in the immensely influential work Record
of the Pilgrimage Journey (Chaojin Tuji), the first practical “guidebook”
to routes linking China with the Islamic world. His student Ma Lianyuan
(1841-1903) followed in his teacher’s footsteps and stayed at the university in
the 1870s. Given Ma Dexin’s intellectual and practical legacy, it was not
surprising that the Muslim community of Yunnan was at the forefront of Chinese
Muslim efforts to send students to Al-Azhar.
In 1928, influenced by both Mas’ respect for Al-Azhar as the
central legal authority of the Muslim world, Yunnanese Muslims sought
the university’s judgment in a conflict between traditionalists (adherents to
the so-called “old teaching,” or Gedimu) and their scripturalist
opposition (the “Muslim Brotherhood,” or Yihewani). In their
reply, the legal authorities of Al-Azhar called on the Chinese Muslims to
reconcile their differences and abandon quarrels over trivial matters. This
fresh Middle Eastern perspective on Hui internal divisions convinced the local
elites that closer ties with Al-Azhar might provide a remedy for the escalating
conflict over Islamic authenticity.[3]
Despite sporadic visits to Al-Azhar by individual Hui scholars
from other parts of the country in the 1920s (most notably by Imams Wang
Jingzhai from Tianjin and Ha Decheng from Shanghai), it was only in 1930 that
the Yunnanese chapter of the Chinese Islamic Progressive Association (Zhongguo
Hujiao Jujinhui) took concrete steps to organize a delegation. Inspired by the
visit of Afghan Azharite scholar Daja Muhammad, the association asked for his
help in arranging contact with the Al-Azhar authorities, who agreed to host
four students from the association’s Mingde Muslim School for a full program of
study.[4]
The student group, which left for Egypt in late 1931, included two
men who subsequently became leading Chinese scholars of Islam and Arabic
culture: Ma Jian (1906-1978) and Na Zhong (1909-2008). During his years in
Cairo, the former made contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood and its publishers. In 1934,
the Salafi Publishing House published Ma Jian’s book, Overview of the
History of Islam in China and Conditions of Muslims Therein, the first
volume-length presentation of Muslim Chinese history in Arabic.[5] A year
later, the same press released another milestone publication, Ma’s translation
of the Confucian Analects into Arabic, which gave Middle Eastern
audiences their first chance to become acquainted with this crucial source of
Chinese tradition.
While in Cairo, Ma also translated Risalat al-Tawhid and Tafsir
al-Manar, both written by Muhammad Abduh, though the latter was finalized
by his student Rashid Ridah (a personal acquaintance of Ma).[6] In 1939, Ma
returned to China and continued his efforts as China’s leading Arabic scholar, first working
on a translation of the Qur’an into Chinese (initially with Ha
Decheng’s assistance until the imam’s death in 1943), which remains a popular
choice for readers for its strictly linguistic approach. In 1946, he
became professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the Department of Oriental
Languages and Literatures at Peking University, the first Chinese state
university to introduce an Arabic major.[7]
Ma remained politically active throughout his career, and after
the Communist victory and establishment of the PRC, he was elected to be a
member of China’s Political Consultative Conference (CPCC) in 1949. With his
strong Arabic skills, he was frequently employed as an Arabic interpreter for
important state leaders, including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Liu Shaoqi.[8] Despite
the political upheavals of the Maoist era, Ma kept his positions as deputy of
the CPCC and professor at Peking University until his death in 1976, training a
whole generation of Chinese Arabic and Islamic scholars.
Ma Jian’s fellow Yunnanese colleague from the first Chinese
Azharite group, Na Zhong, also became a well established academic on
his return to China. While in Cairo, he studied Arabic and Islamic history and
translated several books on Muslim history into Chinese. He then
returned to China in 1942, teaching first in Chongqing and then moving to
Yunnan University in 1947. In Yunnan, Na established the Arabic
language program and taught without interruption through the civil war and
Communist victory. In 1958, the PRC government asked him to move to Beijing,
where he remained the Arabic professor at the Foreign Affairs University until
his retirement.[9] Like Ma Jian, Na Zhong trained a whole
generation of Chinese Arabic scholars, many from non-Muslim backgrounds,
becoming one of the founding fathers of Chinese Arabic and Islamic studies.
The strong Yunnanese links with Al-Azhar helped to make the
students from the province the single largest contingent among the Chinese
Azharites. In addition to the five members of the initial group, five more
followed as members of the subsequent four delegations—one group in 1932, two
in 1934, and the largest in 1938.
The Azharites from Eastern Chinese Muslim Schools
Following the Yunnanese trailblazers, the modernist Muslim
circles of East China—centered around schools in Beijing (the Chengda
Normal School) and Shanghai (the Shanghai Islamic Normal School)—began
their own program of sending students to Al-Azhar. These two institutions,
established in 1925 and 1928, respectively, formed the central axis of
Sino-Muslim modernization efforts and were closely connected with the Yunnanese
Muslims through personal ties and organizational links like the Chinese Islamic
Progressive Association.
Ma Jian studied at the Shanghai school from 1929 to 1931 and
knew the Chengda school’s rector, Imam Ma Songting (1895-1992). The Chengda
school’s influential magazine Yuehua had been publishing reports sent in
by the first Yunnanese Azharites since the beginning of their stay in Egypt,
inspiring a desire among the school’s students to study in Cairo.[10]
In 1932, the first group of five Chengda students left for Egypt
accompanied by Ma Songting, who met not only with the rector of Al-Azhar,
Muhammad al-Ahmadi al-Zawahiri, but also with King Fuad. The
king promised to protect the Chinese students visiting Al-Azhar and to invite
more of them in the future.[11] He also decided to dispatch two Al-Azhar shaykhs to
teach at Chengda, where they remained for four years until the Japanese
invasion in 1937.
During his 1932 meetings in Cairo, Ma Songting was presented
with more than 400 Arabic books, which became the nucleus of Chengda’s library
collection. A special building was erected between 1934 and 1936 on the grounds
of the Dongsi Mosque (Chengda’s seat) to house the growing collection.[12] The
library was named the Fude (i.e., Fuad) Library in honor of the late monarch,
who passed away in April 1936.
In late 1936, Ma Songting visited Egypt again to meet with
Fuad’s son and successor, the teenage King Farouk, who took a strong interest
in Chinese Muslims and promised to cover travel expenses and tuition at
Al-Azhar for 20 additional Chinese students.
This so-called “Farouk group” eventually had 16 members and left
China in dramatic circumstances in 1938, evading the Japanese invasion forces. It was
spearheaded by Pang Shiqian (1902-1958), a Henanese imam who (like Ma
Jian several years earlier) became a published author in Egypt. His 1945 book China
and Islam, printed by the Muslim Brotherhood, caused quite a stir
among Middle Eastern readers and was even better received than Ma Jian’s
earlier contribution.[13]
Pang remained in Egypt for nine years, closely collaborating with
the Muslim Brotherhood, which made him a functionary in its outreach
section. A memoir describing his time in Egypt was published in 1951 and
continues to be an important source of information about the Chinese Azharites,
even though it is somewhat distorted by the politics of the early PRC.[14]
With the Sino-Japanese war devastating their country, the Chinese
Azharites began actively disseminating Chinese counterpropaganda, working to
thwart Japanese attempts to win the support of the Muslim world. In 1939, the
Chinese students of Al-Azhar organized a successful hajj mission to overshadow
a pilgrimage of Japanese-sponsored Muslim collaborators from northern China.[15] In the
same year, a Chinese consulate was established in Jeddah, and Wang Shiming
(1910-1997), a recent Al-Azhar graduate and member of the 1932 Chengda
group, was named vice consul.[16]
When the 1949 Communist victory forced many Chinese people to
make dramatic choices, Wang Shiming and four other Azharites chose to
stay away from the new Maoist China and continue their services for the
Nationalists. Wang and Ding Zhongming (1913-2005) served as
ROC diplomats in the Middle East before becoming full-time imams serving the
young Muslim community of Taiwan. Ding, much like Ma Jian and Na Zhong on the
continent, worked as a university academic, teaching Arabic and heading
Chengchi University’s Arabic department from 1979 to 1987.[17]
Conclusion
The ambitious program of sending Chinese Muslim men to study at
the Islamic world’s most famous university produced a relatively small but
devoted and intellectually active group of scholars. They proved to be not only
bridge-builders bringing China and Islam closer together, but also community
leaders who helped the Islamic Chinese culture survive through the political
upheavals of the twentieth century and emerge strengthened by new links with
the wider Muslim world.
[1] As such, the history of the Chinese Azharites
has been the subject of intensive scrutiny by scholars— including Western
academics—in the past two decades. For an excellent overview of the historical
background and the momentous role that Hui graduates of Al-Azhar played in the
construction of Chinese Muslim modernity, see Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, “Nine Years
in Egypt: Al-Azhar and the Arabization of Chinese Islam,” HAGAR Studies in
Culture, Polity and Identities 8 (2008): 1-21; Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, “Taking
Abduh to China: Chinese-Egyptian Intellectual Contact in the Early Twentieth
Century,” in James L. Gelvin, Nile Green, eds., Global Muslims in the Age of
Steel and Print (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2014),
249-267; and John T. Chen, “Re-Orientation: The Chinese Azharites between Umma
and Third World,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East
34, 1 (May 2014): 24-51. See also John T. Chen’s essay in this series.
[2] Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, “Nine Years in Egypt,”
11.
[3] Yao Jide, “Zhongguo Liu'ai Huizu Xuesheng
Paiqian Shimo,“ in Wang Yongliang and He Zhiming, eds., Shoujie Huizu Lishi
yu Wenhua Guoji Xueshu Taolunhui Lunwenji (Yinchuan: Ningxia Renmin
Chubanshe, 2003), 328-335.
[4] Ma Bozhong, “Jinxiandai Zhongguo Liu'ai Huizu
Xuesheng Lishi Jianshu,” in Ma Bozhong, Na Jiarui, and Li Jiangong, eds., Licheng:
Minguo Liu'ai Huizu Xuesheng Paiqian Shi Yanjiu (Yinchuan: Ningxia Renmin
Chubanshe, 2011), 2. The leader and supervisor of the group, Sha Guozhen
(1884-1970), used his time in Cairo to pursue studies not only at Al-Azhar but
also at the American University, from which he obtained an MA in education.
[5] Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, “Nine Years in Egypt,” 3.
[6] Ma Jian, “Jiaoyi: Renzhuxue Dagang,” Yuehua
5, 27 (1933).
[7] Ma Haiyun, “Patriotic and Pious Muslim
Intellectuals in Modern China: The Case of Ma Jian,” The American Journal of
Islamic Social Sciences 23, 3 (2006): 57.
[8] Li Zhenzhong, Xuezhe de Zhuiqiu: Ma Jian
Zhuan (Yinchuan: Ningxia Renmin Chubanshe, 2000).
[9] Ma Bozhong and Na Jiarui, “Minguo Liu’Ai
Huizu Xuesheng Shengping Shilüe,” in Ma Bozhong, Na Jiarui, and Li Jiangong,
eds., Licheng. Minguo Liu'ai Huizu Xuesheng Paiqian Shi Yanjiu, 13-15.
[10] Both the Shanghai and Beijing school had
Azharite-influenced imams among their founders. Ha Decheng (1888-1843), who
founded the Shanghai school, studied in Cairo in the 1920s. The important
reformist Imam Wang Jingzhai (1879-1949), who studied individually at Al-Azhar
in 1922-1923, was professionally connected with both schools. Ha, Wang, Ma
Songting, and Imam Da Pusheng (1874-1965)— who was another founder of the
Shanghai school and maintained close contacts with the Beijing Muslim
educators—are collectively known as the “four great imams” of twentieth-century
Chinese Islam.
[11] Liu Dongsheng, “Chengda Shifan Xuexiao
Xiaoshi Shuyao,” in Ma Bozhong and Chen Hui, eds., Jiqing yu Kundun: Chengda
Shifan zhi Xingshuai (Qingzhen Shuju, 2006).
[12] Liu Dongsheng, “Chengda Shifan Xuexiao
Xiaoshi Shuyao.”
[13] Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, “Nine Years in Egypt,” 1.
[14] See Pang Shiqian, Aiji Jiunian
(Beijing: Zhongguo Yisilanjiao Xiehui, 1988).
[15] Yufeng Mao, “A Muslim Vision for the Chinese
Nation: Chinese Pilgrimage Missions to Mecca during World War II,” The
Journal of Asian Studies 70 (2011): 373395.
[16] Yufeng Mao, “A Muslim Vision for the Chinese
Nation,” 373395.
[17] Jia Fukang, Taiwan Huijiao Shi,
(Taibei: Yisilan Wenhua Fuwushe, 2005), 293.
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