Self-Perception and Identity 95
calligraphy). This early stage of education was probably common to
many of the other teachers mentioned in the Genealogy.
Interestingly, the turn to the study of Islam required permission
from one’s parents (歸告父母咸允之入本坊學經; JXCP, p. 56 ).
Apparently not all Muslim parents encouraged Islamic studies. Fi-
nally, the reason for the transition from Confucian to Muslim edu-
cation was ostensibly scholarly and not religious; the root cause
was the sense that the Chinese classics were not satisfying for the
young Chinese Muslim intellect. For particularly brilliant students,
like Li and Chang, full intellectual satisfaction could be found only
somewhere else—in the study of Islamic texts.
Other students, too, had remarkable intellectual powers. She
Yunshan, a Muslim convert and the student of Li and Chang, was
able to grasp with remarkable rapidity the innermost meanings of
the works he studied. Whereas Li and Chang sought to challenge
their intellects by mastering two traditions, She attempted to
quench his thirst for knowledge by traveling throughout the Chi-
nese Muslim educational network. It took him less than a month
to read several texts and completely grasp their subtleties, to be
able to recite the hadith, and to advise the people (不逾月讀尊經數
本盡得其妙能宣聖諭以勸大眾).^47
Zhao’s text describes a conversation between She and his child-
hood teacher, Master Yang, regarding the study of Islamic texts
(the “venerated classics,” zunjing 尊經). Already at this early stage,
She wanted to study more. He asked his teacher, “Is this the point
[having learned several books] where the study of the venerated
classics ceases?” 遂謂師曰尊經之習止此乎. Yang reassured his pu-
pil that there was a good deal more to study: “The learning of the
classics is like a sea. He who is well versed in their principles can
study other classics; one who does not travel for the sake of study-
—————
47. In Chinese the term shengyu 聖諭usually refers to imperial edicts. How-
ever, in this case I chose to translate it as hadith, both because it makes more sense
and because in later texts the term appears as a translation of hadith. In 1923 a
mosque in Beijing published a two-volume book entitled Shengyu xiangjie 聖諭
詳解 (Detailed explanation of hadith), a copy of which can be found in the New
York Public Library. Translation questions aside, the use of the term shengyu for
hadith is another example of Chinese Muslim usage of Chinese terms in a Muslim
context.