Self-Perception and Identity 97
ties, in which the line between student and teacher ideally became
blurred, and the two behaved as colleagues, members of the same
community.
Geographical Location and
the Transmission of Knowledge
The reverence and respect directed toward specific teachers and
students by Zhao in his Genealogy is a reflection, of course, of their
erudition, their powers of memorization, and their distinguished
scholarship, among other “scholarly” or intellectual attributes. But
the recognition of these attributes was not limited solely to the
scholarly arena. They also represented a form of social capital, as is
clear from the numerous cases of scholars who were married to
prominent women solely on the basis of their scholarly qualities.
This situation is reflected in the sad story of Ma Minggao 馬
鳴皋, a disciple of Chang Yunhua and Li Yanling in Jining, who
was reluctant to parlay his cultural capital as scholar into social
capital. Ma was known both for his erudition and learning and es-
pecially for his teaching abilities (學業大成... 送學習經; JXCP,
p. 63 ). This made him sought after in Jining, and several families
were interested in marrying a daughter to the prodigy (本坊有女者
爭妻之). To this end, the community even asked him to open and
run a school for girls (請開女學; JXCP, p. 63 ).^50 The prudish Ma,
however, just wanted to study and was not interested in marriage.
Eventually, he was forced to marry into the Bai 白 clan, a rich fam-
ily that managed to make him marry one of its members, a
wealthy and beautiful widow (JXCP, p. 63 ).^51 After much negotia-
tion, the reluctant groom agreed to the match on the condition
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50. This is the only instance known to me in which the possibility of educa-
tion for women is raised. I have found no other evidence for Islamic education for
women at the time.
51. The story is so complicated that I have exiled it to a footnote. While at-
tempting to negotiate the marriage, the Bai family sent some gifts to Ma Minggao,
who accepted them. When Ma refused the marriage offer, the Bai family argued
that in accepting the gifts he had agreed to marry the widow. Ma Minggao dis-
puted this claim, but he was ultimately persuaded by one of his disciples (who had
been bribed by the Bais) to the contrary.