102 Self-Perception and Identity
比也. The officials saw that his answer was not coarse and that further-
more it was proper and not irrelevant, and said: “We heard that you have
classics in your teaching. May we see them?” 諸司見其出言不俗亦禮而
不褻曰聞汝教有經可許觀乎. Ma answered in the affirmative, invited the
officials in, opened for them a portfolio [of books] to inspect 開篋呈覽.
Then [Ma] took a book,^58 and reading slowly from the contents, he ex-
plained its principles, nature, and sources; he expounded upon its excel-
lent important points and went to the heart of everything that had never
come forth from Confucianism [and therefore, that would be unfamiliar]
先生從容緩言以講而其理性淵源闡揚機妙盡屬儒書中之所未發. [In re-
sponse], all the dignitaries inclined [attentively] and listened quietly; there
was not one who dared to utter a sound or cough 各上台側耳靜聽無敢
聲嗽之者. Afterward they kept coming on other occasions to listen to
more. Within ten days they awarded him [Ma] with a horizontally in-
scribed board with words of praise, raised the rank of his house, and gave
him a school manager’s certificate with belt and cap [thus making him]
equal with those wearing caps [the literati] 旌獎匾額森列其廬給掌教牒
並帶冠焉.
The story suggests that Islamic schools were subject to some sort
of systematic official inspection by the late Ming. The term zhang-
jiao 掌教 was not an official title but was commonly used to refer
to the masters of lower-ranking local schools. Zhangjiao were usu-
ally members of the local elite who were in charge of the financial
affairs of the local school. According to one school regulation cited
by Evelyn Rawski, a zhangjiao should be “an upright and well-to-
do person who can succor the various charitable schools. The ma-
jor thing is that the head scholar be one who contributes money in
the locality. If he cannot manage it all, then ask one or two men in
the village who are honest and upright to do it.”^59
The manager was responsible for hiring teachers, supervising the
curriculum, handling finances, and other administrative duties. He
was also in charge of “greeting and escorting the local official on
his tours of inspection.”^60 Zhangjiao, therefore, were not appointed
—————
58. The book is titled Gesui 咯遂. I have so far been unable to identify the
original Arabic or Persian title. It is not mentioned elsewhere in the Genealogy,
nor in other Chinese Islamic texts. It is clear, however, that Zhao wants his read-
ers to know that the book was an Islamic text.
59. Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy, p. 40.
60. Ibid.