128 The Han Kitab Authors
who masters the Dao’” 獨臨潼少山張老師識之曰此有道之士. As
Zhang studied with this man, he slowly began to realize that the
Indian scholar was a clever man who knew a great deal.^21
Zhang studied with Ashike for three years, until his return to In-
dia.^22 Zhang subsequently produced in Chinese a number of books
that he claimed had first been orally transmitted (koushou 口授) to
him by Ashike in Arabic and Persian. The first was the Guizhen
zongyi 歸真總義 (General principles of the return).^23 This treatise
on the third principle of Islam was based on an original Arabic
work, the transliteration of which is given in Chinese as yimani
muzhimole 以麻尼穆直默勒. The work has been identified by
Donald Leslie as the Imani majmu’, a Sufi text in wide circulation in
the Persian-speaking Islamic world during the fourteenth century.^24
Sha Zhenzong 沙振宗 (fl. 1640 s– 50 s), Zhang’s disciple and asso-
ciate, who assisted in translating the book and also contributed a
postscript, left an account of its translation and production. Ac-
cording to Sha, Zhang worked “relentlessly for three years, with-
out caring about his sources of income, so that he could transmit
this important book taught to him by that Indian teacher.” Sha
reminded the reader that thanks to Zhang, “scholars of the Eastern
Land [China] now have access to this important work.”^25
Zhang’s second book, the Sipian yaodao 四篇要道 (Essential of
the Four Chapters), is a translation of a Persian text entitled Chahr
fassl (Four chapters). Zhang translated and published this book in
1653 during a prolonged visit to Yangzhou. Upon arriving in Yang-
zhou, he met two friends, Ma Zhonglong 馬中龍 and Li Zhihua
—————
21. See Zhang Zhong (Zhang Junshi), “Yindu Yimanijie lu” 印度以麻呢解綠
(Record of the Guizhen zongyi), in Zhang Junshi, Guizhen zongyi 歸真總義, 1 a– 2 a.
22. For Zhang’s biography, see HRZ (Qingdai), pp. 38 – 39 ; and Tazaka, Chūgoku
ni okeru Kaikyō, pp. 1368 – 69 , 1401.
23. The terms guizhen 歸真 and guiyi 歸一 are translations of the term ma’ād,
or “return to God,” the third principle of Islam. For a discussion of this term, see
Murata, Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light, p. 23.
24. For identification of the text, see Leslie, Islamic Literature in Chinese, p. 25.
For a thoughtful discussion of translating Sufi texts into Chinese, see Murata,
Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light, pp. 31 – 34.
25. Sha Zhenzong 沙振崇, “Guizhen zongyi houba” 歸真總義後跋 (Postface to
the Guizhen zongyi), in Zhang Junshi, Guizhen zongyi, 67 b– 68 a. For a punctuated
version, see HRZ (Qingdai), pp. 319 – 320.