142 The Han Kitab Authors
one from Sichuan; three from Hebei (all from the Beijing area);
one from Hunan; and one from Henan (Kaifeng).^63
Most of the people add a title associated with education to their
names.^64 In all but four cases, these titles are taken from the Confu-
cian education system. Of these remaining four, two cases provide
an obscure title that seems to imply a connection to studying, teach-
ing, or other scholarly activity. For instance, Liu Sanjie of Nanjing
(the father of Liu Zhi), added the title guangxue 廣學 to his name in
the list of greetings. It is possible that the title means director of
studies (being close to guangwen 廣文). We know from Zhao’s Ge-
nealogy that Liu Sanjie was a teacher in the school of Yuan Ruqi. A
similar case is that of Zheng Shichang 鄭士昌, who added the title
bowen 博文 to his name. In the third instance, Yang Tianqiu 楊天虯
of Hebei and Ma Suitai 馬綏泰 of Kunming added to their names
the word houxue 後學, meaning “your pupil” or “your disciple.”
The fourth case is the only one in the entire list that provides a title
unrelated to education. Zheng Zhibi 鄭之璧of Nanjing signed his
greeting bashiweng 八十翁, that is, “octogenarian.” With this sole
exception, all the titles, both commonplace and obscure demon-
strates how particular individuals were related to and situated
within the broader Chinese Muslim scholarly community.
The remaining seventeen figures added more “familiar” titles, as-
sociated with the official Chinese education and examination sys-
tems. Ma Tingrui 馬廷瑞 of Jiangsu, Ma Tiren 馬體仁 of Kunming,
and Yang Guozhu 楊國柱 of Hebei identified themselves as jiaol-
ing 教領 (instructor). Cai Heming 蔡鶴鳴 of Baoning 保寧, Si-
chuan, added the title guangwen 廣文 (prefectural director of stud-
ies). Ai Yannian 艾延年 of Jiangchuan 江川, Kunming, Yunnan,
labeled himself ruxue 儒學 (former director of studies) and added
Kunming bashisou 昆明八十叟 (an octogenarian from Kunming).
Xie Qiyu 偰啟裕 of Dongquan 棟川, Yunnan, added the title
xiaolian 孝廉 (that is, a holder of the juren degree) and was proba-
bly the only degree holder in the group.^65 Ten persons added the
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63. All greeters signed and indicated their place of residence.
64. For the entire list, see HRZ (Qingdai), pp. 350 – 56.
65. I have not been able to establish when he passed his examination and ob-
tained his degree.