146 The Han Kitab Authors
traveled throughout China, to Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Hunan,
Hubei, Shaanxi, and Gansu—all important nodes in what by Liu’s
time had become a widespread educational network. Upon ending
his travels, he returned to live in Nanjing and began a lifetime of
writing and translation.^71
At the age of fifteen, after training in Chinese, Liu had begun a
staggeringly comprehensive course of studies. In a preface he wrote
when he finished his last important work, a biography of Mu-
hammad, he looked back on his scholarly life:
Authoring books is a very difficult thing. I was fifteen when I began
studying. For eight years I read with robust diligence the Confucian clas-
sics, the histories, philosophies, belles lettres, and the books of various
schools. For six additional years I read the Tianfang [Islamic] classics, for
three more years I read the Buddhist canon, for one more year I read the
Daoist canon. I then proceeded with reading Western [European]^72 books,
[a total of] 137 copies. [So I] achieved mastery through comprehensive
study of the doctrines of the various schools. However, I was filled with
admiration for Islamic doctrines. I wrote a hundred volumes [of books]
and what [I have] already published is just one tenth [of them]—the
Dianli and the Xingli and books of that sort. The Dianli is a book that
clarifies the [rules] of the teaching. The Xingli is a book that clarifies the
[principle of the] Dao. Now the Zhisheng shilu [Records of the Most
Sagely (of Islam)] clarifies the sources where the teaching and the Dao
originated in order to present [it] for all under heaven and in order to re-
veal the entirety of the Dao. Thus these three books are one composition.
著書至不易也. 予年十五而有志於學. 八年膏晷而儒者之經史子集及雜
家之書閱遍. 又六年讀天方經. 又三年閱釋藏竟. 又一年閱道藏竟. 繼而
閱西洋書一白三十七種. 會通諸家. 而折衷於天方之學. 著書數百卷. 已
刊者什一. 典禮性理數種而已. 典禮者. 明教之書也. 性理者. 明道之書也.
今復著至聖綠以明教道淵源之自出而示天下以證道之全體也. 蓋三書者.
三而一者也.^73
—————
71. Liu Zhi, “Zhushu shu” 箸書述 (On writing books), ZSSL, 76 b– 77 a. See also
HRZ (Qingdai), pp. 357 – 60.
72. Liu must here be referring to European (Jesuit) books since he has already
made separate mention of reading Islamic texts. Also one of Liu’s preface writers
and colleagues, Yang Peilu 楊裴籙, specifically uses the term “European books”
ouluoba zhi wen 歐羅巴之文 in his preface to Liu’s Tianfang dianli; see HRZ
(Qingdai), pp. 363 – 64.
73. Liu Zhi, “Zhushu shu,” ZSSL, 76 b– 77 a; also in HRZ (Qingdai), p. 357.