The Han Kitab Authors 153
tributed prefaces to all of Liu’s early works and also wrote a mul-
tivolume commentary on the Tianfang xingli.^97 Hei was probably
the one who organized a “publication subvention” for Liu’s first
important book. Liu thanked three different persons who donated
money to help pay the cost of publication: “The book was printed
at Siming [a town in Zhejiang, near Ningbo]. The money [for it]
came from three houses. One is the [house of] honorable Li
Fengwu of Xiliang [Yunnan]; the second is the honorable Ma Yao-
huan of Ningxia; the third is the honorable Hei Yuhui [Hei Ming-
feng] of Linqing [Shandong]” 書刻於四明資成於三家西涼李公封
五寧夏馬公耀寰臨清黑公羽輝.^98 Thus, by the time of Liu Zhi,
Chinese Muslim scholarship had reached its most sophisticated
point. It was the product of several intersecting countrywide net-
works of patronage, pedagogy, and collegiality.
Bibliography and Textual Consolidation
Chinese scholarship was not the product of the efforts of transla-
tors and authors alone. These scholars were supported by the work
of numerous other people, who were related in various ways to the
educational system and made up an important part of its constitu-
ency. These individuals commented on one another’s original texts
and translations, reviewed them, wrote prefaces and postfaces for
them, and contributed greetings. Those who also worked as teach-
ers introduced others’ texts into their classrooms. Some also were
publishers and printers; others simply contributed the financial re-
sources needed to make publication and scholarship possible. In
several cases, Muslims serving as officials in the bureaucracy lent
their patronage to scholars. We have already seen, for example, the
case of Hei Mingfeng, the military jinshi from Linqing, Shandong,
who supported Liu Zhi’s work, contributed prefaces to some of his
works, and in 1707 even published a commentary on Liu’s first
book, the Tianfang xingli.
—————
97. Hei Mingfeng, Tianfang xingli benjing zhushi 天方性理本經註釋 (Com-
mentary on the Tianfang xingli), published in 1707.
98. Liu Zhi, “Lieyan” 例言 (Instructions), Tianfang xingli, 1. 2 b.