The Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam is pleased to announce the publication of IAS Working Paper No. 91: Beyond Translation: Liu Zhi’s “Five Watches of the Moon” and Islamic Literature in Early Qing China by Lee Cheuk Yin, Visiting Professor at IAS, UBD.
Please see below for details.
Abstract:
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a group of Islamic scholars who were proficient in Chinese and had a deep understanding of Confucianism appeared, who wrote in Chinese, translated or extended the original text of the Qur’an in Chinese, and promoted Islamic teachings. Their writings had a profound impact on the spread of Islamic teachings and the convergence of Confucianism. Japanese scholar Rokuro Kuwata called these authors “Muslim Confucians”, and the late Ming Dynasty was “the Renaissance period in the history of Chinese Islam”. At the same time, the translation of Islamic scriptures into Chinese in Nanjing in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties marked a new stage in the history of Islamic development in China. At the same time, the development of Islamic religious literature was also promoted. This article expounds on Islamic literary works and takes Liu Zhi’s “Five Watches of the Moon” as an example to help understand the characteristics of Islamic religious literature in early Qing dynasty.
Author:
Lee Cheuk Yin was previously head of the Department of Chinese Studies and founding director of the Wan Boo Saw Research Centre for Chinese Culture at the National University of Singapore. He is Guest Professor of the Nanjing University, Hubei University and Wuhan University, and Academic Advisor of the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Fudan University, China. He has served as External Examiner of the School of Chinese of the University of Hong Kong, and the History Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was formerly Senior Professor at the Institute of Asian Studies (IAS), Universiti Brunei Darussalam and is currently Visiting Professor there. Prof. Lee’s interest is Chinese intellectual history, Muslim activities in China and traditional medicine. He has written 9 books and edited more than 30 books. He is editor of the book series Overseas China Studies (Guangxi Normal University Press) and Emotion and the State of Mind in East Asia (Leiden: Brill).
Contact: chsleecy@nus.edu.sg
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