Introduction

During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) is when China began forming significant ties with the West, notably Spain and Portugal. These relationships were so important that the Dynasty’s stability and economic success was actually attributed to its extensive trade with the West. 

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Western countries, however, were not alone in forming influential relationships with China. When companions of the prophet Mohammed traveled to China on an expedition during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), they brought the religion of Islam with them. From Arabian traders in 8th-century Guangzhou (1) to the Uyghur population in Xinjiang today, Muslims occupy an important place in Chinese history. While their numbers may seem insignificant in contrast with the non-Muslim Chinese population, they are disproportionately large compared to other Muslim states. For example, “there are more Muslims in China than in Malaysia, and more than in every Middle Eastern Muslim nation except Iran, Turkey and Egypt” (2). By studying the evolution of Islam across the dynasties from 618 (Tang Dynasty) to 1911 (Qing Dynasty), I hope to gain a better understanding of how it is embedded in the China’s culture and history.

 

First intersections

Islam was first brought to China in the 7th century (3) by an envoy from the Arabian empire. Though his identity is disputed by modern historians, the envoy was suspected to be Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqas, Uncle of Prophet Mohammed and also one of his 10 companions. Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqas was best known for commanding the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah and conquering Persia in 636 (4). He was sent on an official visit to China by the third Caliph (‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan) in 651, where he was welcomed with open arms by the Tang Dynasty. He was best known for building the Huaisheng Mosque in Guangdong, the very first mosque in China. Today, his tomb is still preserved. A cultural landmark and the largest mosque in Guangzhou (5), it is revered by Chinese people and Muslims from around the world.

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The first Chinese empire to “allow all foreign religions freedom in the Confucian land" (6), The Tang Dynasty was a transformative period for Muslims in China; it was during this time that Islam made its first appearance in the country and the first mosque was constructed. The first major Muslim settlements in China consisted primarily of Arab and Persian merchants, whose contributions to commercial and military life during the Tang Dynasty led Islam to flourish “from a simple faith into an active ethnic-religious Hui minority in the 13th century" (7).

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The Hui are an ethnoreligious group concentrated in East Asia. One of 56 ethnic groups recognized by China today (8), they are one of the 10 peoples in China that gradually adopted Islam as a religion between the Tang Dynasty (618) and the Republic of China (1949) (9). It was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, however, that the Hui developed into an ethnoreligious group with distinct cultural practices. 

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The Hui descended primarily from “ethnic groups of Central Asia, Persians and Arabs who migrated in the 13th century, including descendents of Arabs and Persians who settled in coastal merchant ports in the South East of China and Hui Muslim ancestors who moved to the Central Plains during the Ming Dynasty” (10). They are often grouped together under a single umbrella as “Chinese-speaking Muslims,” yet while the Hui share Islam as a common denominator, they are dispersed all across China (11). Furthermore, they are just one of several Muslim populations that have existed in China since Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqas’ appearance in the 7th century; because the Hui have played such a consistent role in Chinese society since the Tang Dynasty, they are the main population I will be concentrating on in this paper. It is impossible, however, to speak of the Hui without also speaking of other ethnoreligious groups in China: “While these [Hui] immigrants gradually developed the Hui Muslim culture and identity, they also absorbed ingredients of the Han, the Mongolian, Uyghur and other ethnic groups’ culture” (12). Overtime, the Hui have assimilated into different versions of Chinese culture and society. Studying the relationship between Hui and various Chinese political regimes will allow me to explore the country’s relationship with Islam overtime.

 

Evolution across the dynasties

In this section, I will be covering the history of Islam in China across the Tang (618-907), Song (960-1127), Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

 

  1.  The Tang and Song Dynasties

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The Tang Dynasty was the first to welcome Muslims into China. During the Tang and Song dynasties, Muslims were considered foreign residents in China and their affairs were “managed by leaders of foreigners’ quarters delegated by the government” (13). Nevertheless, the Tang Dynasty was a time of growth and prosperity for Muslims in China. During this period, Arab and Persian merchants trickled steadily into the country via the Silk Road and the port of Guangzhou (14). Similarly, Central Asian and Mongolian militia and officials settled along China’s southeast coast and in the northwest. Together, these first Muslim communities became known as the “Gedimu” (from the Arabic qadim, old). (15) They resided in “independent small communities clustered around a central mosque,” which was as much about establishing a sense of religious and cultural unity as it was about protecting themselves from the Han (16). While Muslims during the Tang and Song dynasties were renowned for introducing Islam into China and contributing to Chinese commerce and military forces, they remained marginalized and were treated as foreigners by the Han government. 

 

  2.  The Yuan Dynasty

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By the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1368), the Muslim population had grown substantially: from 50,000 in the 9th century (Tang Dynasty) to 4,000,000 in the 14th century (17). Unlike Han leaders in the Tang and Song dynasties, Mongol rulers in the Yuan Dynasty gave Muslims in China an elevated status by placing them in high-ranking positions. “The [Yuan] state encouraged Muslim immigration, as Arab, Persian and Turkic immigration into China accelerated during this period. The Mongol emperors brought hundreds of thousands of Muslims with them from Persia to help administer the country” (18). 

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These immigrants formed a new caste in the Yuan Dynasty known as the “Semu.” Highly respected by the government, their social status was “second only to the Mongol ruling rank" (19). The Semu were one of four castes designated by Mongol leaders; the other castes were Han, Southerners (subjects of the former Song Dynasty) and Mongols themselves. While Muslims benefitted from a high social ranking in the Yuan Dynasty, they were still considered foreigners by the government. For example, the term “Huihui” was unrightfully used to describe Muslims during the Yuan Dynasty. While the term actually derives from a “medieval Chinese transliteration for the Uigur people” (20), “Huihui” was used to describe any foreigner regardless of their language or religion (21). In fact, ancient Uyghurs did not even adhere to Islam. By likening Muslim immigrants to the Uyghur population, the Yuan Dynasty was emphasizing something other than religion that these two groups had in common: being a foreigner to Chinese society. By refusing to accept Muslim immigrants as equal members of society, the Yuan Dynasty created a clear barrier between Muslims and Chinese society.

 

  3.  The Ming Dynasty

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This barrier began to fade, however, when the Yuan Dynasty toppled and was replaced by the Ming Dynasty in 1368. Most Muslims remained in China following the empire’s collapse, and became increasingly sinicized by “adopting the Chinese language and Chinese dress" (22). The Ming government actually implemented strict “limitation and assimilation policies” in Hui communities to further control and manage the Muslim population. These policies included “prohibiting marriage with people of the same ethnic origin” (23) and forcing Muslims to assimilate into Chinese society by marrying into a Chinese family instead. While marginalization was more visible during the Tang and Song dynasties, the bias against Muslims in China during the Ming Dynasty was just as acute. Instead of gathering in isolated communities around local mosques like early Muslims did, Muslims during the Ming Dynasty were urged to bury their culture and religion to become more “Chinese.” Forced assimilation was a code for erasing Muslim culture. 

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One example of this was in the way that Muslims adapted their surnames to fit the Chinese language during the Ming Dynasty. Muslims who did not marry a Chinese woman, and Muslims who could not find a Chinese surname similar to their own, ended up choosing a Chinese character that matched the first syllable of their name given at birth: “Ma for Muhammad, Mai for Mustafa, Mu for Masoud, Ha for Hasan, Hu for Hussain and Sa'I for Said and so on” (24). By camouflaging their surnames, Muslims in China became superficially indistinguishable from the Chinese, allowing them to blend into society.

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Despite the restrictive quality of forced assimilation, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty was committed to achieving equality and prosperity for Muslims in China. A Muslim himself, Chu Yuan-Chang was the descendant of an “unknown Semu soldier who came to China in the Yuan time” (25). In 1368, the year of his inauguration, he promised Mongols and Muslims who had remained in China post-Yuan Dynasty equal government employment opportunities. He announced that “Any Mongol or Semu who is well-educated and talented should be persuaded to work for the government” (26). While the Ming Dynasty was a Confucianized government on the surface, Islam was actually “the invisible religion of the Ming royal family” (27) and was an important factor in their policymaking. 

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On the one hand, forced assimilation––and more specifically the forced intermarriage of Muslims settlers and Han Chinese––was a way of “disintegrating and Confucianizing the Chinese Islamic communities” (28). On the other hand, scholar Yusuf Chang argues that had the emperor “not enforced the Hui-Han intermarriage policy, the Hui minority might not have survived as an ethnic-religious group under the Han racial discrimination during the Ming-Ch’ing periods” (29). Chang continues, stating that the Hui-Han intermarriage was the “most significant legal factor” in the formation of the Chinese Hui minority, and a necessary step to ensure a peaceful coexistence between the Han and the Hui in the future.

 

  4.  The Qing Dynasty

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In the Qing Dynasty, however, the government took even more drastic measures to “oppress, relegate, and even eliminate the Hui people” (30). Since the 1600s, the Hui community was faced with unprecedented oppression. In addition to continuing the policies of forced assimilation launched during the Ming Dynasty, which were only aggravated by the repeated Muslim-led “rebellions and resistance movements that took place against Qing imperial rule in Yunnan, Shanxi, Gansu, and Xinjiang” (31). It was not until 1760, following the Conquest of Xinjiang in 1759, that the Qing Dynasty took complete control over the region––where Uighur Muslims had been displaced (32). This was the beginning of a series of bloody disputes between the Qing and Chinese Muslims: 

“As the disputes grew worse and conflicts erupted, Qing troops, fresh from the conquest of Xinjiang in 1759, did not wish to have any more trouble among Muslims in Gansu. They arrested Ma Mingxin in 1781 and executed him as his followers attempted to free him. Three years later they crushed another uprising led by a Jahriyya Sufi, Tian Wu. From this point on, the Qing sought to limit the spread of the movements, outlawing many of the so-called ‘New Teachings,’ primarily the Jahriyya” (33).

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“Jahriyya” is a Sufi order (concept for the mystical teaching of Sufism with the goal of achieving “ultimate truth”) in China, more commonly known as the New Teaching (34). It was the basis of numerous conflicts with the Qing, as they sought to oppress Muslims more and more intensely.

 

According to scholar Feng Yu, however, the extreme policies of repression and sinicization that began in the 1720s under the Qing Dynasty did not fully succeed because Muslims in China were so dispersed: “there was no single territory shared by the Muslims in China, which meant that the Muslims as a group were relatively free from the control of the Chinese government” (35). This sense of fragmentation may have been compounded by the fact that after one particular uprising, the unsuccessful Du Wenxiu uprising, many Hui Muslims escaped and hid from the Qing (36). Furthermore, Hui Muslims chose to remain outside of Chinese mainstream society, adhering to their own customs, which meant they had their own sense of cultural unity and superiority. In other words, they were not powerless to the Qing. In order to better assimilate into China and avoid oppression due to their religious beliefs, it is also important to note that the Hui integrated traditional Chinese culture into their own: “They absorbed elements of traditional Chinese culture whose core was Confucian culture in philosophical, moral and ethical realms. They learned Chinese language varieties and made adjustments in houses and clothing in order to adapt to the traditional Chinese society” (37).

 

Conclusion

Overtime, the Hui have adapted to different versions of Chinese culture and society. Therefore, by studying their relationship with China across the Dynasties, we can gain a better understanding of the country’s broader relationship with Islam as a cultural and religious minority. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Muslims were accepted––albeit as foreigners. They lived on the margins of society and faced persecution based on their religion. During the Yuan Dynasty, Muslims benefitted from an elevated status in society and were called to help the government in their military endeavors. Like the Tang-Song period, however, Muslims during the Yuan Dynasty remained clear foreigners to Chinese society. During the Ming Dynasty, a new kind of oppression surfaced: in response to their widespread xenophobia against the Hui, the Ming forced Muslims to assimilate into Chinese society by marrying into Chinese families and renouncing their Islamic practices. These policies of forced assimilation culminated in the Qing Dynasty, when Muslims tried on multiple occasions to rise up against the government. These uprisings were brutal, ending in countless casualties and exiles. It is during the Qing Dynasty that the region of Xinjiang first became a destination for Muslims facing persecution in China, and it is interesting that that same region is where Uighur Muslims face the most oppression in China today. In conclusion, China has maintained a repressive stance on Muslims throughout the dynasties (Tang-Qing). While their stance has varied in severity, it has remained consistently oppressive overtime. Nevertheless, Islam has shaped a significant portion of Chinese history. From the contributions of Hui Muslims to military and political endeavors, to the early construction of mosques, Islam––albeit a minority––is a definitive part of Chinese culture.

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Notes

(1) O’Connor, “The history of Islam in Hong Kong,” 23.

(2) Gladney, “Islam in China: Accommodation or Separation?” 187.

(3) Chang, “The Ming Empire: Patron of Islam in China and Southeast-west Asia” 1.

(4) Song, “Abi Waqqas Mosque and Tomb: An Important Islamic Heritage Site.”

(5) ibid

(6) Chang, “The Ming Empire: Patron of Islam in China and Southeast-west Asia” 1.

(7) ibid

(8) Wikipedia, “Hui People” 

(9) Rong, “Identity, Interaction and Islamic Practice: Hui Muslims in China” 10.

(10) ibid, 11

(11) ibid

(12) ibid

(13) ibid, 13

(14) Gutenberg, “Islam during the Tang Dynasty;” Gladney, “Islam in China: Accommodation or Separation?” 201. Rong; O’Connor.

(15) Gladney, “Islam in China: Accommodation or Separation?” 201. 

(16) ibid

(17) Chang, “The Ming Empire: Patron of Islam in China and Southeast-west Asia” 1.

(18) Gutenberg, “Islam during the Tang Dynasty;” 

(19) Rong, “Identity, Interaction and Islamic Practice: Hui Muslims in China” 13.

(20) Gladney, “Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic,” 18.

(21) Wikipedia, “Hui People.”

(22) Gutenberg, “Islam during the Ming Dynasty;” 

(23) Rong, “Identity, Interaction and Islamic Practice: Hui Muslims in China” 14.

(24) Wikipedia, “History of Islam in China”

(25) Chang, “The Ming Empire: Patron of Islam in China and Southeast-west Asia” 1.

(26) ibid, 12.

(27) ibid

(28) ibid, 13.

(29) ibid

(30) Rong, “Identity, Interaction and Islamic Practice: Hui Muslims in China” 14.

(31) Gladney, “Islam in China: Accommodation or Separation?” 190.

(32) ibid, 192. Note: up until this point, Uighurs did not adhere to Islam.

(33) ibid, 212.

(34) Wikipedia, “Jahriyya”

(35) Yu, Setthamalinee, “The Diversity of Chinese Muslim Identities: A Special Hui in Yunnan,” 113

(36) ibid, 116.

(37) Rong, “Identity, Interaction and Islamic Practice: Hui Muslims in China” 11.

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