Hoh & Wheeler/East by Mid-East, 2. The Muslim Appropriation of Confucian Thought

In “The Muslim Appropriate of Confucian Thought in Eighteenth-Century China, Sachiko Murata analyzes the concept of Huiru, “Islamic Confucianism.” From the seventeenth through the nineteenth century, a school of thought known as Huiru flourished in the Chinese language and produced many books on Islamic teachings taking full advantage of the rich vocabulary of the Neo-Confucian philosophical tradition. Probably the most influential of these books was Tianfang xingli , “Nature and Principle in Islam,” published by Liu Zhi in 1704. In contrast to the vast majority of modern-day books about Islam, which focus on legal, social, and political teachings, Liu Zhi addresses the underlying principles of the Islamic worldview—specifically unity, prophecy, and the return to God.