A Study on the New Revivalism of Chinese Islam in the Late 18th Century

This paper is designed to study the New Revivalism of Chinese Islam in the late 18th century. The late Ching Dynasty was very sensitive to the Muslim minority problems, and encouraged Chinese people anti-Hui sentiment. The reasons why Ching dynasty was so anxious to suppress Chinese Muslims are the rapid spreading of new Islamic ideology and its connection with Chinese White Lotus Movement. After entering the Islamic revivalism into China, it remained conservative and pragmatic. The leader of Chinese Muslim revival movement, Ma Te-hsin, didn't protest against Ching dynasty. But his follower Ma Ming-hsin changed his master's policy, and founded the New Sect different from traditional Chinese Islam. His New Sect movement was defined as a magical movement, because it was identified with Sufi Naqshbandiyya order and its sub-division Jahriyya, and contained some of Shi'ite doctrines and Sunni Wahhabism. In chapter Ⅱ, the role of Arabic language in Chinese Islamic revivalism is presented. In chapter Ⅲ, the relationship between Chinese New Sect movement and Sufism is presented. In chapter Ⅳ, the relationship between Chinese New Sect movement and Shi'ite doctrines is presented. In conclusion, this paper suggests the New Sect movement in China was started as a revival movement, but after Shi'ite doctrines came into the New Sect movement it was changed as a radical one. Its changes were witnessed in the doctrines of the Messiah(Mahdi and Hidden Imam in the Shi'a), millenarianism(Shi'ite), taqiya(concealment), batiniyya(Ismailiyya) and the militant sectarianism. The Chinese New Sect movement was a mixture of Sufi mystic sectarianism, Shi'ite millenarianism and Sunni Islamic revivalism.