Tianfang Xingli 天方性理 [Nature and Principle in Islam]. Yunnan, 1863 (Tongzhi 2). 3 vols. 60 plates.

5 juan in 3 vols. Vol. I: 6, 7, 7, 5, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 2, 3, 4, 1, 13, 1, 1, and 30 leaves; Vol. II: 1, 1, 34, 1, 1, and 32 leaves; Vol. III: 11, 1, 37, 1, 1, 38, 3, 20, and 3 leaves. 60 full-page woodcut plates. 23 × 16.5 cm. Thread-bound in the original wrappers. Woodblock printed on Chinese bark paper. Upper wrapper with title in Chinese. Text in Chinese, with occasional Arabic words. Printed by Ma Rulong, Commander-in-Chief of Yunnan (雲南提督軍門馬如龍).

First composed in the Kangxi period, Tianfang Xingli 天方性理 is Liu Zhi’s systematic exposition of Islamic cosmology and metaphysics. It is one of the principal works of the Sino-Islamic intellectual tradition. The present edition was reprinted in Yunnan in 1863 (Tongzhi 2) by commander Ma Rulong 馬如龍.

The work opens with the Benjing 本經, in five chapters, drawing upon more than eighty Arabic and Persian sources. Its principal part, the Tuzhuan 圖傳, comprises five juan and contains numerous plates illustrating its doctrines. Notably, Liu Zhi uses terms drawn from Song and Ming Neo-Confucian thought to explain Islamic theology and Sufi metaphysics. Central to the work is the threefold scheme of zhenyi 真一, shuyi 數 一, and tiyi 體一, through which he discusses creation, being, and the return of human understanding to its ultimate source. In this way, Islamic monotheism is presented through the Chinese philosophical language of xing 性 and li 理.

Of particular interest is the prefatory matter, which includes prefaces by Hei Mingfeng 黑鳴鳳, Wang Zehong 王澤弘, Yu Kai 俞楷, and Xu Yuanzheng 徐元正. Wang Zehong, a Qing official and scholar, discusses Liu Zhi’s work in terms of the Confucian study of xingli 性理. Yu Kai relates its diagrams to the Neo-Confucian diagrammatic tradition, particularly Zhou Dunyi’s Taiji tu shuo 太極圖說. Xu Yuanzheng presents the book as an exposition of Islam that may also be read within the concerns of Confucian scholarship. Comments by the Muslim scholar-officer Hei Mingfeng appear throughout the Tuzhuan 圖傳 under the formula “Qingyuan Hei shi yue” 清源黑氏曰, providing a contemporary Muslim commentary alongside the literati prefaces.

Liu Zhi 劉智 (ca. 1655–1745), courtesy name Jielian 介廉 and sobriquet Yizhai 一齋, was a native of Nanjing and one of the leading Muslim scholars of early Qing China. He is often ranked alongside Wang Daiyu 王岱輿, Ma Zhu 馬注, and Ma Dexin 馬德新 among the principal authors of Sino-Islamic literature. Educated in both the Islamic and Confucian traditions, he studied Arabic, Persian, and Classical Chinese texts, and travelled widely through eastern China in search of teachers and manuscripts. In later life, he devoted himself to writing and translation, seeking to express Islamic theology through the conceptual language of Chinese philosophy. His major works include Tianfang Xingli 天方性理, Tianfang Dianli 天方典禮, Tianfang Zhisheng Shilu 天方 至聖實錄, Zhenjing Zhaowei 真鏡昭微, Wugong Shiyi 五 功釋義, and Tianfang Sanzijing 天方三字經. His writings played a central role in the development of Islamic thought in China and were highly regarded by Muslim and nonMuslim scholars alike.

Ma Rulong 馬如龍 (1832–1891) was one of the most powerful Hui military figures in nineteenth-century Yunnan. Active during the Yunnan Muslim uprisings, he later entered the Qing military establishment and rose to the rank of Provincial Commander-in-Chief of Yunnan. His association with the reprinting of Tianfang Xingli gives this edition a particularly striking historical setting.

The printed title label of the first volume is lacking, with the title supplied in manuscript. Some light foxing and soiling; otherwise a very good copy