Hu Songshan

Imam Hu Songshan
虎嵩山阿訇
Religion Yihewani Hanafi Sunni islam
Personal
Born 1880
Tongxin County, Ningxia, China
Died 1955
China
Senior posting
Based in Ningxia, China
Title Ahong
Period in office 1927–1955
Religious career
Post Imam and scholar of the Yihewani,[1][2] scripturalist,[3] theologian.[4]
Hu Songshan
Traditional Chinese 虎嵩山
Simplified Chinese 虎嵩山
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Hu.

Hu Songshan (1880–1955), a Hui, was born in 1880, in Tongxin County, Ningxia, China. His Muslim name in Arabic was Sa'd al-Din (Arabic: سعد الدين Sa'd ad-Dīn; simplified Chinese: 赛尔敦丁; traditional Chinese: 賽爾敦丁; pinyin: sài ěr dūn dīng). Although he was born Sufi and turned Wahhabi, he changed his views and turned his back on Wahhabism after a Hajj to Mecca and later became an important imam, scripturalist, and leader of the Yihewani Muslim sect in China. He was influential and played an important role in Chinese Islam in this position as he propagated reformist doctrines in Ningxia in his later life. Hu also played a role in rallying Muslims against the Japanese invasion of China.[5]

Early life and education

Hu's father was a Gansu ahong (imam) belonging to the Khafiya menhuan, a Chinese-style Naqshbandi Sufi order. When Hu Songshan was 18, he joined Wang Naibi of Haicheng. At age 21, he became imam of the anti-Sufi Yihewani (Ikhwan in Arabic) sect, which was founded by the Wahhabi Ma Wanfu. Hu opposed wasteful rituals and cash payments for religious services, which Sufi orders practiced. Being a member of the Yihewani, he was so against Sufism and the menhuan to the point where he destroyed his own father's gongbei (a Hui Islamic shrine centered around a Sufi master's grave) built at Tongxin.[6]

Life

He went on Hajj to Mecca in 1924 at age 45, traveling through Shanghai and he reached Mecca in 1925. When Hu was in Mecca, he did not feel solidarity with other Muslims, he was treated racistly on hajj because he was from China, so he became a Chinese nationalist working to build a strong China, and abandoned his Salafism.[7][8][9][10][11][12] Instead of advocating an Islamic state, he wanted Muslims to practice their religion in a strong China. He saw that Hui and Han people were treated the same and abused by foreigners. He rallied against foreign Imperialism and preached Chinese nationalism and unity between all Chinese. In Wuzhong County, Ningxia, Hu was the principal of an Arabic school.[13] Hu Songshan had changed from being a Wahhabi Salafi to a modernist and influenced the Yihewani to change its ideology along that trend.[14] One of his followers was Muhammad Ma Jian.[15] Another one of his followers was the Yihewani Imam Ma Fulong (d. 1970).[16] Hu became a prominent reformist and modernist Imam and Muhammad Ma Jian studied alongside him in 1928.[17][18]

Hu encouraged unity and cooperation both between Muslims in China, and between non-Muslims and Muslims in China too, using Chinese classics to advance Chinese nationalism. He studied modern science, promoted sports for his students, and permitted people to take pictures of his mosque and him, which made him stand out from less-liberal Yihewani.[19] Hu promoted reform of traditional Islamic education as his views while a follower of the Yihewani changed.[20]

Hu Songshan and the Hui Muslim warlord of Ningxia, General Ma Hongkui cooperated in founding several Sino-Arabic schools (中阿學校) in Ningxia to promote Chinese and Arabic language Islamic education for Chinese Muslims in the 1930s and 1940s.[21] Hu Songshan became head of the Ningxia Private Sino- Arabic College at Dongdasi Mosque, which was founded by Ma Hongkui in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia province 1932. Students flocked to it from province across China after it became a public institution in the following year. Ten days prior to Ramadan's end in 1935, Ma Hongkui arranged for Chinese New Year celebrations. Hu Songshan pronounced kufr upon Ma Hongkui for this, while delivering an aggressive and fierce sermon in public. Ma Hongkui then sacked Hu from his position and exiled him. Hu then received clemency from Ma and was sent to head the Sino-Arabic Normal School in Wuzhong in 1938.[22]

When Japan invaded China in 1937 during the Second Sino Japanese War, Hu Songshan ordered that the Chinese Flag be saluted during morning prayer, along with deference to nationalism. A prayer was written by him in Arabic and Chinese which prayed for the defeat of the Japanese and support of the Chinese government. The Quran was used to justify struggling against the Japanese.[23][24] Hu Songshan helped spread anti-Japanese propaganda among Muslims during the war.[25] Unlike his teacher Ma Wanfu, a strict Wahhabi scripturalist who led the Yihewani with an anti modernist and anti Chinese culture and language ideology, Hu Songshan encouraged Muslims to study Chinese language and learn about modern sciences and education in Chinese.

Imams such as Hu Songshan led the Chinese Muslim Brotherhood (the Yihewani) to incorporate Chinese nationalism and emphasize education and independence.[26]

The Ma clique Muslim generals Ma Fuxiang and Ma Bufang gave support to Hu Songshan.[27]

Hu added subjects such as Chinese language and other modern subjects such as foreign sciences, mathematics and foreign languages to the Islamic curriculum and he translated Islamic texts into Chinese.[28] Hu was close to the Kuomintang Muslim General and governor of Ningxia, Ma Hongkui, and cooperated with him.[29] All imams in Ningxia were required to preach Chinese nationalism during prayer at the mosque during the war with Japan.[26][30] Hu was active in promoting this curriculum at Sino-Arabic schools in Ningxia. Hu often reminded the Muslim masses that "If we object to natural science, then clothing, food, and shelter could not be talked about.", whenever someone challenged his introduction of modern subjects such as mathematics and science to the Islamic curriculum.

Hu also cited a Hadith(圣训),[31] a saying of the prophet Muhammad, which says "Loving the Motherland is equivalent to loving the Faith" (traditional Chinese: 愛護祖國是屬於信仰的一部份; simplified Chinese: 爱护祖国是属于信仰的一部份; pinyin: àihù zǔguó shì shǔyú xìnyǎng de yī bùfèn) (Arabic: حب الوطن من الایمان ḥubb al-waṭan min al-imān).[32] Hu Songshan harshly criticized those who were non patriotic and those who taught anti nationalist thinking, saying that they were fake Muslims.

Anti-Japanese prayer written by Hu

Traditional

祈禱詞的內容如下:真主啊!求您援助我們的政府,使我們的國家永存,使我們的抗戰勝利,消滅我們的敵人。求您保佑我們免遭敵人侵略和殘殺的暴行。求您差遣狂風,使他們的飛機墜落,軍艦葬身大海,士兵厭戰,使他們的經濟崩潰,求您降天災懲罰他們!真主啊!求您賞准我們的祈禱!就這樣吧!

Simplified

祈祷词的内容如下:真主啊!求您援助我们的政府,使我们的国家永存,使我们的抗战胜利,消灭我们的敌人。求您保佑我们免遭敌人侵略和残杀的暴行。求您差遣狂风,使他们的飞机坠落,军舰葬身大海,士兵厌战,使他们的经济崩溃,求您降天灾惩罚他们!真主啊!求您赏准我们的祈祷!就这样吧!

Pinyin

qídǎo cí de nèiróng rúxià : Zhēnzhǔ ā!qiú nín yuánzhù wǒmen de zhèngfǔ , shǐ wǒmen de guójiā yǒngcún,shǐ wǒmen de kàngzhàn shènglì,xiāomiè wǒmen de dírén。qiú nín bǎoyòu wǒmen miǎnzāo dírén qīnlüè hé cánshā de bàoxíng。qiú nín chāiqiǎn kuángfēng,shǐ tāmen de fēijī zhuìluò,jūnjiàn zàng shēn dàhǎi,shìbīng yàn zhàn,shǐ tāmen de jīngjì bēngkuì,qiú nín jiàng tiānzāi chéngfá tāmen!Zhēnzhǔ ā!qiú nín shǎng zhǔn wǒmen de qídǎo!Jiù zhèyàng ba!

Arabic

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ اللّهُمَّ أَيِّدْ حُكومَتَنا وَأَيِّدْ دَوْلَتَنا وَامْطُر بِثرانا وَدَمِّرْ أَعْداءَنا وَأَعِذّنا مِنْ شَرِّ أَهْلِ الْيابان الْظالِمينَ ألَّذينَ طَغَوا في الْبِِلادِ وّقََتَلوا فينا الْعِبادَ وَأَرْسِلْ عَلَيْهِمْ عاصِفَةً تُسْقِطْ طَيّاراتهِِمْ في صَحاراهُمْ وَتَرَسِّبْ بارِجاتِهِمْ في بِحارِهِمْ وَبُعْثَرَتْ أجْنادُهُمْ وَحَرِّقْ أَمْوالَهُم وَأَنْزِلْ عَلَيْهِمْ جَزاءً يا إله الحقِّ آمين

[33][34][35][36]

Allāhumma ayyid ḥukūmatanā wa-ayyid dawlatanā wa-mṭur bi-tharānā wa-dammir aʻdāʼanā wa-aʻidhnā min sharri ahli al-Yābān al-ẓālimīna alladhīna ṭaghaw fī al-bilādi wa-qatalū fīnā al-ʻibāda wa-arsil ʻalayhim ʻāṣifatan tusqiṭ ṭayyārātihim fī ṣaḥārāhum wa-tarassib bārijātihim fī biḥārihim wa-buʻthirat ajnādahum wa-ḥarriq amwālahum wa-anzil ʻalayhim jazāʼan, yā Ilāha al-Ḥaqqi, āmīn.

Prayer reads as follows: Oh God! Help our government and nation, defeat the invaders, and exterminate our enemies. Protect us from the evil deeds done by the violent Japanese. They have occupied our cities and killed our people. Send upon them a furious wind, cause their airplanes to fall in the wilderness, and their battleships to sink in the sea! Cause their army to scatter, their economy to collapse! Give them their just reward! True God, answer our prayer! So be it.

English translation by Jonathan N. Lipman from page 200 of Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China[37]

Family

Hu Songshan's son was Akhund Hu Xueliang (1918 – 1960), who was involved in a famous incident where a Muslim woman wanted a divorce in order to remarry since she waited for a decade when her husband vanished, while divorce is allowed after 4 years in the Maliki madhhab, divorce is only allowed after 90 years in the Hanafi Madhhab, which is the dominant Madhhab practiced in China, and a large amount of Chinese Muslims adhere strictly to the Hanafi Madhhab and view all other Madhhab as illegitimate so when Hu Xueliang decided to consult Maliki Madhhab rules and allow the woman to divorce, a violent disturbance broke out against Hu Xueliang so Hu had to be guarded from attacks from other Muslims by the Chinese army.[38]:81 Hu Xueliang had a son Hu Xibo.[38]:85

Shaykh Sa'd al-Din Hu Songshan's grandson is Professor Shaykh Ibrahim Hu Long.

References

  1. Manger, Leif O., ed. (1999). Muslim Diversity: Local Islam in Global Contexts. Volume 26 of NIAS studies in Asian topics: Nordisk Institut for Asienstudier (illustrated ed.). Psychology Press. p. 149. ISBN 070071104X. ISSN 0142-6028. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  2. Gladney, Dru C. (1996). Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic. Volume 149 of Harvard East Asian monographs (illustrated ed.). Harvard Univ Asia Center. p. 459. ISBN 0674594975. ISSN 0073-0483. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  3. Joint Committee on Chinese Studies (U.S.) (1987). Papers from the Conference on Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, Banff, August 20-24, 1987, Volume 3. Schwarz. p. 48. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  4. Lin, Chang-kuan (1991). Chinese Muslims of Yunnan, Southwest China, with special reference to their revolt 1855-1873, Volume 2. King's College, University of Aberdeen. p. 446. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  5. 海宝明 (2009-05-26). "著名经学家虎嵩山阿訇的爱国情". 中国民族报电子版 (第07版). p. 3. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  6. 虎嵩山会晤白崇禧
  7. Hershatter, Gail, ed. (1996). Remapping China: Fissures in Historical Terrain (illustrated ed.). Stanford University Press. p. 107. ISBN 0804725098. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  8. Goossaert, Vincent; Palmer, David A. (2011). The Religious Question in Modern China. University of Chicago Press. p. 88. ISBN 0226304167. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  9. Goossaert, Vincent (2008). "8 Republican Church Engineering The National Religious Associations in 1912 China". In Yang, Mayfair Mei-hui. Chinese Religiosities Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (PDF). University of California Press. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-520-09864-0. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  10. Archives de sciences sociales des religions, Issues 113-116. Contributor Institut de sciences sociales des religions. Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France). 2001. p. 17. Retrieved 24 April 2014. horizontal tab character in |others= at position 12 (help)
  11. ALLÈS, ÉLISABETH; CHÉRIF-CHEBBI, LEÏLA; HALFON, CONSTANCE-HÉLÈNE (2003). Translated from the French by Anne Evans. "Chinese Islam: Unity and Fragmentation" (PDF). Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions. Keston Institute. 31 (1): 8. doi:10.1080/0963749032000045837. ISSN 0963-7494. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  12. Reiser, Esther (July 2, 2011). "Between Expectations and Ideals:Hui Women Finding a Place in the Public Sphere through Islamic Education". The Islam in China Project: A project on Sino-Islamic Art, History, Culture. Past & Present. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  13. "著名经学家虎嵩山阿訇的爱国情". Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  14. Dudoignon, Stephane A.; Hisao, Komatsu; Yasushi, Kosugi, eds. (2006). Intellectuals in the Modern Islamic World: Transmission, Transformation and Communication. Volume 3 of New Horizons in Islamic Studies. Routledge. p. 261. ISBN 1134205988. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  15. Dudoignon, Stephane A.; Hisao, Komatsu; Yasushi, Kosugi, eds. (2006). Intellectuals in the Modern Islamic World: Transmission, Transformation and Communication. Volume 3 of New Horizons in Islamic Studies. Routledge. p. 342. ISBN 1134205988. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  16. Dudoignon, Stéphane A., ed. (2004). Devout societies vs. impious states?: transmitting Islamic learning in Russia, Central Asia and China, through the twentieth century : proceedings of an international colloquium held in the Carré des Sciences, French Ministry of Research, Paris, November 12-13, 2001. Volume 258 of Islamkundliche Untersuchungen. Schwarz. p. 281. ISBN 3879973148. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  17. The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Volume 23. Contributors Association of Muslim Social Scientists, International Institute of Islāmic Thought. Jointly published by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists; International Institute of Islamic Thought. 2006. p. 56. Retrieved 24 April 2014. horizontal tab character in |others= at position 13 (help)
  18. Haiyun Ma, "Patriotic and Pious Chinese Muslim Intellectual in Modern China: The Case of Ma Jian,” American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 23, No.3, 2006, pp.54-70.
  19. Lipman, Jonathan Neaman (1998). Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China. University of Washington Press. p. 211. ISBN 0295800550. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  20. LI, Xing-hua (2008-03). "Research on Islam of Yinchuan City". Journal of Hui Muslim Minority Studies. Institute of World Religions of China Social Science Academy, Beijing 100732. Retrieved 13 July 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. HU, Xi-bo (2002-02). "Hu Songshan's Three Times Cooperation with Ma Hongkui in Running Schools". Researches On The Hui. The Chemical Plant in Ningxia,Ningxia Yinchuan 750026. Retrieved 13 July 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. Dudoignon, Stéphane A., ed. (2004). Devout societies vs. impious states?: transmitting Islamic learning in Russia, Central Asia and China, through the twentieth century : proceedings of an international colloquium held in the Carré des Sciences, French Ministry of Research, Paris, November 12-13, 2001. Volume 258 of Islamkundliche Untersuchungen. Schwarz. p. 67. ISBN 3879973148. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  23. Jonathan Neaman Lipman (2004). Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 210. ISBN 0-295-97644-6. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  24. Zhufeng Luo (1991). Religion under socialism in China. 80 Business Park Drive, Armonk New York 10504: M.E. Sharpe. p. 50. ISBN 0-87332-609-1. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  25. Luo, Zhufeng, ed. (1991). Religion Under Socialism in China (illustrated ed.). M.E. Sharpe. p. 50. ISBN 0873326091. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  26. 1 2 Papers from the Conference on Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance, Banff, August 20–24, 1987, Volume 3. 1987. p. 30. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  27. Stéphane A. Dudoignon; Hisao Komatsu; Yasushi Kosugi (2006). Intellectuals in the modern Islamic world: transmission, transformation, communication. Taylor & Francis. p. 261. ISBN 978-0-415-36835-3. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  28. Gail Hershatter (1996). Remapping China: fissures in historical terrain. Stanford California: Stanford University Press. p. 107. ISBN 0-8047-2509-8. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  29. Stéphane A. Dudoignon (2004). Devout societies vs. impious states?: transmitting Islamic learning in Russia, Central Asia and China, through the twentieth century: proceedings of an international colloquium held in the Carré des Sciences, French Ministry of Research, Paris, November 12–13, 2001. Schwarz. p. 74. ISBN 3-87997-314-8. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  30. Leif O. Manger (1999). Muslim diversity: local Islam in global contexts. Routledge. p. 149. ISBN 0-7007-1104-X. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  31. It is not a real Hadith but was a popular slogan among Arabic speakers in Middle East in the 19th-20th centuries. It spread to China via Hui Muslim students like Muhammad Ma Jian who studied at Al-Azhar in Egypt
  32. Stéphane A. Dudoignon; Hisao Komatsu; Yasushi Kosugi (2006). Intellectuals in the modern Islamic world: transmission, transformation, communication. Taylor & Francis. p. 279. ISBN 978-0-415-36835-3. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  33. http://mmbiz.qpic.cn/mmbiz/vr8oVEryVHhDEaqXshbsofbbJmQavDzxbGq2rgNN4sn63MN5PxcWHHvDPrDZCp8KibNATnDeEeSK0j3S0Vm3RvA/640?tp=webp
  34. http://szb.chinalxnet.com/html/2015-07/06/content_135468.htm
  35. http://www.chinaislam.net.cn/cms/news/media/201412/14-7573.html
  36. http://www.chinaislam.net.cn/cms/zjjy/yjdt/rdyj/201412/14-7573.html
  37. Lipman translated it from page 319 of Ye Zhenggang's "Ningxia Yihewani zhuming jingxuejia Hu Songshan" (Hu Songshan, the famous scripturalist of the Ningxia Ikhwan)
  38. 1 2 Wang, Jianping (2014). "The opposition of a leading akhund to Shi'a and Sufi shaykhs in mid-nineteenth-century China" (PDF). Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review. 12: 68–87.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.