Xidaotang (, "Hall of the Western ''Dao''," i.e. Islam)--originally called Jinxingtang , the "Gold Star Hall"; also called the ''Hanxue pai'' , the "Han Studies Sect" —is a Sino-Islamic religious body / special economic community centered in

Gansu province Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibeta ...

. Founded in 1901 by

Ma Qixi Ma Qixi (1857–1914; , Xiao'erjing: ), a Hui from Gansu, was the founder of the Xidaotang, a Chinese-Islamic school of thought. Education and teaching Ma was born into the family of a Táozhōu ''ahong'' of the Beizhuang ''menhuan'', a Sufi ...

(1857–1914), a

Chinese Muslim Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE.. Muslims are a minority group in China, representing 1.6-2 percent of the total population (21,667,000- 28,210,795) according to various estimates. Though Hui Muslims are the most numerou ...

from

Lintan Lintan County () is an administrative district in Gansu, the People's Republic of China. It is one of 58 counties of Gansu. It is part of the Gannan Prefecture. Its postal code is 747500, and in 1999 its population was 148,722 people. Tibetans of ...

(formerly Taozhou), it fuses traditional

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

Hanafi The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named aft ...

Islam with study of the

Confucian classics Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucian ...

and the

Han Kitab The Han Kitab (; ar, هان کتاب) are a collection of Islam in China, Chinese Islamic texts, written by Islam in China, Chinese Muslims, which synthesise Islam and Confucianism. Their name reflects this synthesis: ''Han'' is the Chinese word f ...

. The group lived communally, supporting itself through a trade network which extended into the Tibetan border regions. In 1914, Hui general

Ma Anliang Ma Anliang (, French romanization: Ma-ngan-leang, Xiao'erjing: ; 1855 – November 24, 1918) was a Hui born in Hezhou, Gansu, China. He became a general in the Qing dynasty army, and of the Republic of China. His father was Ma Zhan'ao, and ...

, affiliated with the rival

Khufiyya Khufiyya (; Arabic: خفيه, the silent ones) is a Sufist order of Chinese Islam. It was the first Sufist order to be established within China and, along with Jahriyya, Qadiriyya and Kubrawiyyah, is acknowledged as one of the four orders of ...

order, slew Ma Qixi, and was nearly successful in exterminating the sect, but a portion evaded capture. Hui warlord Ma Zhongying raided Hui and Tibetan encampments in the 1920s, causing another exodus. The Xidaotang pledged allegiance to the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

after their rise to power, and in 1941, the Hui General

Bai Chongxi Bai Chongxi (18 March 1893 – 2 December 1966; , , Xiao'erjing: ) was a Chinese general in the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China (ROC) and a prominent Chinese Nationalist leader. He was of Hui ethnicity and of the Musli ...

introduced

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

to Xidaotang leader Ma Mingren in Chongqing. The Xidaotang is mainly distributed in

and

Hezheng County Hezheng County () is a county in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, province of Gansu of the People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous ...

in Gansu, and also has followers in

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

, and

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

. Its religious practices broadly resemble those of the Qadim (Gedimu), with some

Jahriyya Jahriyya (also spelled Jahrīya or Jahriyah) is a ''menhuan'' (Sufi order) in China, commonly called the New Teaching (''Xinjiao''). Founded in the 1760s by Ma Mingxin, it was active in the late 18th and 19th centuries in what was then Gansu Prov ...

elements. Great emphasis is placed on ''

shari'a Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

'' (''jiaocheng'' 教乘),and ''

tariqa A tariqa (or ''tariqah''; ar, طريقة ') is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking ''haqiqa'', which translates as "ultimate truth". ...

'' (''daocheng'' 道乘), "which gradually leads to depersonalization and mystical union with God." Its members organize collectively and work together. One important focus is education. The group observes such holidays as the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (

Mawlid an-Nabi Mawlid, Mawlid an-Nabi ash-Sharif or Eid Milad un Nabi ( ar, المولد النبوي, translit=mawlid an-nabawī, lit=Birth of the Prophet, sometimes simply called in colloquial Arabic , , among other vernacular pronunciations; sometimes , ) ...

), the anniversary of his death, and the anniversary of the death of Ma Qixi. However, no mausoleum was built for Ma Qixi.Shoujiang Mi, Jia You:
"Birth and Growth of Sects and Menhuans"
A Troop of Qing Loyalist Ma Anlinag's Hui Cavalry

A Troop of Qing Loyalist Ma Anlinag's Hui Cavalry

Other leaders in the movement were: * 1918-1946: Ma Mingren (, 1896–1946) * 1947-1958: Min Xuecheng (, 1882–1957) (i.e. Min Zhidao). __NOTOC__

External links

at ChinaCulture.org

at ChinaCulture.org
Zhongguo Xidaotang Linxia Machang Qingzhensi shengjihui
- Chinese (photos from the Machang mosque in Linxia) at BBS.ChinaSufi.cn Islamic branches Islam in China

See also

References

Further reading

External links