Wang Jingzhai

Wang Jingzhai (traditional Chinese: 王靜齋; simplified Chinese: 王静斋; pinyin: Wáng Jìngzhāi; 1879 - 1949) was a well-known Muslim scholar during the Republic of China period.[1][2] He was the first or possibly second person to translate the entire Qur'an into Chinese, with the exact time attributed to either 1927[3] or 1932.[4] He began to translate the entire holy book due to a request from the son of female Chinese Muslim scholar Ding Yunhui.[5] Yunhui had written the Omudai, a partial translation of the Qur'an which omitted any references to Islamic sexual jurisprudence due to the prevailing sensitivities in women's mosques in China at the time.[5]

Biography

Wang Jingzhai hailed from a family of learned imams from Tianjin. At an early age, Wang's father begin teaching him about Islamic and Confucian scholarship. In his mid-twenties, Wang served as an imam in numerous mosques in northeastern China. Later on, Wang performed the hajj and soon attended Al-Azhar University, where he gained fluency in Arabic. Once back in China, Wang produced his famous Chinese translation of the Quran. During the Republican era, Wang founded several religious periodicals advocating for Chinese Muslims to fully participate in the construction and upkeep of the nation.[6]

References
  1. Ma Xuefeng, From Jintang education to Arabic school. Taken from Muslim Education in the 21st Century: Asian Perspectives, pg. 73. Eds. Sa’eda Buang and Phyllis Ghim-Lian Chew. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, 2014.ISBN 9781317815006
  2. Mi Shoujiang and You Jia. Islam in China, pg. 122. Trns. Min Chang. Beijing: China Intercontinental Press, 2004. ISBN 9787508505336
  3. Clinton Bennett, The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies, pg. 298. London: A & C Black, 2013. ISBN 9781441127884
  4. ""Chinese Translations of the Qur'ān: a Close Reading of Selected Passages", by Ivo Spira, MA thesis, Oslo University, 2005" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2012.
  5. Maria Jaschok and Shui Jingjun Shui, The History of Women's Mosques in Chinese Islam, pg. 130. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, 2013. ISBN 9781136838736
  6. Frankel, James (2021). Islam in China. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-78453-981-8.


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