Chinese Views On The Ancient Jews Of Kaifeng

Jews had been on the Diasporas for a long time and had suffered the persecution and the expulsion from country to country. However, the Jews of Kaifeng had established a good relation with the mainstream society. In the tolerant and harmonious environments, the Jews were eventually assimilated by Chinese culture. The study on special community of the ancient Jews of Kaifeng comprehensively and systematically not only helps people to get a better understanding of the Jewish culture, but also provides a specific case for the study of the diplomatic history between China and foreign countries and the history of civilization relations. Based on the ancient Chinese documents and the documents handed down by the Jews of Kaifeng as well as the modern journals and magazines, the paper, by the facts of the ups and downs of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, investigates, analyzes and replays the Chinese people's understanding and attitude towards the ancient Jews of Kaifeng from the periods of the Song and Yuan dynasties to the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The understanding and attitude of the ancient Chinese society towards the Kaifeng Jews are not sameness in different historical periods. In the Sung dynasty the Jews connected with the Sung government by the means of Chaogong (朝贡), and the Sung dynasty agreed to their "stay in Kaifeng". As a result, they built a friendship with the Sung government. In the Yuan dynasty, the Jews, as people of a special category (色目人), had higher social status, but some of their customs and life styles were conflicted with the mainstream society. On the premise of respecting their social status, the Yuan government intervened and adjusted the customs of the Kaifeng Jews and some other ethnic minorities. Although Jews and their culture have very strong ethnical color, they were desalinated in the course of communicating with mainstream society--Chinese culture. During Ming and Qing dynasties, Jewish culture in Kaifeng not only flourished, but also began to decline. Many signs showed that the Kaifeng Jews were assimilated gradually in Chinese society. During ancient time the understanding of Chinese towards the Kaifeng Jews was at the perceptual stage. Chinese did not realize that they belonged to a special nationality. The modern Chinese have different misunderstandings towards ancient Jews in Kaifeng. Some Chinese regarded them as Nestorians or Hui-hui, others knew nothing about ancient Jews in Kaifeng. Some Chinese officials took some measures to intervene and change the life of Kaifeng Jews who were converting themselves greatly. With the increase of contacting with the western world, Chinese understanding towards the Kaifeng Jews moved towards a rational sense. Some scholars began to know the relations between Yi-ci-le-ye and Jews and studied them. They discussed many questions about Kaifeng Jews such as assimilation, appellation, important characters, their arrival in Kaifneg and so on. As a part of Chinese culture, the culture of Jews in Kaifeng was high valuable. More and more people began to pay attention to ancient Jews in Kaifeng. The studies of modern scholars on the Jews of Kaifeng laid an indispensable academic foundation for the booming of Jewish studies. The understanding of Chinese towards the Jews of Kaifeng has gone through a long time –from knowing nothing to knowing something, from knowing vaguely to knowing clearly, from perceptual cognition to rational cognition. The process was influenced by many subjective and objective factors. Of the factors are the activities of foreign missionaries, especially the Christians in China, the uniqueness of Judaism, traditional Chinese culture, and the policies of religions and nationalities.