Qing Law Of "Hui" Research Questions

Qing Dynasty is the last unified multiethnic feudal dynasty of absolutism in China’s history. The vast territory and complicated ethnic system underlined the importance of national problem in Qing’s dominion. As a result of that, research on the national problem in Qing Dynasty has become one of the research focuses of Qing Dynasty. However, traditional researches on national problem are generally progressed from perspectives such as the setup of authority mechanism in ethnic regions and political measures of appeasement, recruitment and assimilation in the whole country, and those researches end in reflecting the national consciousness of the ruling class. To take a research on the Hui Ethnic Group from the perspective of law and case files, this paper will analyze the following three cases involving Hui people:the Case of Collaboration and Rebellion in Niujie, the Case of Hai Furun, and the Case of Du Wenxiu’s Appeal to Beijing. Based on the analysis, the paper aims to clarify the background of the three cases and the roles which the ruling class, the bureaucratic class and the Hui community played respectively in those cases, thus finding how those cases affected the changes in the status of the Hui people, the ethnic relations and the ethnic policies of the ruling class.The whole paper will be divided into three parts:The first part will give a literature review on the academic researches on the laws of Qing Dynasty which concern Hui issues from the following two aspects:researches concerning Hui issues in the laws of Qing Dynasty, and study on specific cases involving Hui issues.The second part will be case study. The major documentation of the Case of Collaboration and Rebellion in Niujie mainly comes from the Gangzhi(the local annals of Niujie which recorded the condition of Hui people in Niujie of Beijing), supplemented by the decrees of Emperor Kangxi which are preserved in the mosque of Niujie. The paper will give analysis on the attitude of the government, the family background of the involved Hui people and the origin of Kangxi’s decrees. The influence of this case on the mentality of the Hui people in Beijing, even the whole country, will also be discussed in this part.Qingshilu (Veritable Records of the Qing Dynasty) is the major source of the documentation of the Case of Hai Furun. The seven edicts of Emperor Qianlong embodied in Qingshilu will be used as the judging criterion of this case. Analysis will be proceeded on the basis of the discrimination against the Mohammedan books in official documents, the overextended work style of local officials in execution and prosecution of the case, and the family background of the involved Hui people, thus leading to the discussion on the legal principles of the Qing government in handling cases of this kind as well as the influence the Hui uprising in northwest had on this case. It should be noted that the Islamic culture would enter a new stage of development after this case in two senses:one is that the Mohammedan culture would manifest itself by integrating into the traditional Confucianism; the other is the decay of the traditional Mohammedan culture together with the closing of mosques and self-preservation in some regions.The Case of Du Wenxiu’s Appeal to Beijing took place on the backdrop of the frequent collision in Yunnan between Hui and Han in late Qing Dynasty. The obvious discrimination and oppression on the Hui people revealed in law provisions of Qing Dynasty which concerned fights (armed or not) of the Hui people, and the unfair adjudication and collusion of local officials eventually resulted in the Hui uprising under the direction of Du Wenxiu. The role which the discriminatory laws of Qing Dynasty played on judicial decisions and the influence which the behavior of appealing to Beijing had on the Hui-Han relation in late Qing Dynasty could be explained by analyzing the punishment for armed fights of Hui people defined by the law provisions, the background of the Hui-Han collisions in Yunnan and the direct triggers for Du Wenxiu’s appealing.The last part will be the conclusion. Based on the discussion of the interconnection and comparison among the three above-mentioned cases, the paper will formulate its idea on the following four aspects:the role which the social background played in judicial decisions of specific cases involving Hui issues, the influence and pervasion effect which the ethnic policy of the capital of a feudal dynasty had on the ethnic policy in the whole country, the ethnic conflicts caused by judicial variations at local level, and the part which Hui clans played in cases.