Research Into Wang Daiyu’s Ethical Thoughts Which Derived From The Fusion Of Confucianism And Islamic Ethics

In the history of Islam’s development in China, Wang Daiyu is the very first "Hui Confucian" who started the mainstream of analyzing and translating Islamic classic doctrines into Chinese using Confucianism ethical concepts and thus, is taken as the first Chinese scholar who built a complete Chinese Islamic philosophy system and put his translation work into print. Therefore, what he did is regarded as a mark of a new era in Islam’s History in China. His Islamic ethical thoughts constructed in his three books, if put in proper use, can serve the current construction of harmonious society well. Besides, Wang’s ethical thoughts are of great value to the understanding of Chinese muslin and their culture. Since the 1980s when the Sino-Arabic cultural talk and cultural communication between Hui and Han nationalities progressed to a new height, religious scholars has started to show their interest in Wang when they are fastening the pace of research into the history of Islam. However, the common practice they have been taking is to put Wang in the researching of the Islamic philosophy and their attention has always been focused on Wang’s cosmic thought, "three grades viewpoint" and philosophical entomology rather than on his ethical thoughts. Even great works concentrating on Wang’s physical thoughts didn’t pour much ink on Wang’s ethical thoughts. Those few papers which discuss Wang’s ethical thoughts from one-sided point view haven’t done it in great depth or length, not to say investigated into it from the perspective of confusion of Confucianism and Islamic thoughts under the historical and cultural atmosphere.Seeing this, in order to compensate for the shortness of this research field and widen the range of Hui study, the author attempts to dig out Wang’s ethical thought from his three books, analyzes them systematically and deeply from the angle of the fusion of Confucianism and Islamism and tries to illustrate them from the five aspects of its’ historical and cultural background, academic origins, main content, characteristics and historical influence. And the achievement of this study will put forward a though understanding of Wang’s ethical system with the most obvious characteristics of fusion of Confucianism and Islamism.A combined application of literature retrieval, comparative analysis, historical analysis and the combinational use of theoretical and realistic analysis is adopted at both phases of research material collection and data analysis to assure the reliability of the conclusions reached by this study. In order to make this final research paper look more logically structured, the author discoursed upon Wang’s ethical thoughts systematically and deeply from the perspective of fusion of Confucianism and Islamism after thoroughly reviewed all the related researches conducted by previous researchers home and abroad, highlighted the significance of this study, illustrated the research methodology and make clear the arrangement of every chapter in the introductory part and laid out the discussions in three chapters:Chapter two reviews the historical and cultural background from which Wang’s ethical thoughts took roots at first, introduces Wang’s three books which contain these thoughts in the second part, and investigates into the academic origins which gave birth to these ethical thoughts. Chapter three is a detailed illustration of the main content of Wang’s ethical thoughts respectively from four aspects:political ethics, economic ethics, marital and family ethics and personal ethical accomplishment. The concluding chapter analyzes the characteristics of Wang’s ethical thoughts first and then points out their positive and negative historical and social influences. The results of this research are concluded as follows:1) the turbulent and volatile social political situation and the skeptical、repulsive and hostile attitude held by the Confucianism towards Islamic culture threatened the survival of Islamism in then China; The imperceptible influence exerted by the Confucianism on muslins created a massive crisis of moral conviction among the believers. These changes are the main historical and cultural background of Wang’s ethical thoughts coming into being.2) Wang’s ethical thoughts are generated by the coactions of Islamic and Confucian ethics. Islamic theological ethical concepts of "Great rewards in this world and hereafter"、"retribution to good and ill behavior"、"fear"、"obedience"、"fear"、 "stoicism" and "justice" serve as the origin of Wang’s ethics together with Confucian worldly ethical concepts as "idea of God’s view"、"Value morality more than profits"、 "loyalty"、"forgiveness" and "filial piety".3) The key components of Wang’s ethics are as follows:Firstly, social political ethics based on the core concepts of "being obedient to Allah and loyal to the emperor" for the subjects and being "obedient to Allah", "forgiveness to people" and "fair governing manner" for the emperor.; Secondly, Economic ethics covering the major trading norms of "justice", "central concentration", "value honesty more than profit" and "giving to the poor"; Thirdly, marital ethics based on two concepts of "marriage is Allah’s order" and " The widow has the right to remarry"; Fourthly, family ethics circles around the common traditional morality standard of Islamism and Confucianism "filial piety" and developed from this, the two views of" the right path is to be obedient to Allah and parents as well" and "the most disobedient conduct is to make children unenlightened"; Lastly, Self moral cultivation means consisting of concepts of "to know Allah"," to know oneself, " to believe in fate"," to self-control"," to erect oneself, "to value knowledge", and the famous" three grades and ten norms."4) Wang’s ethical thoughts system keeps the essence of Hui Islamism and possesses the characteristics of secularity-. reality and fusion of Islamism and Confucianism at the same time and thus, shows a unique temperament which is different either from Confucianism or Islamism.5) Wang’s ethics exert both positive and influences on the society. The political ethical concept of "being obedient to Allah and loyal to the emperor" ensured the survive and development of Islam in China; Economic ones like "Value honesty more than profits" and "fair trading" can correct ill trading behavior; Marital and domestic ethics centered around the concept of " obedience" can coordinate familial relationship well; Whereas, ethical concepts like "divine rights"、" being willing to live in poverty’、" being law-abiding" and " man is superior than woman" can mislead the society due to its unseemliness caused by the feudal ideology, historical condition and low level of understanding.