Chinese Character Glossary

All definitions of nouns are given in the singular form.

Agui

Ahema (Ahmad Fanakati)

ahong () (Per. ākhūnd), Islamic teacher

Aihailisunnai (Ar. Ahl as-Sunna), Kinsmen of the Tradition; the Ikhwan

Ashige

Bai Chongxi

Bai Lang

Bai Yanhu

Baishan (Tur. Aqtaghliq), White Mountain, Naqshabandī order in eastern Turkestan

Beizhuang , menhuan name

bianjiang , frontier

Bijiachang , menhuan name

Bosi , Persia

Chang Yuqun

Changgeng

Chantou Hui , Muslim who wraps the turban, eastern Turkestani

Chen Decai

Chen Jiaji

Chengda Shifan Xueyuan , Chengda Normal College

Daerliuji

daixiao , wearing of coarse white mourning clothes

Dao , the Way

Daoguang , Qing reign period, 1821–50

daotang , Sufi hospice

daozu , founder of a Sufi order or suborder

Dashi , Arabia

dashiman mixiji (Per. dānishmand; Ar. masjid), Yuan dynasty term for a Muslim mosque

De Wang

Deng Zeng

Ding Dexing

Ding Guodong

dizhu tuanlian , landlords’ militia

Dolongga

Dong Fuxiang (Dong Xingwu) ()

Dong nan xi bei ren, jiang he hu hai chuan , , “A man for all quarters, a boat for all waters” (said of Ma Yuanzhang)

Donggan , Tungan, Chinese-speaking Muslim

Dongxiang , minzu name; the eastern subprefecture of Hezhou Prefecture

dou’ou , armed affray

Du Wenxiu

Duan Qirui

duilian , celebratory paired scrolls and their inscriptions

dujun , provincial military commander (Republican period)

Duxinga

ermanli (Ar. al-amal), celebration in honor of the Prophet or a saint

fan (), foreigner; barbarian; a generic term for outsiders, or specifically for Tibetans

Fan Hua bu de tong hun , “Foreigners and Chinese may not intermarry”

Fan Shengwu

fanfang , foreigners’ quarter (Tang-Song period)

fanzuo , antilitigation regulation stipulating punishment for false accusers

fei wo zulei zhe , ”those [people] not of our kind”

feitu , bandit

Feng Yuxiang

Fukang’an

Gan ren zhi Gan , “Gansu people should rule Gansu”

Gansu gan Qinghai qing , “Gansu is dry, Qinghai is green”

Gedimu (Ar. qadīm), community-based mosque organization, “traditional” in China

Gelandai , Qalandarīya, Sufis in Yunnan

Gelaohui , the Elder Brothers, a secret society

gong , Salar community

gong , tribute

gongbei (gongbai) () (Ar. qubba), tomb of a Sufi saint

Gu Jiegang

Guanli Ye

guocui , national essence

guojia , nation-state (modern term borrowed from Japanese)

guojia yishi , national consciousness

Hai Furun

Hai Rui

Haiting (Ar. khatm), primer of Koranic Arabic

haiyisi (Ar. hayy), a large, centrally located mosque

Han , non-Muslim Chinese, the “majority ethnic group of China”

Han Hui , Sino-Muslim

Han Hui shi chou , “Chinese and Muslims are eternal enemies”

Han kitab (Han ketabu) , the Sino-Islamic canon

Hann Er

Hann Nuri

Hann Si (Hann Laosi) ()

Hann Wenxiu

Hanxuepai , Chinese Studies faction; Xidaotang

He Bi

He Jianwei

Heshen

houkai , breaking the Ramadan fast after prayer

Hu Dengzhou

Hu Songshan

Hualing Wupin Dingdai , Feathered Cap of the Fifth Rank

Huang Chao

Huasi () , menhuan name

Hufeiye (Hufuye) ( ), Khafīya, a Sufi suborder

Hui (Huihui) (), Muslim (a term that gradually came to mean Sino-Muslim)

Hui shen Muslim gentry

Huihe , Uygur; (non-Muslim) eastern Turkestani during the Tang through Ming dynasties

Huihui tianwenshu , Book of Muslim Astronomy

Huihuihua , local Sino-Muslim patois with Arab-Persian lexical additions

Huijiao , Islam (term no longer used in the People’s Republic of China)

Huijiaotu , a Muslim (term no longer used in the People’s Republic of China)

Huimin Jiaoyu Zujin Weiyuanhui , Muslim Educational Progressive Committee

Huizei , Muslim thief

huozhong , deceiving the people

hushang , foreign merchant (Tang-Song period)

Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek)

Jiang Xiang

jianshi , “simple history” of an individual minzu

jiaomen , religious teaching or solidarity associated with a teaching

jiaopai , religious faction

jiaozhang , community religious leader, non-Sufi

jiaozhu , shaikh; Sufi leader

jiazu , Chinese corporate lineage

jing ming , Islamic name, given to a Muslim child at birth

jingtang jiaoyu , scripture hall education; religious instruction in Arabic and Persian

jingtangyu , same as Huihuihua

jinshi , highest civil-service examination graduate

Jinxing Tang , Ma Qixi’s first school, the Gold Star Hall

juren , provincial-level examination graduate

kaiguo gongchen , meritorious ministers who founded the state, Zhu Yuanzhang’s ministers

Kang Lang

Kangxi , Qing reign period, 1661–1722

laihua , come and be transformed

Lan Yu

Laojiao , Old Teaching

Lei Zhengguan

li , principle

li , ritual, propriety

Li Peiying

Li Shiyao

Li Zhi

Li Zicheng

Liu Jintang

Liu Yufen

Liu Zhi (Jielian, Yizhai) ( , )

Liupin Dingdai , Cap Button of the Sixth Rank

Lixue , Neo-Confucianism

Long , traditional name for Gansu

Lu Guohua

Lu Hongtao

Ma Anliang

Ma Congshan

Ma Fucai

Ma Fulu

Ma Fushou

Ma Fuxiang

Ma Guiyuan

Ma Guobao

Ma Guoliang

Ma Hongbin

Ma Hongkui

Ma Hualong (Ma Chaoqing) ()

Ma Huan

Ma Huisan

Ma Jiajun

Ma Jincheng

Ma Jinxi

Ma Laichi

Ma Lin

Ma Mingren

Ma Mingxin ()

Ma Qi

Ma Qianling

Ma Qixi

Ma Rubiao

Ma Shilin

Ma Shouying (Lao Huihui) ()

Ma Shouzhen

Ma Songting

Ma Taibaba

Ma Tingrang

Ma Wanfu (Hājjī Guoyuan) ()

Ma Weihan

Ma Wenlu

Ma Wensheng

Ma Wuyi

Ma Yide

Ma Yinghuan

Ma Yonglin

Ma Yongrui

Ma Yuanchao

Ma Yuanzhang (Guanglie) ()

Ma Zhan’ao

Ma Zhenwu

Ma Zhongying

Ma Zhu

Ma Ziqiang

Ma Zongsheng

Majia junfa , Ma family warlords (Republican period)

Meng Qiaofang

Meng-Hui , Mongol Muslim

menhu , great family

menhuan , saintly lineage; hereditary leader of a Sufi suborder

Milayin

min , common people

Min Fuying

Mingshahui , Bright Sand Societies, a pejorative for Ma Laichi’s Khafīya

Mingshale (Mingshaer) (), a text of scriptural extracts used within the Khafīya

minzu , ethnic group (modern term borrowed from Japanese)

minzu douzheng , minzu conflict

minzu qiyi , minzu righteous uprising

Mu Ying

Mufuti , menhuan name

Musilin , Muslim

Mutushan

Naigeshibandingye , Naqshabandīya, a Sufi order

Nei gongchan, wai diguo , “On the inside, communist; to the outside, imperialist” (said of the Xidaotang)

neidi , the interior, China proper viewed from Gansu

Nianle buchi, chile bunian , “If you read scripture, don’t eat; if you eat, don’t read scripture” (Ikhwan slogan)

Niu Shihan

pailou , memorial or celebratory archway

pifazi , hide rafts of the upper Yellow River

Pingnan Guo , Du Wenxiu’s secessionist state in Yunnan

pinyin , transliteration system

Pu Luoxin

qiankai , breaking the Ramadan fast before prayer

Qianlong , Qing reign period, 1736–96

qingzhen , pure and true; Islamic; ritually pure (halāl)

Qintianjian , Bureau of Astronomy (Ming period)

ren , benevolence

Rendao , Way of Humankind

Ronglu

Ru , Confucian

ruxiang , frankincense

Sai Dianchi , Sayyid Ajall Shams ad-Din

Sala(er) , Turkic-speaking Muslim of northeastern Tibet

semu , foreigner resident in China (Yuan period)

semu guan , official of the various categories; foreign official in China (Yuan period)

shanhou , state-imposed pacification after violence, especially rebellion

shanren , saint

shaoshu minzu , minority nationality; minority minzu

Shazilinye , Shādhilīya, a Sufi order

Shengbao

Shengyun

shengzhan , holy war

shexide (Ar. shahīd), martyrdom

Shi Dakai

Su Sishisan (Su Forty-three)

Sufei pai , Sufi order; Sufism

Tang Yanhe

Tao Zongyi

Tian Shengong

Tian Wu

Tian Xing Long , the Xidaotang’s trading company

Tiandao , Way of Heaven

Tianfang , Arabia

Turen , Monguor, a Mongolic-speaking people of Gansu

tusheng fanke , domestically born foreigner (Song period)

tusi , hereditary “native chieftain” in frontier zones (Yuan-Qing periods)

Wang Dagui

Wang Daiyu

Wang Danwang

Wang Lun

Wang Naibi

Wang Shumin

Wei Guangdao

wenhua , literary culture; “civilization” in an elite Chinese context

Woshikeng’e

wotuo (Mong. ortaq), foreign merchant partner of Mongol royalty (Yuan period)

Wu Sangui

Wu Zunqie

Wuchang , Five Constants

Wugang , Five Relationships

wushi fanke , fifth generation domestically born foreigner (Song period)

xi Hui , “wash away the Muslims”

xiaojing (xiaoerjin) , use of Arabic letters to transliterate Chinese

Xidaotang , religious solidarity based in Old Taozhou

Xidayetonglaxi , Hidāyat Allāh, Khoja Āfāq

xiedou , feud

xiejiao , heterodoxy

xin , faith in humankind, sincerity

Xinjiao , New Teaching

Xinzhu

xiucai , prefectural examination graduate

xiushen , cultivating one’s inherently virtuous inner nature

xiyang , Western (in early Qing refers to the Catholic writings of Ricci et al.)

Yang Changjun

Yang Jiqing

Yang Shiji

Yang Zengxin

yangqi , cultivating the vital essence

yi , righteousness

Yi Xing Gong , Huasi menhuan’s trading company

Yihewani (Ar. al-Ikhwan al-Muslimūn), Ikhwan

Yingqi

Yisilanjiao , Islam

Yisilanjiao Hanxuejia , Sino-Islamicist, modern term for a Han kitāb writer

Yongle , Ming reign period, 1403–24

Yongli , Ming remnant reign period, 1644–62

Yongzheng , Qing reign period, 1722–35

Yu Youren

Yuan Shikai

Zaxue , Diverse Studies, an Islamic primer

zhaizi , stockade; fort for paramilitary militia

Zhamalading (Jamāl ad-Dīn)

Zhang Fei

Zhang Fenghui

Zhang Guangjian

Zhang Guangsi

Zhang Wenqing

Zhang Xianzhong

Zhang Zhong (Zhang Shizhong)

Zhang Zuolin

Zhehelinye (Zheherenye) , Jahrīya, a Sufi suborder

Zheng He

Zheng Suonan

zhi , knowledge

Zhong-A Zhongxue , Sino-Arabic Middle School

Zhongguo Huijiao Gonghui , China Islamic Association

zbongyuan , central plain; China proper

zhongzu , race (modern term borrowed from Japanese)

Zhou Mi

Zhou Shixiang (Qishi) ()

Zhu Chun

Zhu Di

Zhu Shichuan

Zhu Yuanzhang

zongjiao , religion (modern term borrowed from Japanese)

zunjing gaisu , “venerate the scriptures, reform the customs”

zunjing pai , scripturalist faction; the Ikhwan

Zuo Zongtang