Secondly, in respect of deep-seated doctrine and ethics, Muslims in China adhere to the fundamental belief of Islam and the basic principles of the Holy Qur"an and Hadith on the one hand, and have absorbed others from traditional Chinese cultural ingredients including Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist thoughts, and integrated them with Islam organically, making it more systemized and theorized, turning Islamic doctrine and ethical thoughts into one with Chinese characteristics on the other hand.
Believing in the Oneness of the Creator is the fundamental belief of Islam, without which one deviates from Islam. The Muslim scholars, who appeared in the transitional period between Ming and Qing dynasties with Wang Daiyu and Liu Zhi as representative, integrated the Islamic doctrine on the Oneness of the Creator with the Confucian theory of the Supreme Ultimate.
On the one hand, they accepted the viewpoint of the Supreme Ultimate theory that all things in the universe originated from five elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth); the five elements originated from Yin and Yang (two opposing principles in nature, the former feminine and negative, the latter masculine and positive), and Yin and Yang originated from the Supreme Ultimate which originated from nothing. On the other hand, they asserted that there already exists a creator before nothing; it is Allah, who created the world and all the things in it. Thus, they both affirmed the fundamental belief of Islam that “there is no God but Allah”, and integrated it with Confucian thoughts. Another example is how they dealt with the relations betweenthe faith to Allah and the loyalty to ruler. In the Islamic point of view, the faith to Allah should not be shaken even a bit, but this is contrary to Confucian thought. To coordinate the relations between the two, the Chinese Islamic scholar asserted that being loyal only to ruler and father, but not to Allah, was not true loyalty, and being faithful only to Allah, but not to ruler and father, was not true faith; being faithful to Allah, loyal to ruler and obedient to parents were three virtues that one should pursue throughout life. It is in this way that they successfully settled the problem of how to coordinate the relations between faith to Allah and loyalty to ruler of a country where Islam was not the state religion.
In respect of ethics, Chinese Islamic scholars ingeniously integrated the basic principles of the Holy Qur"an and Hadith with the ethical thoughts of Confucianism, making both tally with the ethical thoughts of Confucianism, and not deviating from the fundament principles of Islam, building up the unique ethical thought system of Chinese Islam as a result. Among all the Islamic scholars who appeared in the transitional period between Ming and Qing dynasties Liu Zhi was the one who synthesized this system of thought and brought it to its highest development. In his “Arabian Ceremonies”, he gave wide coverage to expounding his theory of “Five Human Relations”? The “Five HumanRelations“ actually means the ethical relationship of five aspects: ruler with subject, father with son, husband with wife, and one with friends. To integrate it, which is the kernel of traditional Confucian ethics and the foundation stone of the feudal idea of the ”Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues“, with Chinese Islamic ethics, Liu Zhi arranged the consecution of the ”Five Human Relations“ in Islamic order with ”Allah being the Creator“ as starting-point. He believed that Allah had created the world and all things in it, and the primogenitor of human beings, Adam and Hawwa (Eve in the Bible) as well, through whom human beings originated. Allah also created the five human relations and took it as the foundation of all virtues to perfect His creation of human beings. Liu Zhi arranged the ”Five Human Relations“ not in the order of traditional Confucian ethical thought as ”Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues“? He placed the relationship between husband and wife above all the rest, believing that it was the foundation of all human relations. Only by dealing with it well can the family be managed well; only by managing the family well can each one be placed in the right position, can the country be administrated properly, and can relatives and friends be tied closely. Here he took the positive Confucian ethical thought, namely ”cultivating one"s moralcharacter, putting one"s house in order, running the country well, and letting peace prevail on earth“, as the basis for arranging the order of human relations. The reason why he did so was just to make it tally with the tradition of Chinese feudal ethics. Simply due to the above reason, Liu Zhi believed that marriage was the foundation of human beings (the five human relations started from marriage); brotherhood was the basis of love (the love of human being started from brotherhood); friendship was the foundation to achieve virtue (it could help achieve the other four human relations)? He also believed that the order of the Five Human Relations as well as the reasoning within them was created by Allah. Islam set up Five Pillars to carry out the Divine Laws, and Five Human Relations to carry out the Human Laws. The Divine Laws and the Human Laws covered one another and could not be separated. Carrying out the Human Laws laid the foundation for the Divine Laws, while carrying out the Divine Laws pointed one in the right direction to the Human Laws. Only fulfilling both the Divine Laws and the Human Laws could one complete what one should do as a man. The ”Divine Laws“ actually refer to the laws and truth set by Allah, it was a term that Liu Zhi borrowed from Confucianism to expound Islamic ethic. Thus, starting from Allah and concluding with the Five HumanRelations set by Allah, the system of Chinese Islamic ethics was finally established.
