第3章 Preface

China is a great state not only for its wide land and its large population，but also for its long history and splendid culture.There had appeared many great thinkers in China like Lao Zi，Kong Zi，Mo Zi and many others.When Muslims came to China for the first time in the early stage of Tang Dynasty，they liked the land and the people so that they preferred to stay and live there.Their posterities-like other ethnics in China-made great contributions to varied areas of their country in different periods of its history.Today，there are more than 20 million Muslims in China living in harmony with other groups of people；they are together building their country now.

However，there are some differences between Muslim and mainstream society in terms of culture and religion and therefore，it could not be avoided that Muslims and non-Muslims may mis-understand each other.This is what happened in China of eighteenth century.In order to eliminate the mis-understanding of other ethnics，Muslim scholars in the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty，made great contributions by writing and dialogue；one of them is Jin Tian Zhu.

Very few people of academia know about Jin Tian Zhu because his work hasn't been introduced to the academia in the world.I my self knew him for the first time through Dr Ma Zhan Ming when I was teaching in International Islamic Institute（ISTAC），a post graduate school of International Islamic University（IIUM），and the school appointed me as supervisor of its PhD students，one of them is Ma Zhan Ming who has chosen Jin Tian Zhu's work entitled“Qing Zhen Shi Yi”as his topic for doctoral thesis.

When he used to attend my courses as a doctoral student，and during 3 years in which I was supervising his PhD thesis，I knew Dr Ma Zhan Ming as a diligent and intelligent student he is also a morally upright person who is friendly and mixes easily with fellow students and Professors，he is determined to succeed in life and I am sure with such a determination and many positive personal qualities he would be able to achieve his ambition.Ma Zhan Ming finished his thesis on the time and with a very good quality that made it to be publishable.

After 3 years since he graduated，when he sent me a copy of the thesis，which is supplemented and improved by him，and asked me to write a preface for the purpose of publishing，I did not hesitate to satisfy his request，not only because he was a student as I mentioned above，but also because the thesis is valuable enough to publish in terms of quality；with which，it could be considered a very good contribution to the academia not only in China but also in the world，because，according to my knowledge，this is the first English Translation of Jin Tian Zhu's Qingzhen Shiyi and the first comprehensive study on it.I believe that Dr.Ma Zhan Ming would be an asset to his community as well as his country；I wished him all the best.

Dr.Osman Bakar

Emeritus Professor，Director of

Sultan Omar‘Ali Saifuddien Centre

For Islamic Studies（SOASCIS）

University Brunei Darussalam 10thJuly.，2012