المفكر الإسلامي الصيني ليو تشي والكونفوشيوسية الجديدة : دراسة تحيليلة لأفكاره الفلسفية

Abstract

This study examines Liu Zhi's personality and the key factors that contributed to shaping his academic, cultural, and intellectual personality. The research explores his views and explains the sources from which he derived his philosophical ideas and the extent of Neo-Confucian influence on his knowledge and thoughts. Liu Zhi was a unique intellectual figure in ancient China, combining the depth of Islamic knowledge with the breadth of cultural horizons. Neo-Confucianism was the dominant cultural trend in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, which dictated that other cultures and religions should either be eliminated or assimilated into the Chinese society. Like other Chinese scholars, Liu Zhi sought to explain Islamic teachings using Confucian terminology to highlight the similarities between Islam and Confucianism, enabling the public to understand Islam more. This approach led some to claim that Liu Zhi was a Confucian scholar rather than an Islamic scholar. This research aims to provide a historical and intellectual foundation for Liu Zhi’s thought and to analyse his role in interpreting Islam through Neo-Confucian terminology while clarifying the impact of this approach on the relationship between Muslims and Chinese society. This research is of significant importance as it reveals the personality of the Islamic thinker Liu Zhi and his religious ideas. It also introduces him to the Arab and Islamic worlds as he is known in the Chinese society. It also allows readers to learn about his contributions to Islamic thought, in addition to the contributions of other Chinese Muslim thinkers in the fields of Islamic advocacy and the Chinese Islamic translation movement. The researcher adopted three methodological approaches: the inductive method, which is used primarily to analyse data and information pertinent to the topic, collected from books, articles, scholarly studies, and historical documents; the analytical approach, which was applied to analyse Liu Zhi’s religious and cultural background, his views on Islamic thought, and its key concepts; and the comparative approach, which was employed to compare Liu Zhi’s Islamic ideas with Neo-Confucian thought to clarify the similarities and differences between them. The researcher concluded that, despite Liu Zhi’s engagement with Confucian concepts, he did not fully adopt Confucian philosophy. Instead, he sought to employ it as a tool to explain Islamic concepts in a way that aligned with Chinese culture and helped resolve tensions between the two traditions. Furthermore, despite the diversity of his intellectual pursuits, Islam remained the overarching framework that guided his thinking and writings.