The Tomb Inscription for Liu Zhi at the End of the Qing Period (1910) Commemoration of an Islamic Scholar by a Traditional Inscription to Support Modernisation

Abstract

In 1910, a new stone stele engraved with a commemoration inscription was erected near the tomb of Liu Zhi 劉智 in Nanjing. The reason for establishing such a classical stele for this famous Muslim scholar of the 17th/18th centuries will be discussed in this article, and also the intention of the initiators of the stone inscription and of Jin Ding 金鼎 (died 1922), the composer of the text. For a better understanding of the text and in view of the lack of English translations of Chinese Islamic inscriptions, the whole text is finally translated and commented upon.