Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars, and: Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng (review)

Topical Book Reviews 135 If I were discussing the book with Hennan, I would initially raise three issues of varying significance. First, why did he translate Buber's tenn "Menschenliebe" (for "jen") as "humanheartedness"? Menschenliebe, or love between and toward persons, can only exist in relationship. In its Western cultural context, "humanheartedness" suggests meanings that are too one-sided. Second, in an otherwise methodologically self-reflective text, why is there no mention ofthe difference in genre between Chuang Tzu and I and Thou, a difference which further complicates the comparison? And, thirdly, why did he relegate Buber's "Foreword" in Pointing the Way to a footnote? There, Buber views his work on Chuang Tzu as belonging "to a stage I had to pass through before I could come into an independent relationship with being" (p. ix). Considering that Hennan's henneneutical approach is infonned by Buber's dialogical philosophy, he missed an opportunity to further establish his contention that "protodialogical instances" are to be found in Chuang Tzu by not engaging Buber's own voice in a more direct manner. Of the three groups of readers who will be most interested in Hennan's book-Chuang Tzu scholars, Buber scholars, and comparative religionists-Buber scholars in particular will find this text imperative reading. Kenneth Kramer Comparative Religious Studies Program San Jose State University Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars, translated, compiled, and edited by Sidney Shapiro. New York: Hippocrene Books, Inc., 1984. 204 pp., chronological table, bibliography and index. $8.95 (p). Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, by Xu Xin with Beverly Friend, illustrated by Ting Cheng. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing House, 1995. 140 pp. $19.95. Scholars on Chinese Jewry generally agree that the Jews came to settle in China sometime in the tenth century and that the largest Jewish settlement in China was established in Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). The Kaifeng Jewish community lasted for some 700 years until the nineteenth century, when the Chinese Jews were by and large assimilated and they no longer observed their religious holidays and practiced rituals such as circumcision. Today, there remain about 140 fonner Jewish Kaifeng families with six surnames in China. Despite its significantly long history in China, the Jews did not receive much attention from traditional Chinese historians. They were not mentioned in any official history until the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) under the Mongol regime-that is, at least five hundred years 136 SHOFAR Spring 1999 Vol. 17, No.3 after their arrival in China. Inasmuch as we know, the Chinese government showed no prejudice against the Jews as long as they were law-abiding citizens. What, then, accounts for their seemingly infrequent appearances in official Chinese histories? The reasons are complex, but the ideological constraints on history writing based on the Confucian tradition are often neglected. In traditional China, historians who were employed to compose official histories were, as a rule, steeped in Confucian learning, and the models of historical writing worthy of its name came from the time-honored Confucian tradition dating back even to Confucius himself (479-:-551 B.C.E.). In order to be deserving ofthe ink of the Confucian historian, human experiences must be, first and foremost, deemed morally inspiring and thus useful to posterity. Chinese history writing, then, was fundamentally a moral enterprise; history books were intended to be moral guides to a fulfilling life envisioned by the Confucian world view. Under the brush of the Confucian historian, religious doctrines such as Taoism, which was indigenous to China, and Buddhism, which came from India in the first century, were viewed as irrelevant, at best, to the goal of human prosperity and happiness. For this reason, neither doctrine earned much respect or sympathy from the Confucian historian. Records of their beliefs and practices are scarce in official histories. Most of what we know about the two religions comes from the accounts of their followers themselves. Compared to the community of either the Buddhist or the Taoist adherents, or the native Chinese population as a whole, the size of the Chinese Jewish settlement was much too insignificant to have an impact on the Chinese...