The Kaifeng Stone Inscriptions: The Legacy of the Jewish Community in Ancient China

Points East, A Publication of the Sino-Judaic Institute, Vol. 23 No. 2, July 2008 The Covenant and the Mandate of Heaven: An In-depth Comparative Cultural Study of Judaism and China. By Tiberiu Weisz (iUniverse, 2007) Reviewed by Vera Schwarcz, Director/Chair, Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University, CT. This is, simply put, a bold visionary book. It invites readers to contemplate distant and disparate events and thinkers in a way that weaves a common tapestry. The author is generous minded, erudite and provides readers with all the information needed for this cross-cultural journey. The challenge of this adventure remains daunting nonetheless. Kang Youwei's words to Guangxu emperor in 1898 (quoted by Weisz on p 177) apply to reading this book as well: It is indeed like climbing a tree to seek fish - tough, but not foolish. In the end, the reward in understanding both Chin and Judaism is immense. Tiberiu Weisz is not a newcomer to cross cultural dialogues. With origins stretching back to Transylvania (like myself), he is familiar with the mixtures of languages and religions from back home. A long time scholar of the Kaifeng stones inscriptions and of the Jewish communities of ancient China, he was well prepared for a more wide ranging inquiry into the similarities between Chinese and Jews. To his great credit, Tiberiu Weisz took a full decade to assemble and re-translate key original documents from each of these different traditions in order to show a compelling complementarity between them. In the preface to The Covenant and The Mandate, he confesses trepidation at the scope of his inquiry. This is understandable since Weisz' book ranges from the ancient Liji and Tanach to the Cultural Revolution and the Holocaust. Even if one does not fully agree with author's conclusion that Judaism is the yang to China's yin -there is much in this important work to challenge, and to enrich, a wide variety of readers. The focus throughout this carefully constructed book is upon similarities that never quite devolve into a forced identity between Chinese and Jewish cultural values. Starting with ideas of holiness embodied in Elohim and Shangdi, Weisz invites readers to follow the travels of Lao Zi beyond the pass. Whether the Chinese and Jewish commitment to the one force underlying all natural phenomena or shared understanding of benevolent kingship can be traced to news of Solomon's rule spreading through Central Asia is not, in my view, the central question. Rather what is most startling in this book is a symmetry of historical experiences that does indeed lead Chinese and Jews to become experts in cultural survival. Weisz' study goes beyond our current understanding of Chinese and Jewish traditions as the two oldest, uninterrupted cultures in the world. Many previous works (including my own Bridges Across Broken Times: Chinese and Jewish Cultural Memory) have circled this theme. What is fresh, and important in The Covenant and The Mandate, is the detailed, textual proof of exactly how Chinese and Jews confronted historical catastrophe and survived with renewed vigor. Three key moments, Weisz argues, defined and shaped Jewish and Chinese worldviews. For Jews, the exile to Babylon in 586-516 BCE, the expulsion from Spain in 1492 and the 20th century Holocaust provided fiery moments for self-definition and renewal. For Chinese, it was the imperial unification in 221 BCE, the Mongol conquest (1279-1368) and the more recent Cultural Revolution that challenged Confucianism and led to a new nationalist consciousness. Each of these events (as well as many others) is discussed at length and documented in terms of the thought-legacy that it provided for two civilizations growing more and more skilful in adaptation and survival. Weisz' analytical paradigm is most effective when he creatively juxtaposes important thinkers who are rarely considered side by side. For me, reading about the Han Dynasty poet-statesmen Han Yu alongsi