Kaifeng 开封
—  Prefecture-level city  —
开封市
Flag Seal
Kaifeng Location in China
Coordinates: 34°48′N 114°18′E / 34.8°N 114.3°E / 34.8; 114.3Coordinates: 34°48′N 114°18′E / 34.8°N 114.3°E / 34.8; 114.3
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Henan
Area
• Prefecture-level city	6,247 km2 (2,412 sq mi)
• Urban	546.4 km2 (211.0 sq mi)
• Metro	546.4 km2 (211.0 sq mi)
Elevation	75 m (245 ft)
Population (2010 census)
• Prefecture-level city	4,676,159
• Density	750/km2 (1,900/sq mi)
• Urban	826,961
• Urban density	1,500/km2 (3,900/sq mi)
• Metro	826,961
• Metro density	1,500/km2 (3,900/sq mi)
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Area code(s)	378
GDP	¥7,250 per capita (2004)
Major Nationalities	Han, Hui
County-level divisions	5
Township-level divisions	5
License plate prefixes	豫B
Website	http://www.kaifeng.gov.cn

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Kaifeng (simplified Chinese: 开封; traditional Chinese: 開封; pinyin: Kāifēng; Wade–Giles: K'aifeng), known previously by several names (see below), is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area. Located along the southern bank of the Yellow River, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the west, Xinxiang to the northwest, Shangqiu to the east, Zhoukou to the southeast, Xuchang to the southwest, and the province of Shandong to the northeast.

Names[link]

The Chinese Postal Map Romanisation for the city is Kaifeng whilst its abbreviation is biàn (汴). Historically it has also been known as:

• Dàliáng (Chinese: 大梁)
• Biànzhōu (Chinese: 汴州)
• Dōngjīng (Chinese: 東京)
• Biànjīng (Chinese: 汴京)

The name "Kaifeng" first appeared as the area's name after the Qin Dynasty's conquering of China in the 2nd century BC, and literally means "expand the borders".^[1]

Administration[link]

The prefecture-level city of Kaifeng administers five districts and five counties.

• Gulou District (鼓楼区)
• Longting District (龙亭区)
• Yuwangtai District (禹王台区)
• Jinming District (金明区)
• Shunhe Hui District (顺河回族区)
• Weishi County (尉氏县)
• Qi County (杞县)
• Tongxu County (通许县)
• Lankao County (兰考县)
• Kaifeng County (开封县)

History[link]

The famous painting Qingming Scroll is believed by some to portray life in Kaifeng on a Qingming Festival day. The painting, of which several versions are extant (the above is an 18th century copy), is attributed to the Song Dynasty (960–1279) artist Zhang Zeduan.

Kaifeng is one of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China. As with Beijing, there have been many reconstructions during its history.

In 364 BC during the Warring States Period, the State of Wei founded a city called Daliang (大梁）as its capital in this area. During this period, the first of many canals in the area was constructed linking a local river to the Yellow River. When the State of Wei was conquered by the State of Qin, Kaifeng was destroyed and abandoned except for a mid-sized market town, which remained in place.

Early in the 7th century, Kaifeng was transformed into a major commercial hub when it was connected to the Grand Canal as well as through the construction of a canal running to western Shandong Province.

In 781 during the Tang Dynasty, a new city was reconstructed and named Bian (汴). Bian was the capital of the Later Jin (936–946), Later Han (947–950), and Later Zhou (951–960) of the Five Dynasties Period. The Song Dynasty made Bian its capital when it overthrew the Later Zhou in 960. Shortly afterwards the city underwent further expansion.

During the Song Dynasty when it was known as Dongjing or Bianjing, Kaifeng was the Chinese capital with a population of over 400,000, living both inside and outside the city wall. Typhus was an acute problem in the city.

In 1049, the Youguosi Pagoda (佑国寺塔), or Iron Pagoda (铁塔) as it is called today was constructed measuring 54.7 metres (179 ft) in height. It has survived the vicissitudes of war and floods to become the oldest landmark in this ancient city. Another Song Dynasty pagoda, Bo Ta (繁塔), dating from 974 has been partially destroyed.

Games in the Jinming Pool, an early 12th century painting depicting Kaifeng, by Zhang Zeduan.

Another well-known sight was the astronomical clock tower of the engineer, scientist, and statesman Su Song (1020–1101 AD). It was crowned with a rotating armillary sphere that was hydraulically powered (i.e. by waterwheel and a clepsydra clock), yet it incorporated an escapement mechanism two hundred years before they were found in the clockworks of Europe and featured the first known endless power-transmitting chain drive.

Kaifeng reached its peak importance in the 11th century when it was a commercial and industrial center at the intersection of four major canals. During this time, the city was surrounded by three rings of city walls and probably had a population of between 600,000 and 700,000.

It is believed that Kaifeng was the largest city in the world from 1013 to 1127.^[2]

This period ended in 1127 when the city fell to Jurchen invaders (see Jingkang Incident) and subsequently came under the rule of the Jin Dynasty. While it remained an important administrative center, only the city area inside the inner city wall of the early Song Dynasty remained settled and the two outer rings were abandoned.

One major problem associated with Kaifeng as the imperial capital of the Song Dynasty was its location. While it was conveniently situated along the Grand Canal for logistic supply, Kaifeng was militarily vulnerable due to its position on the flood plains of the Yellow River.

Kaifeng served as the Jurchen "southern capital" from 1157 (other sources say 1161) and was reconstructed during this time.^[3] The Jurchen kept their main capital further north until 1214 when they were forced to move the imperial court southwards to Kaifeng in order to flee from the Mongol onslaught. In 1234 they succumbed to the combined Mongol and Song Dynasty forces. Mongols took control, and in 1279 they conquered all of China.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, Kaifeng was made the capital of Henan province.

In 1642, Kaifeng was flooded by the Ming army with water from the Yellow River to prevent the peasant rebel Li Zicheng from taking over. After this disaster the city was abandoned again.

Under the celebrated Qing emperor Kangxi (1662), Kaifeng was rebuilt. However, further flooding occurred in 1841 followed by another reconstruction in 1843, which produced the contemporary Kaifeng as it stands today.

Kaifeng is also known for having the oldest extant Jewish community in China, the Kaifeng Jews.

It was here too that in 1969, the former Chairman of the People's Republic of China Liu Shaoqi, died in prison from medical neglect.

Climate[link]

Kaifeng has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa), with four distinct seasons. Winters are cool and mostly dry while summers are hot and humid; spring is warm and sees some, but not much rainfall, while autumn weather is crisp and drier. Precipitation mainly occurs from June to September.

The best time of the year to visit Kaifeng is Spring (March to May) and Autumn (September to November), when the weather is warm and the chance of precipitation is low.

Transportation[link]

Air[link]

Kaifeng city centre is about 55km away from Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport – which has domestic connections to more than 20 Chinese cities, including Beijing Capital, Chengdu, Shanghai Hongqiao, Shanghai Pudong, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Harbin etc. China Eastern and China Southern Airlines also provide some international connections directly from Zhengzhou.

Access and journey time[link]

• Journey time by car is about 1 hour.
• Taxi one way fare is about RMB 200 – by negotiation usually.
• An Airport shuttle service is available between Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport and Kaifeng Grand Yuxiang Hotel (玉祥大酒店) in downtown Kaifeng.
  • Single fare RMB 40 and it takes about 1 hour and 15mins. The pick up point at the airport is outside the Arrival Hall, bus bay 6, and the set down point is right in front of the Grand Yuxiang Hotel in downtown Kaifeng.
  • Single fare can be bought from airport shuttle kiosk outside the Arrival hall at the airport and ticket office on the ground floor of Grand Yuxiang Hotel in Kaifeng.
  • Current daily departures from the airport are: 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 13:30, 14:30, 16:00, 17:30, 19:00, 20:30 and 22:00 and from Kaifeng city: 5:30, 7:00, 8:30, 10:00, 11:30, 13:00, 14:30, 16:00, 17:00 and 18:00.

Rail[link]

Kaifeng Railway Station is on the East-West Longhai Railway mainline and provides convenient access to many cities around China, including Beijing West, Shanghai, Shanghai Hongqiao, Tianjin, Xi'an, Jinan, Hangzhou. Services to Zhengzhou, Luoyang and Qingdao are also frequent and convenient. Direct long distance services to Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing North, Harbin, Ürümqi, Fuzhou, Dalian and Wuhan are also available.

Access and journey time[link]

• Kaifeng Railway Station (开封火车站) is situated at the southern tip of the city.
• Taxi is the best and most efficient transportation to and from the railway station.
• Many local buses terminate or call at the railway station. These include route 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 17, 18, 29, 31 and 35 etc. Uniform fare of RMB 1 is payable onboard.

Coach[link]

• There are 4 main coach stations in Kaifeng.
  • Kaifeng West Coach Station (开封客运西站）
  • Kaifeng Long Distance Coach Station （开封长途汽车站）
  • Kaifeng Jinming Coach Station (开封金明汽车站）
  • Kaifeng Xiangguosi Coach Station （开封相国寺汽车站）

There are frequent services to many neighbouring counties, other provincial cities and longer distance services to other provinces.

Regular commuter bus services to provincial capital Zhengzhou via the Zhengkai Express Way (郑开大道）, run daily from about 6am to 22pm, departing from all above coach stations, at a peak frequency of about every 7-10mins and off peak frequency of about every 15mins. The journey time is about 1 hour and a half to 2 hours. Most of these services will pick up passengers en route at designated bus stops. Buy ticket onboard, single trip fare is RMB 7 for the 72km between the 2 cities. As such, passenger demand is fierce.

Light Rail[link]

The Zhengkai Intercity Railway (郑开城际铁路), also popularly known as the Zhengzhou Kaifeng Light Rail (郑开轻轨）project is well into its construction phase and due to start operation by 2013. The total length of the railway is 50.3 km, connecting the provincial capital Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, with a projected future extension to a total of 57.4 km. The initial phase of the project will have 5 stations in total constructed along the track, of which, 3 within the city boundary of Zhengzhou and 2 within the city boundary of Kaifeng. It is double tracked with a designed top speed capability of 200 km/h. When the project finishes and operation starts, it is currently scheduled to provide an initial service frequency of about 4tph with projected increase according to actual demand. Total journey time is of not more than 30 minutes.

Local Public Transport[link]

• Buses

There are currently 40 bus routes serving the city of Kaifeng. Uniform fare of RMB 1 per trip applies to all local buses in the city. Use the front door to board and back door to get off. Pay when you board by inserting your RMB 1 coin or note in the onboard farebox.

• Taxis

With fare starts at only RMB 5 for 2km and RMB 1 for each additional kilometre thereafter, taxis are the most economical and efficient mode of transport in Kaifeng. Make sure the meter is on and do insist if it is not.

• China National Highway 220

Culture[link]

Kaifeng offers a wide range of food specialities such as steaming pie and Chinese dumplings. In the evening, Kaifeng's streets turn into restaurants while hundreds open their stands and begin selling their food in the famous night market. Often people from the nearby Zhengzhou come to Kaifeng to spend an evening with their family as the atmosphere is very appealing. Less adventurous Western tourists may prefer to eat inside the restaurants and just have their drinks outside because they might not want to try chicken feet, pork feet or bucks. Particularly famous is Kaifeng's five-spice bread (wǔxiāng shāobǐng), which, like pita, can be opened and filled.

Sporting Events[link]

• China Zheng-Kai International Marathon

China Zheng-Kai International Marathon is a sporting event hosted jointly by Chinese athletics association, the general sport administration of Henan province, Zhengzhou municipal government and Kaifeng municipal government. It’s the only major international sports competition in Henan province as well as one of the biggest major sports competition in the Central-West of China. ZK International Marathon is scheduled to be held at the end of March each year (8th April for 2012), the main part of the event is carried out along the famous Zhengkai Express Way (郑开大道). Starting from 2007, 5600 athletes entered the first edition, and until last year, almost 25000 athletes from 28 countries and regions have participated ZK international marathon and it has became more famous and matured in the world.

Military[link]

Kaifeng is headquarters of the 20th Group Army of the People's Liberation Army, one of the three group armies that comprise the Jinan Military Region responsible for defence of the Yellow River Plain.

Kaifeng Airport is a military airfield in Southern suburb of Kaifeng City. It does not provide civilian aviation service.

Gallery[link]

The Iron Pagoda of Kaifeng   Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden   Reconstructed Bianjing Inner City gate   Henan University

International relations[link]

Twin towns — Sister cities[link]

Kaifeng is twinned with:

City	Region	Country
Wichita	Kansas	United States
Kiryat Motzkin	Haifa	Israel
Toda	Saitama	Japan
Omsk	Omsk Oblast	Russia

Colleges and universities[link]

Public[link]

• Henan University (河南大学) (founded 1912)
• Kaifeng University (开封大学) (founded 1980)
• Kaifeng Institute of Education (开封教育学院)
• Yellow River Conservancy Technical Institute (黄河水利职业技术学院) (founded 1929)

See also[link]

• 1642 Kaifeng Flood
• Kaifeng Jews
• Kaifeng International Youth Hostel

Further reading[link]

• Cotterell, Arthur. (2007). The Imperial Capitals of China – An Inside View of the Celestial Empire. London: Pimlico. pp. 304 pages.. ISBN 978-1-84595-009-5. 
• The Origin of the Kaifeng Jews, in S. Shaked, ed., Irano-Judaica, Jerusalem, 1982, pp. 101–11

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kaifeng

• Government website of Kaifeng (in Simplified Chinese)
• Kaifeng City Portal (in Simplified Chinese)
• About Kaifeng's Judaeo-Persian community
• ZhengKai Marathon Official Site (in Simplified Chinese and English)
• Zhengkai Intercity Railway (in Simplified Chinese)

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Kaifeng Jews
(יהדות מזרח Yahadut Mizrah)

Jews of Kaifeng, late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
Regions with significant populations
China
Languages
Mandarin Chinese and some Hebrew (modern) Judeo-Persian (historic)
Religion
Judaism and Native religions of China
Related ethnic groups
Han Chinese, Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, other Jewish ethnic divisions.

The Kaifeng Jews are members of a small Jewish community in Kaifeng, in the Henan province of China who have assimilated into Chinese society while preserving some Jewish traditions and customs. Their origin and time of arrival in Kaifeng are a matter of debate among experts.

History[link]

Most scholars agree that a Jewish community existed in Kaifeng since the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127), some date their arrival to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) or earlier.^[1] Kaifeng, then the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, was a cosmopolitan city on a branch of the Silk Road. It is surmised that a small community of Jews, most likely from Persia or India, arrived either overland or by a sea route, and settled in the city.^[2] In 1163 they reportedly built a synagogue surrounded by a study hall, a ritual bath, a communal kitchen, a kosher butchering facility, and a sukkah.^[3]

During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), a Ming emperor conferred seven surnames upon the Jews, by which they are identifiable today: Ai, Shi, Gao, Jin, Li, Zhang, and Zhao. By the beginning of the 20th c. one of these Kaifeng clans, the Zhang, had largely converted to Islam.^[4] Interestingly, two of these: Jin and Shi are the equivalent of common Jewish names in the west: Gold and Stone.^[5][6]

The Jews who managed the Kaifeng synagogue were called "Mullahs". Floods and Fire repeatedly destroyed the books of the Kaifeng synagogue, they obtained some from Ningxia and Ningbo to replace them, another Hebrew roll of law was bought from a Muslim in Ning-keang-chow in Shen-se (Shanxi), who acquired it from a dying Jew at Canton.^[7]

A model of the Kaifeng synagogue at the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv

The Chinese called Muslims, Jews, and Christians in ancient times by the same name, "Hui Hui" (Hwuy-hwuy). Christians were called "Hwuy who abstain from animals without the cloven foot", Muslims were called "Hwuy who abstain from pork", Jews were called "Hwuy who extract the sinews". Hwuy-tsze (Hui zi) or Hwuy-hwuy (Hui Hui) is presently used almost exclusively for Muslims, but Jews were still called Lan Maou Hwuy tsze (Lan mao Hui zi) which means "Blue cap Hui zi". At Kaifeng, Jews were called "Teaou kin keaou "extract sinew religion". Jews and Muslims in China shared the same name for synagogue and mosque, which were both called "Tsing-chin sze" (Qingzhen si) "Temple of Purity and Truth", the name dated to the thirteenth century. The synagogue and mosquers were also known as Le-pae sze (Libai si). A tablet indicated that Judaism was once known as "Yih-tsze-lo-nee-keaou" (israelitish religion) and synagogues known as "Yih-tsze lo nee leen" (Israelitish Temple), but it faded out of use.^[8]

The existence of Jews in China was unknown to Europeans until 1605, when Matteo Ricci, then established in Beijing, was visited by a Jew from Kaifeng, who had come to Beijing to take examinations for his jinshi degree. According to his account in De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas,^[9] his visitor, named Ai Tian (Ai T'ien) (艾田) explained that he worshipped one God. It is recorded that when he saw a Christian image of Mary with Jesus, he believed it to be a picture of Rebecca with Esau or Jacob. Ai said that many other Jews resided in Kaifeng; they had a splendid synagogue (礼拜寺 libai si) and possessed a great number of written materials and books.

About three years after Ai's visit, Ricci sent a Chinese Jesuit Lay Brother to visit Kaifeng; he copied the beginnings and ends of the holy books kept in the synagogue, which allowed Ricci to verify that they indeed were the same texts as the Pentateuch known to Europeans, except that they did not use Hebrew diacritics (which were a comparatively late invention).^[10]

When Ricci wrote to the "ruler of the synagogue" in Kaifeng, telling him that the Messiah the Jews were waiting for had come already, the "Archsynagogus" wrote back, saying that the Messiah would not come for another ten thousand years. Nonetheless, apparently concerned with the lack of a trained successor, the old rabbi offered Ricci his position, if the Jesuit would join their faith and abstain from eating pork. Later, another three Jews from Kaifeng, including Ai's nephew, stopped by the Jesuits' house while visiting Beijing on business, and got themselves baptized. They told Ricci that the old rabbi had died, and (since Ricci had not taken up on his earlier offer), his position was inherited by his son, "quite unlearned in matters pertaining to his faith". Ricci's overall impression of the situation of China's Jewish community was that "they were well on the way to becoming Saracens [i.e., Muslims] or heathens."^[10]

Later, a number of European Jesuits visited the Kaifeng community as well.

The Taiping Rebellion of the 1850s led to the dispersal of the community, but it later returned to Kaifeng. Three stelae with inscriptions were found at Kaifeng. The oldest, dating from 1489, commemorates the construction of a synagogue in 1163 (bearing the name 清真寺, Qīngzhēn Sì, a term often used for mosques in Chinese). The inscription states that the Jews came to China from India during the Han Dynasty period (2nd century BCE-2nd century CE). It cites the names of 70 Jews with Chinese surnames, describes their audience with an unnamed Song Dynasty emperor, and lists the transmission of their religion from Abraham down to the prophet Ezra. The second tablet, dating from 1512 (found in the synagogue Xuanzhang Daojing Si) details their Jewish religious practices. The third, dated 1663, commemorates the rebuilding of the Qingzhen si synagogue and repeats information that appears in the other two steles.^[11]

Two of the stelae refer to a famous tattoo written on the back of Song Dynasty General Yue Fei. The tattoo, which reads "Boundless loyalty to the country" (simplified Chinese: 尽忠报国; traditional Chinese: 盡忠報國; pinyin: jìn zhōng bào guó), first appeared in a section of the 1489 stele talking about the Jews’ “Boundless loyalty to the country and Prince”. The second appeared in a section of the 1512 stele talking about how Jewish soldiers and officers in the Chinese armies were “Boundlessly loyal to the country.”

Father Joseph Brucker, a Roman Catholic researcher of the early twentieth century, notes that Ricci's account of Chinese Jews indicates that there were only in the range of ten or twelve Jewish families in Kaifeng in the late sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries,^[12] and that they had reportedly resided there for five or six hundred years. It was also stated in the manuscripts that there was a greater number of Jews in Hangzhou.^[12] This could be taken to suggest that loyal Jews fled south along with the soon-to-be crowned Emperor Gaozong to Hangzhou. In fact, the 1489 stele mentions how the Jews "abandoned Bianliang" (Kaifeng) after the Jingkang Incident.

Despite their isolation from the rest of the Jewish diaspora, the Jews of Kaifeng preserved Jewish traditions and customs for many centuries. In the seventeenth century, assimilation began to erode these traditions. The rate of intermarriage between Jews and other ethnic groups, such as the Han Chinese, and the Hui and Manchu minorities in China, increased. The destruction of the synagogue in the 1860s led to the community's demise.^[13] However, J.L. Liebermann, the first Western Jew to visit Kaifeng in 1867, noted that "they still had a burial ground of their own". In 1868 it was reported that their liturgy consisted only of pieces from the Bible.^[14] S.M. Perlmann, the Shanghai businessman and scholar, wrote in 1912 that "they bury their dead in coffins, but of a different shape than those of the Chinese are made, and do not attire the dead in secular clothes as the Chinese do, but in linen".^[15]

Kaifeng Jews today[link]

Since their "rediscovery" in the 19th century, overseas Jewish communities generally have been indifferent toward the descendants of the Kaifeng Jews. In China, due to the political situation, research on the Kaifeng Jews and Judaism in China came to a standstill until the beginning of the 1980s, when political and economic reforms were implemented. In the 1980s, the Sino-Judaic Institute was founded by an international group of scholars to further research the history of the Jewish communities in China, promote educational projects related to the history of the Jews in China and assist the extant Jews of Kaifeng.^[16] The establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Israel in 1992 rekindled interest in Judaism and the Jewish experience, especially in light of the fact that 25,000 Jewish refugees fled to Shanghai during the Nazi period.^[17]

It is difficult to estimate the number of Jews in China. Numbers may change simply because of a change in official attitudes. The last census revealed about 400 official Jews in Kaifeng, now estimated at some 100 families totalling approximately 500 people.^[18] Up to 1,000 residents have ties to Jewish ancestry,^[13] though only 40 to 50 individuals partake in Jewish activities.^[19]

Some descendants of Kaifeng's Jewish community say their parents and grandparents told them that they were Jewish and would one day "return to their land",^[13] others are only vaguely aware of their ancestry.^[20]

The Kaifeng Jews intermarried with local Chinese, and are thus indistinguishable in appearance from their non-Jewish neighbors.^[21] The one trait that differentiated them from their neighbors was not eating pork.^[13] Within the framework of contemporary rabbinical Judaism, matrilineal transmission of Jewishness is predominant, while Chinese Jews based their Jewishness on patrilineal descent. As a result, in Israel they are required to undergo conversion in order to receive Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.

After contact with Jewish tourists, the Jews of Kaifeng have reconnected to mainstream Jewry.^[22] Recently a family of Kaifeng Jewish descendants formally converted to Judaism and accepted Israeli citizenship.^[23] Their experiences are described in the documentary film, Kaifeng, Jerusalem.^[24] On October 20, 2009, the first group of Kaifeng Jews arrived in Israel, in an aliyah operation coordinated by Shavei Israel.^[25][26][27]

Kaifeng manuscripts[link]

Little of the written works of the Kaifeng have survived. A significant portion, however, are kept in the library of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.^[28] Among the works in that collection are a siddur (a Jewish prayer book) in Chinese characters and a Hebrew codex of the bible. The codex is fascinating in that, while it ostensibly contains vowels, it was clearly copied by someone who did not understand them. While the symbols are accurate portrayals of Hebrew vowels, they appear to be placed randomly, thereby rendering the voweled text as gibberish. Since Hebrew is generally written without vowels, a literate Hebrew speaker can disregard these markings, as the consonants are written correctly, with few scribal errors. The British Library also has a Torah Scroll from the Kaifeng Synagogue.^[29]

Controversy[link]

The Kaifeng Stone Inscriptions[link]

In The Kaifeng Stone Inscriptions: The Legacy of the Jewish Community in Ancient China, Tiberiu Weisz, a teacher of Hebrew history and Chinese religion, presents his own translations of the 1489, 1512, and 1663 stone stelae left by the descendants of the Kaifeng Jews. Based on the new information gleaned from this translation, Weisz theorizes after the Babylonian exile of the sixth century BCE, disenchanted Levites and Kohanim parted with the Prophet Ezra and settled in Northwestern India. Sometime prior to 108 BCE, these Jews had migrated to Gansu province, China and were spotted by the Chinese general Li Guangli, who was sent to expand the borders of Han Dynasty China. Centuries later, the Jews were expelled from China proper during the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution (845-46), where they lived in the region of Ningxia. Weisz believes they later returned to China during the Song Dynasty when its second emperor, Song Taizong, sent out a decree seeking the wisdom of foreign scholars.^[11]

In a review of the book, Irwin M. Berg, a lawyer and friend of the Kaifeng Jewish community, claims Weisz never figured the many religious documents—Torah, Haggadah, prayer books, etc.—into his thesis and only relied on the stelae themselves. Such documents can be roughly dated from their physical and scribal characteristics. Even though he refers to Persian words utilized in the stelae, Weisz did not include a study on when the Judeo-Persian language of the liturgical documents first came into use in his thesis. Judeo-Persian first developed in Central Asia during the eighth century,^[30] well after the author supposes the Jews first entered China. Berg questions the historical reliability of the three stone inscriptions themselves. He gives one anachronistic example where the Jews claim it was an emperor of the Ming Dynasty who bequeathed the land used to build their first synagogue in 1163 during the Song Dynasty.^[31]

Books and Films[link]

Kaifeng Jews, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, 1907

Literary references to Chinese Jews[link]

Pulitzer-prize-winning American novelist Pearl S. Buck, raised in China and fluent in Chinese, set one of her historical novels (Peony) in a Chinese Jewish community. The novel deals with the cultural forces gradually eroding the separate identity of the Jews, including intermarriage. The title character, the Chinese bondmaid Peony, loves her master's son, David ben Ezra, but cannot marry him due to her lowly station. He eventually marries a high-class Chinese woman, to some consternation of his mother, who is proud of her unmixed heritage. Descriptions of remnant names, such as a "Street of the Plucked Sinew", and of customs such as refraining from the eating of pork, are prevalent throughout the novel.

The Broadway musical Chu Chem is a fictional tale that revolves around the Kaifeng Jewish community. In the show, a group of European actors join a troupe of Chinese performers to present the story of Chu Chem. He is a scholar who, with his wife Rose and daughter Lotte, journeys to Kaifeng to learn about his ancestors and find a husband for the girl.

Documentary films[link]

In his 1992 documentary series Legacy, historian Michael Wood walked down a small lane in Kaifeng that he said is known as the "alley of the sect who teach the Scriptures", that is, of the Jews. He mentioned that there are still Jews in Kaifeng today, but that they are reluctant to reveal themselves "in the current political climate." The documentary's companion book further states that one can still see a "mezuzah on the door frame, and the candelabrum in the living room." Similarly, in the documentary Quest for the Lost Tribes, by Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, the film crew visits the home of an elderly Kaifeng Jew who explains the recent history of the Kaifeng Jews, shows some old photographs, and his identity papers that identify him as a member of the Jewish ethnic group. A recent documentary, Minyan in Kaifeng, documents and covers the present-day Kaifeng Jewish community in China during a trip to Kaifeng that was taken by some Jewish tourists.^[32]

See also[link]

• History of the Jews in China
• Zhao Yingcheng
• History of the Jews in Japan

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from Chinese and Japanese repository of facts and events in science, history and art, relating to Eastern Asia, Volume 1, a publication from 1863 now in the public domain in the United States.

Further reading[link]

• Patricia M. Needle (ed.), East Gate of Kaifeng: a Jewish world inside China, China Center, U. of Minnesota, 1992, ISBN 978-0-9631087-0-8.
• Michael Pollak, Mandarins, Jews, and Missionaries: the Jewish experience in the Chinese Empire, (New York: Weatherhill, 1998), ISBN 978-0-8348-0419-7.
• Shlomy Raiskin, "A Bibliography on Chinese Jewry", Moreshet Israel (Journal of Judaism, Zionism and Eretz-Israel), No. 3 (September 2006), pp. 60–85.
• Sidney Shapiro, Jews in Old China, Studies by Chinese Scholars, (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1984), 2001 ISBN 978-0-7818-0833-0.
• William Charles White, Chinese Jews, 2nd edition (New York: Paragon, 1966).
• Xu Xin, The Jews of Kaifeng, China, (Jersey City: KTAV, 2003), ISBN 978-0-88125-791-5 Google books.
• Xu Xin, Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, (Hoboken: KTAV, 1995), ISBN Google books.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Judaism in Kaifeng

• Jewish Kaifeng
• Sino-Judaic Institute
• Website of Guo Yan, A Kaifeng Jew