Anthropological Investigation On King Sulu's Descendents In Beiying Village Dezhou City

In north Dezhou of Shandong province, there is a special Muslim community. It is famous for the Majestic Tomb of king Sulu his Descendents. king Sulu came to China at the period of Ming dynasty. He fell ill badly at the time of his leaving for his home country, and was buried in Dezhou. His wife and sons had stayed near the tomb from then on. They often got married with local Hui people and were integrated into Hui nationality in the long process. Scholars had been making surveys into this foreign ethnic group's development and changes in throughout the 90's, as well as the process of their identification with ethnic groups in China through every period of history.This paper is an ethnographic analysis based on data collected through anthropological investigation. On the basis of the data, a comparatively comprehensive study has been made about the history and current cultural changes that is taking place in Beiying Village of Dezhou, Shandong province, where King Sulu's Descendents Muslim community has been living. The study focused on economic state, marriage and kinship, religious belief, relations between nationalities, cultural and educational work. Some of the conclusions can be drawn with the help of the field research are: Firstly, the advancement of non-agricultural industry has promoted development and openness of the village. Secondly, it is obvious that from the observation of betrothal gifts and dowry during King Sulu's Descendents marriage ceremony, the rule of compensation reciprocity holds. Thirdly, the religious activities in this community tend to be on gradual reduction along with ageing and secularization as is shown by their frequency of Prayer attendance. Fourthly, the relationship between Hui and Han nationalities is getting more closer and the cohesion of the national family is improving further. Fifthly, the education of Hui nationality is featured by a duality, religious education and common education, therefore the development of the education of Hui nationality stays in a dilemma, thus how to properly deal the problem of relationship between religious education and common education is the key for the development of education. So far as I am concerned, government should persist in the principle of full-scale development and benefiting the poor people in the way of construction of King Sulu's Descendents Muslim community in the future. It is very important for government and individuals to find a way to keep the harmony between modern life and ethnic traditional way of life, as well as between man's living and natural environment.